Practice Makes Perfect
ACEs Practice Before the Game
Writing about my ACE journey, I shared how, in all walks of life and hobbies, one of the best ways to learn something thoroughly is to teach it. It is a principle with direct value for clients.
I have lost track of how many times I researched and answered a question on Cloud Customer Connect, only to receive the same question from a client shortly afterward. Because I had already taught someone, I was more than ready with a thoughtful answer.
Answering Cloud Customer Connect questions is just like practicing before the game, if not better. These questions expose ACEs to organizations, requirements, configurations, and edge cases beyond the norm of their current project or typical industry. I see multiple real-world problems compared with a consultant who does not participate and only sees what is assigned to them.
ACEs benefit, and clients do too, from the wider field of view. They are less likely to treat novel issues as unprecedented and more likely to recognize a familiar pattern.
Continuous learning
ACEs Stay Current
Oracle Fusion brings four releases a year with a long list of new features that help our leading practices evolve. Certifications are good for 18 months and frequently focus on older features. If certifications are the measure, you are not necessarily measuring today; you may be measuring against the past.
It is much harder to fall behind when you are regularly writing about new features, speaking to user groups, answering questions, and maintaining an active role in the Oracle community.
In my own work, writing has forced me to read the readiness material carefully, test features, and compare options so I can explain in plain language what a change means in practice. This also means revisiting prior articles and guidance as the application evolves so I can consistently support modern supply chain business processes with each quarter.
This discipline directly carries over into my client work. A consultant on the leading edge helps a client avoid designing tomorrow's solution around yesterday's limitations.
Communication matters
ACEs Know How to Explain Difficult Things
Oracle projects struggle when technical capabilities, business requirements, and leading practices are not aligned. Transforming the modern supply chain requires application knowledge plus solid communication.
ACEs are routinely translating complex topics for different audiences. One day, they may be explaining configuration options and downstream impacts in an article. Another day, they may be weighing pros and cons in a forum. Then they may mentor someone encountering the subject for the first time before presenting the same concepts to a packed room.
This repeated practice builds an invaluable soft skill: making something understandable without making it misleading.
For clients, this means ACEs can bring clearer design decisions, run better workshops, produce more useful documentation, provide stronger training, and leave you with fewer moments when stakeholders delay an approval because they still do not understand the decision.
Product development relationships
ACEs Guide the Product Roadmap
ACEs usually have closer connections with Oracle Product Development teams. Giving product feedback is an integral part of the ACE program.
It is not just about having access to product briefings. It is also about knowing how to communicate an idea to product development effectively. Product teams need more than a five-word complaint. ACEs learn how to clearly describe the business case, impacted users, the impact of the issue, the pros and cons of each workaround, and how a solution could be delivered in a way that helps more than just their immediate client.
Particularly at the Pro and Director levels, ACEs who regularly participate in product discussions are able to frame client feedback in an actionable format, route it through appropriate channels, and properly support it with examples and evidence.
It does not guarantee a particular roadmap direction, but it gives a good idea a better opportunity to be seriously evaluated.
Sustainable implementations
ACEs Build Stronger Users
Good consultants are valuable because they understand the solution. Great consultants and Oracle ACEs become valuable by transferring this knowledge to others and reducing dependence on one superstar.
The same instincts that lead an ACE to write articles, give demonstrations, and answer questions also lead to better project documentation and knowledge transfer at every stage of the implementation.
An ACE is more likely to ask:
- Can the client support this after go-live without having me on speed dial?
- Can a new team member understand why this decision was made?
- Have we explained the tradeoffs, not just recorded the setup?
- Is there a reusable example, checklist, query, or training asset we can leave behind?
- Are we building the client's capability, or only completing our assigned tasks?
Knowledge sharing is not a coincidence. It is the behavior the ACE program recognizes.
A visible body of work
They Are Comfortable Having Their Work Examined
Oracle ACE contributions are made in the open: articles get challenged, presentations bring questions, forum answers get responses and follow-ups, and product feedback has to survive a discussion with the people who built the application you are asking to be improved. This pressure creates accountability.
It also gives clients something valuable: a visible body of work to review. You can see how an ACE thinks, whether they merely repeat documentation or add practical insight, and how they explain tradeoffs and acknowledge uncertainty.
You cannot tell what score someone received on their certification, but you can see the quality of an ACE's contributions.
Intrinsic motivation
ACEs Go Above and Beyond
ACE activities require more than the assigned work needed to reach client goals. It is not required work, and there is no paycheck for doing it. We do it because we understand the intrinsic value.
We apply that same work ethic everywhere we go, exceeding expectations.
Finding the right expertise
Finding an ACE
If you are considering adding an Oracle ACE to your implementation team, Oracle makes it easy to find them. The Oracle ACE Directory lets you search active ACEs by name, ACE level, and area of focus and see recent contributions
You can also consider whether your implementation partner has built a culture that encourages this kind of contribution. At the time of writing, Huron Consulting Group has 49 Oracle ACEs: 43 ACE Associates, 5 ACE Pros, and 1 ACE Director. We are the strongest concentration of ACEs in the entire world, and I'm proud to work with this team!
That concentration matters. One ACE can bring a broader network and perspective to a project. A firm with dozens of ACEs creates an internal community where those experts can challenge one another, share lessons across projects and industries, and connect a client problem with someone who may have already encountered it.
An ACE designation doesn't replace evaluating experience, industry fit, communication skills, and references. But when you are deciding who you want on the field for an important Oracle transformation, the Oracle ACE Directory is a very good place to look for an advantage.
A community within the community
Meet Huron's Oracle ACEs
Huron's Oracle ACE community spans functional applications, enterprise performance management, data, integrations, analytics, and emerging technology. Use the filters below to explore ACEs by delivery location and area of expertise.
Showing all 49 Huron ACEs
The hiring signal
The Real Reason to Hire an Oracle ACE
This is not to say that every ACE is the right fit for your project. It simply shows you that this person has been recognized for a pattern.
ACEs are curious, learning and testing their understanding by teaching others without any immediate reward. They are on the leading edge of the application, guiding the product roadmap and explaining tradeoffs as they transfer knowledge.
They cultivate habits that make better consultants.
They may bring a broader community, a stronger learning habit, a clearer voice, and a more direct path from your problem to a well-informed solution.
On an Oracle transformation, that can be an extraordinarily valuable combination.
