Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Release Schedule | Community
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Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
August 5, 2016

Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Release Schedule

  • August 5, 2016
  • 26 replies
  • 9141 views

Included in this article

Overview

The configuration changes being made will require customers to recreate some fields if they want to still use that data within SFDC. Once the fields are recreated, the backfill process begins, which in turn starts a global resync of all leads from SFDC to Marketo. This will push a lot of data between Marketo and SFDC. To minimize the risk of a traffic jam, we will be scheduling this roll out over the course of 6 months. This gives all customers a set time frame to work with and helps to avoid peaks in traffic. If the time scheduled for you doesn’t work out, we’ll try to accommodate another time within this six month timeframe that does work well for you.

Alphabetical Scheduling Details

The changes being made will be staggered over 6 months in order to ensure we don’t cause any traffic jams while passing data back and forth. The best way to schedule this is to go in alphabetical order. This order will be alphabetically by your Marketo instance’s Account String, not your company name. Please check the section below for how to find your Account String.

We have done a careful analysis of our customer’s lead database sizes and have grouped batches of customers together based on size of the lead databases, so some groups have more customers in them than other groups do. Each group of customers will be given a time frame to work with to recreate the fields and initiate the backfill process.

Timeline

The six month time frame will begin on August 15th and will continue on until the end of January, 2017.

Specific Timing

The customer base has been split into the following groups with times scheduled for deployment.

If you intend to recreate the fields and initiate the data backfill process, here is the schedule for when you can recreate those fields:

Group

Customers

Date Range of Deployment

Group 1

Account String Begins With:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9

August 15th to August 31st

Group 2

Account String Begins With:

A, B or C

September 1st to September 30th

Group 3

Account String Begins With:

D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K or L

October 1st to October 31st

Group 4

Account String Begins With:

M, N, O or P

November 1st to November 30th

Group 5

Account String Begins With:

Q or R

December 1st to December 31st

Group 6

Account String Begins With:

S, T, U, V, W, X, Y or Z

January 1st to January 31st

How to locate your Account String

In your Marketo instance, navigate to Admin > Landing pages. You’ll see your Account String listed right in the middle of the screen.

Scheduling Requests

Marketo understands that this change could be an inconvenience and specific timing may be needed for our customers to plan accordingly. If you have a different time within the 6 month window that works better for your company, please reach out and we’ll accommodate as best we can.

You can reach Marketo Support through the Support Portal, by email, or over the phone. Specifics on how to contact Marketo Support can be found here: Contact Marketo Support

Info Needed for Scheduling Requests.

  1. What your preferred dates are. We’re happy to accommodate your schedule, so please be sure to tell us what that is. It’s best to give us a range or a few options of what scheduled dates work best for you, not just one set date.
  2. The details of your Marketo instance. In order to quickly identify your Marketo instance, we’ll need your Account String, which is a unique identifier for your Marketo instance. If you have more than one Marketo instance, please be sure to mention that and include the Account Strings for each one.

Where to Go for More Information

  • Recap Summary

Now that the changes have been completed, and the deprecation date has passed, this doc will give you the overview of what has happened: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync - Recap Summary

  • Frequently Asked Questions

Check out our FAQ for the answers to the most commonly asked questions. Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions

  • Overview Documentation

This doc will give you a high level overview of what the configuration changes are and what to expect moving forward: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync - Overview

  • Discussion thread

We've created this discussion thread in the community to address any questions you may have. This discussion thread will be monitored by the Marketo team to ensure you get answers to your questions. Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Questions and Discussion

  • Under the Hood Documentation

This doc will give you all of the nitty gritty details of exactly what is happening. If you're looking for in depth technical details, this is the go-to doc to check out! Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Under The Hood

  • Recreating Affected Fields

There are different versions of Salesforce, but don't worry, all of the details on how to recreate the affected fields as well as a video tutorial can all be found in the documentation here: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce

 

  • Preventing Problems In Salesforce

Recreating the new fields in Salesforce can cause your Workflows, Apex Triggers, Reports and AppExchange apps behave differently. They'll need to be updated and this doc will show you what to watch out for: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Preventative Troubleshooting

  • Contact Marketo Support

If you would prefer to talk to someone live, please contact Marketo Support over any of the channel listed here: Contact Marketo Support

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26 replies

Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
August 29, 2016

Hi @Scott Shapiro​

The backfill process starts right after you recreate the new fields, on the next sync cycle. The action of creating the new fields is what initiates the backfill process, so that's why it's important to only do the field creation when your scheduled time comes around. It's an automated process from there--on the next sync cycle after you recreate the fields, Marketo picks up that the new fields were created and automatically starts the backfill process. Nothing more you'll need to do from your side. You'll get a notice in your Marketo Instance Notifications as soon as the backfill process has completed.

Hope that helps!

Mike

Level 2
August 31, 2016

Based on my account string, it appears I'm in Group #2. The Group #2 is from Sept.1 to Sept.30th. So I have 30 days to recreate my fields in SFDC and have them sync to Marketo?

If I'm in a later group, say group 4, i have to wait until my group number is up?

Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
August 31, 2016

Hi @Petyr Campos​

Yes, that's pretty much it! Just keep in mind that this scheduled group is when you would create the new fields. Creating the new fields is what kicks off the whole process. So don't recreate the fields until your set time, but as soon as your Group is scheduled, have at it sometime within that month-long window.

We need to stagger the roll out over time for two reasons. First, we have to accommodate our customers' needs and make sure we minimize the impact as much as possible. Second, we need to be sure we don't push too much traffic through the communication lines at once. If the particular group doesn't work for you for any reason, please just Contact Marketo Support and we'll be happy to work on assigning a new Group. One of the things we look at for each schedule request is what the expected total number of leads is for your specific server. (You should see the spreadsheet... it's pretty impressive actually).

Let me know if that answers your question.


Thanks,

Mike

September 29, 2016

Hi Mike,


Question for you regarding an integration that I'm going to be connecting soon. If I haven't connected the integration yet is there a document for that somewhere? I know previously there were fields that were required on the SF side so I want to the sure there won't be any differences.

Thanks,

Amanda

Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
September 30, 2016

Hi @Amanda Bailey​

What integration are you referring to? Is this the initial integration with SFDC? There's not a lot we can do with a different company's software integration, but there are a few things to look out for.

Mainly the thing to look for is what fields your other software is referencing. As long as the fields being used are the newly recreated ones, you should be good to go.

If the integration isn't set up yet, and you plan to do this configuration change first, just make sure you uninstall the MLM package to delete the old fields before starting that other integration. That'll make sure the only fields left will be the new ones.

Also, check out the documentation here for more info: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Preventative Troubleshooting

Hope that helps!

Mike

September 30, 2016

Hi Mike,

Sorry, I was referring to the integration with Salesforce. I was asking if there was a new document yet that outlined how the integration/connection would be done now that MLM is no longer going to be active.

thanks!

Amanda

Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
September 30, 2016

Ahh, ok. The regular integration docs have all been updated to reflect the new method for creating the fields and remove any reference to the MLM package.

If you're on Enterprise or Unlimited edition of SFDC, it's this doc here: Step 1 of 3: Add Marketo Fields to Salesforce (Enterprise/Unlimited) - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

If you're using Professional edition, it's this one: Step 1 of 3: Add Marketo Fields to Salesforce (Professional) - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

-Mike

October 4, 2016

Hi Mike!

Another quick question about the sync. If I connect my Marketo live instance with a Salesforce Sandbox for testing setup (no Marketo sandbox) can I disconnect it and then connect it to the production instance of my Salesforce? I've seen in the documentation where it says once it is synced that's it but wanted to verify.

Thanks for all of your help!

Amanda

Mike_Reynolds2
Level 10
October 5, 2016

@Amanda Bailey​

Definitely don't want to hook your production Marketo instance to any SFDC instance unless you plan to keep it for good. Once the production Marketo integration is set, it can't be changed -- if you do have to change it, it actually requires re-provisioning an entirely new Marketo instance to start over. So, not the best option there.

-Mike

October 13, 2016

Hi Mike,

I assume that the alphabetical ranges are case insensitive - since our instance's account name starts with "m" rather than "M", that we still fall into Group 4, the November window?

Thanks,

Erica