An ACE Program

As others, notably Tim Hall and Eddie Awad, have noted the Oracle Ace program has undergone a bit of a revamp just recently. I wholeheartedly welcome this revamp - I hesitate to say change since it seems in fact to be a consolidation of two existing programmes. It seems to me that companies that actively and deliberately engage with the technical community that uses their products gain immeasurably from the interaction, there are a number of reasons for this, but chief among them are. 

• They will gain more sales. Techies don't really like salesmen and marketing campaigns. They can however be hugely persuaded by the influence of other techies. Techies rarely making purchasing decisions directly, but they often influence them hugely.
• They will make better products. The sort of individual recognised by this sort of interaction is unafraid of giving direct feedback. Moreover because they are outside the corporate firewall but inside the sphere of influence they can give voice to concerns that it would be more difficult for employees to consider raising. 
• They will improve their reputation. Companies that engage with and reflect the concerns of their customers have better customer satisfaction and reputation ratings. 

Now the ACE program has a way to go before it reaches the level of, for example,the Microsoft MVP program, but it's clearly moving in the right direction, and in it's nomination process has a distinct advantage in that it is open to anyone to nominate potential members - thus avoiding the potential accusation that the company is picking it's own independent experts.