It’s that time of year again! What is ODC Appreciation Day? Every year, the Oracle community (led by Tim Hall) picks a day to flash mob blog in appreciation of the Oracle Developer Community (“ODC”) program. Take a look at Tim Hall’s blog post to find out additional details, but the rules of this year’s appreciation day post are simple:

• Release an appreciation post on Thursday, October 11, 2018
• Title and tag it appropriately
• Write about whatever you want related to Oracle

We first wrote tributes for this event in 2016. I wrote about a unique EPRCS feature the first year. Last year I wrote about an OAC feature. This year, since the rules have been relaxed, I’m going to switch gears and talk about a great website called Oracle Cloud Customer Connect: Oracle’s Cloud Customer Connect is owned and managed by Oracle. It’s open to everyone – you’re free to peruse the forums without an account. However, if you want to post to one of the Oracle Cloud forums, all you need is an existing Oracle account attached to a corporate email address. It will be used to connect to a new registration for the website. Oracle EPM Cloud Product Managers are pushing all of their customers here. I can think of at least 3 good reasons why:

1. Most Oracle Cloud Product Managers monitor their respective forums to interact directly with customers. This allows for a fast response time for quick questions. The Oracle Cloud Product Managers also post helpful information on a regular basis about upcoming features.
2. Customers (and others) can post technical issues, concerns, and questions on forums and hear back from a wide audience: Oracle Cloud Product Management, Oracle Cloud partners, and other Oracle Cloud customers. I see forums being used to check whether or not others in the community are experiencing an issue. I also see forums being used to poll other customers on design and technical questions. Finally, I see forums being used to ask Product Management about upcoming features. Side note: personally, I subscribe to the forums to gauge how well a monthly update is going for Oracle EPM Cloud. I also use forums as a litmus test to understand what kinds of questions customers are asking to improve my company’s Cloud training courses.
3. Customers and partners can use it as a single portal to access a wide variety of resources, including: technical forums, enhancement forums, lists of upcoming events (webcasts, conferences, etc.), education, documentation, links to support, and more.

Oracle is hoping that Cloud Customer Connect becomes a one-stop shop for customer needs. They’ve been making a push for it for over a year now, and their efforts are most certainly working. I encourage all Oracle customers and partners to leverage the benefits of this website. See you on there! #ThanksODC