Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Questions and Discussion

Hi Mike!

Once the new fields have been created in Salesforce, do we need to submit a support ticket during our backfill window to ensure the backfill happens or will support just check to make sure the fields have been created and enable the backfill?

Thanks!

Kenzie

Email insights has been backfilling data since it was released in the quarterly release. Check out the doc here for the details on that: Supplement: Email Insights Launch Process - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

It's possible that it may have just finished and that's the difference you're seeing. Hard to say without troubleshooting the instance directly though. There are a few different possibilities when it comes to performance issues. If it's still an issue, please feel free to open a case with Support and we'll gladly investigate it for you Contact Marketo Support

The email insights process wouldn't be related to this configuration change at all though. It's a separate process and doesn't start until after you recreate the new fields. The data backfill for Email Insights goes through a separate data pipeline than the one used for the backfill process here. And both go through data pipelines separate from the usual SFDC sync.

Hi Anni,

Custom lead scores that you've created will still work the same way. The only ones affected here will be the fields created by the MLM package when it was installed. You can see those listed here: https://nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-3836#jive_content_id_Fields_Affected  If you're using these fields, they're the ones affected. If they're different custom fields, there's nothing to do.

Also, not sure how you have your Sales Insight set up, but if you've customized your Stars and Flames to be based off of the other custom fields, the Stars and Flames will still work in Sales Insight without any changes needed. You can check out the details on that part right here: https://nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-3836#jive_content_id_Stars_and_Flames_Still_Function_the_Same_Way

Kristina Campos​, yes, that is correct.

Just keep in mind that that the act of deleting the "old MLM fields" is done by uninstalling the MLM package in sf.com (which in turn deletes all the fields that were created by the package). Sf.com documentation on Uninstalling a Package .

Aj

Hi Guy Alfia​

Good questions. I'll go through each in turn, but I wanted to start by saying that it will be important to stick to the deployment schedule.

1. The release schedule has been created with the size of the lead databases of our customer base in mind. It's been split alphabetically by Account String into different numbers of customers and the determining factor for how the splits were made was total database size. For example, Group 2 is only the three letters A, B and C while Group 3 has the nine letters of D through L. However, based on the lead database sizes of the customers within those groups, Group 2 and Group 3 have approximately the same number of leads in them. The schedule has been divided this way to avoid causing traffic jams in data flowing back and forth with SFDC.

Marketo continuously makes significant strides forward in our software offerings as well our hardware serving that software, such as with Project Orion that was detailed in this year's Summit. Check out the webinar located here for a description of Orion (starts at 28min in). Even with the best software and hardware out there, data can only be pushed through an API call so fast. (Whether you use a garden hose or a fire hose, it still takes time to empty a whole water tower.) The servers have set lines of communication with SFDC and all of the customers share those lines. We've created new pipelines to be devoted just to the backfill process so that it doesn't compete with the regular SFDC sync cycle, and if everyone sticks to the schedule, we know those communication lines will keep up with the traffic. But if customers don't stick to the schedule, it throws it off. (What happens if someone parks a second water tower next to yours and asks to share your one fire hose?) That's why we ask everyone to stick to the schedule. We know this schedule may not work for everyone, so you're welcome Contact Marketo Support to request a schedule change.​ We'll be happy to accommodate as best we can.

2. The old fields being replaced can be deleted by uninstalling the MLM package. The details of cleaning up SFDC can be found here and here are SFDC's instructions for Uninstalling a Package​. One thing to note is that if you have any reports or workflows in SFDC that reference these fields, SFDC won't let you uninstall it until those dependencies have been removed. Once data stops flowing to the old fields, they'll be obsolete, so there's no real need to keep them.

3. The old fields and the MLM package can be removed as soon as the the fields have been created. Just be sure to update your workflows and SFDC reports if you have any to connect to the new fields like noted above. All of the details can be found in our Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Under The Hood documentation.

4. The fields do need to be recreated as new fields. The configuration change will shut off communication to the existing fields and new fields must be created in SFDC to replace them. Changing field names on the existing fields won't work unfortunately. You can find the info on keeping field data in SFDC in the documentation for Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce here.

5. The fields currently exist in SFDC on the Lead and Contact objects already, and it's strongly recommended that you recreate them on both the Lead and Contact objects. It isn't required. You can do it on just the Lead object, but as it says in our FAQ doc, it's best to create them on both the Lead and Contact as well.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi Kassandra Burgess

That's a really good question. The answer is no - no need to refresh the schema at all. Part of the configuration change from the Marketo side was to create an "event listener" that monitors the sync cycle for the recreated fields. So, when you recreate the new fields, on the very next sync cycle, the sync picks up the fact that the new fields have been created and automatically maps them to the correct corresponding Marketo fields. This in turn kicks off the backfill process, but once the fields have been created, the rest from there is automatic.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Pam,

If you start before your window, it will work too and we will start backfilling immediately. No new fields will be created in MKTO.  We batched folks up to manage the overall load. However, we are mostly seeing requests to push out the date vs pull it in.

So if you want to do it earlier, its fine. If possible, could you let support know?

Aj

UPDATED: Editing my reply here - I had a copy/paste mistake in the table. Please be sure to check the doc for exact details: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce

Hi Nick ,​

Actually you'll want to create the new fields first. The new fields will have specific API names to use and the details can be found in the doc here: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce

The API names do need to be precise, so please check the doc for the specifics.

Hi Greg,

The version number won't change from what it currently shows. It isn't automatically upgrading the MSI package, it's patching the dependency for the existing installation to remove the dependency on the MLM package. So if you manually upgrade the MSI package, you'll get an entirely new version number, but the patch that went out doesn't actually upgrade the package, it just corrects that back end dependency, so the version is actually the same.

I think it may have added a ".1" at the end of the version number, but I'm not positive on that point. @Arjun Nair​ should know more about that particular detail.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi @Chris Kuhlman,

A few things:

- The fields that come with the MSI packaged has not changed. And MSI does not write to any field in sf.com. The fields it creates (like the interesting Moments fields) are populated by the sync and this part remains exactly the same.

- The MSI package used to reference the lead score field created by the MLM package. In some versions mousing over the stars in MSI would show the lead score by referencing this field. This reference has been removed from all versions.

- You don't actually need to reinstall MSI. We removed the reference mention above remotely.

Hope this helps

Aj