This text is going to express both praise and frustration about the current state of Eloqua’s SFDC.com integration app.
Quick facts
Traditional Eloqua’s native integration is something we were allowed to play with many winters ago.
After almost ten years since introducing Eloqua 10, the new cloud app finally landed in our production instances in 2019. In January 2021, Oracle will then discontinue support for the old native integration, which means sooner or later all Eloqua customers will have to migrate and transfer their current integration workflow. And as a bonus after leaving your old program builder flow, you will be able to use much easier program canvas functionalities.
The good stuff
- Ditching the 15-character-ID is definitely a good choice and will sync you with current SFDC standards.
- Migration tools are available, and you can even create defaults (including for programs).
- The Salesforce app takes up a prominent space every time Oracle reveals new features (20C, 20D). The updates may be small and for particular pieces, but they definitely listen to the community.
- Generally migration to the new program canvas will make your life easier. It offers better UX and basically has unlimited capacity -- a no-brainer.
- You can save a Salesforce license. New integration is using connected app that doesn't require a dedicated user, so take that precious license and give it rather to your living team member.
The bad stuff
While migrating, I personally ended up with a bunch of issues (and not all of them were my fault).
- One absolutely unacceptable thing: Random bugs. I was able to fix the problem... but basically by accident. The app had been installed on a client’s platform for a while when I started to set it up properly. Then later in the process (while testing the set up), we experienced a couple of random error bugs associated to several contacts on Action steps. And it didn't even return any helpful log afterwards. It was only after hours and hours of pointless troubleshooting (un-install, reinstall, repeat) that the problem was resolved. A random solution to a random problem. I suspect the bugs were caused by some permissions details assigned (or changed) by an original user who had previously installed the app, but overall it was the lack of feedback that was the most frustrating part. TLDR: If you have random issues - try to first reinstall the app or the individual calls!
- A user installing the app will be tagged as “last updated by”, which is highly confusing and also impossible to change or edit.
- While replacing old 15-character-IDs is not problem for most people, companies, or opportunities, there is no reliable way to easily update these IDs in Eloqua campaigns. And you'll end up with a lot of manual work.
- "Failed campaign" calls don't return any logs that could actually help you actually update them.
- Marketing activities are triggered every time, even if they're not attached to a contact. This then creates many tasks or custom objects in Salesforce, but without any linked contacts. I could be wrong, but I don’t see much benefit in having a task about a visited page if it doesn't tell me who actually visited it. Some filters here would be helpful, as well as having the option to update tasks with lead or contact IDs.
- Not 100% related to the integration, but the program canvas still misses some functionality. For example, 'match/deduplication rules' or 'send campaign info to CRM' -- both these steps currently just stay in the program builder.
Random section missing on migrated native call - appeared correctly after creating the call from scratch.
At this point, it probably sounds like I'm just complaining. But I want to point out that I actually really appreciate Oracle's engineers' work. They have to deal with a lot of old systems and legacy code, and this isn't always easy when trying to accommodate users' needs for enhanced functionality.
I would also love to hear from my fellow Eloqua experts if I am on some points simply wrong, and if there are some easy solutions I've missed. Not likely, but it is possible, right? 😀
If you or your company are going through (or will be going through) some Eloqua transitions, and you're looking for help to navigate these waters, you can always reach out to our LeadFabric team of experts!
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