Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions | Community
Skip to main content
Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
August 5, 2016

Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions

  • August 5, 2016
  • 36 replies
  • 13403 views

Included in this article

Questions

What is the architectural change Marketo is making?

Today, we have two packages in the Salesforce AppExchange:

  • The Marketo Lead Management (MLM) Package
  • The Marketo Sales Insight (MSI) Package

When installed, the MLM package auto creates a set of fields in Salesforce. Marketo populates these fields with data as a part of our regular sync. The MLM package is not currently required for syncing. However, it has been a prerequisite to install before you install the MSI package.

The MLM package has reached the end of life and is going to be retired. The MSI package will no longer be dependent on the MLM package and our customers will be able to directly install the MSI package. As a result, Marketo will stop updating the fields created by the MLM package. The configuration change will begin on August 15th and will be staggered out over the next 6 months. If some or all of the fields created by the MLM package are important to your organization, you can recreate them by following the instructions here: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce

How will the primary Salesforce integration affected?

It won't be. Marketo continues to invest in and create value for customers through our strategic partnership with Salesforce.com.  Because of this, we’re excited to share some news with you on our continued commitment to our partnership. Please see the documentation here for more information: Marketo Continues Best-In-Class Integration with Salesforce for Customers

We never installed the MLM package. Does this change affect us?

No, it does not.

Do I need to uninstall the MLM package from my Salesforce instance?

No. Marketo will simply not update the fields created by this package. If you prefer to uninstall the MLM package, that’s fine too. There will be no impact to the data in those fields.

If I do uninstall the MLM package, should I do that before or after recreating the new fields?

It's best to recreate the new fields prior to uninstalling the MLM package.

What should I be aware of before making these changes?

We've prepared lots of documentation (found at the bottom of the doc here) that should be reviewed prior to making the configuration changes here. Some customers may have other dependencies on the affected fields, (such as Workflows, ApexTriggers, other AppExchange packages, Formula Fields, or Reports), so these should be evaluated before making the changes. Check out our documentation here for more detailed information: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Preventative Troubleshooting

Is there any data loss?

No, the fields in the MLM package consist of marketing data that will continue to exist in your Marketo instance. If you would still like to have them in Salesforce, you can create new fields, and Marketo will sync the data to Salesforce. Instructions to create these new fields are documented here: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce 

What if I do nothing?

Both MSI and your sync will continue to work. However, once the sync of data is shut down on January 31st, 2017, Marketo will no longer be able to update the fields that were created by the MLM package. This can result in stale data in Salesforce, as data for these fields will continue to change in Marketo, but will not be pushed to Salesforce.

Do we need to create all the fields? We only care about Lead Score.

Since we are sun setting the MLM package, there is no longer an “all or nothing” proposition. You can create just the fields you want in Salesforce.

Can we create a few fields now, and a few later?

Yes, you can create some of the fields now, and some later when/if you need it.

What happens once we create these new fields?

Once you create these new fields, Marketo will automatically recognize these fields in the next sync cycle and map them to the appropriate Marketo fields. Marketo then starts a background process independent of the regular sync to update Salesforce with values from Marketo. For example:

  • You create a new field in Salesforce for Lead Score on the lead and the contact. The API name for this field per our instructions is mkto71_Lead_Score__c
  • In the next sync cycle, Marketo detects that this field has been created and automatically maps it to the Lead Score field in Marketo.
  • A background process is kicked off automatically to start populating these new fields in Salesforce with the appropriate Lead Score from Marketo.
  • Once the “backfill” is done, a notification is sent to the Notification Center letting you know that this process is complete.  Think of the backfill process as an initial sync where we push data for these fields into Salesforce.

  

How long will it take for Marketo to complete this “backfill”?

It is tough to give an exact timeframe. To a large extent it depends on the number of records Marketo needs to update in Salesforce. As a rule of thumb we expect to update at roughly the rate of 10K records per hour.

Will this affect my Salesforce sync backlog?

The backfill process is separate from our regular sync queues and will not be affected by any backlog there may be in your instance. However, when Salesforce is updated with data during the backfill, it will change the SysModStamp of the records updated. This in turn will require our regular sync to check if any of the other fields have changed on these records. This check is done as a part of the regular sync and could have an impact on your backlog for a short period of time. 

For a particular field eg: Lead Score, do we need to create it both on the Lead and the Contact?

While not absolutely required, it is highly recommended that for any field that you need, it is created on both the Lead and the Contact. Don’t forget to setup the conversion mapping in Salesforce too.

Is there any change to MSI?

Your MSI package has already been patched to remove the dependencies it has on the MLM package. This will allow you to uninstall the MLM package if you want to. Additionally, if you currently use the “Debug Mode” setting in Sales Insight Config (very rare), the mouse over on Stars in the Best Bets sections will no longer show the Lead Score.

I have some other questions not covered here. How do I get them answered?

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 

  • Release Schedule

The release is being staggered over the course of 6 months. This doc will give you exact details so you can know precisely when your Marketo instance will be updated: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Release Schedule

  • 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

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.

36 replies

Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
February 3, 2017

@Annie Ho​

You should Contact Marketo Support right away. Our SFDC integration works off of SOAP API and we've heard reports that some customers purchased REST API only, which won't work. We need to confirm that's the case (unless you know already from what you'd purchased), but in either case, please Contact Marketo Support right away.

Thanks,

Mike

February 2, 2017

Hi Mike,

We are using the professional edition of SFDC and we did purchase the API access from Salesforce but I still seeing sync issue with SFDC.

exceptionMessage: Login failed for SFDC user xxxxxx API is not enable for this Organization or Partner.

What is your recommendation?

Thanks,

Annie

Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
January 25, 2017

Hi @Charlotte Sault​

In order for any data transmission between Marketo and SFDC to happen, it has to go through an API call to be passed. Customers on Salesforce Professional Edition will need to purchase API access from Salesforce in order allow those API calls, but Enterprise/Unlimited editions already have it. The backfill process uses the same sync user and the same API calls that the standard Marketo > Salesforce sync does. It's set up as a separate pipeline to avoid traffic in the sync cycle, but yes, you'll need to have those API calls enabled to get it done.

Two things to note. First, this only really applies to Salesforce Professional Edition. Second, if that's your version of Salesforce, you may want to ask what data do you really want in Salesforce. If you recreate the fields and do the backfill but then don't get the new API calls, the sync to Salesforce would be stopped, so you'll be looking at old data in SFDC that hasn't updated since the API was cut off. If you don't plan to continue the sync between Marketo and Salesforce, if you don't plan to buy Salesforce's API access, save yourself the trouble of recreating the new fields because ultimately it amounts to the same thing--data that is only current up to a certain point and then is stale and can't help you on the SFDC side. Again, that part only applies to SFDC Professional Edition.

Let me know if you have any other questions at all.

Mike

Charlotte_Sault
New Participant
January 25, 2017

Hello,

Soon we will be without the API access to Salesforce, so I'm wondering if the "backfill" option is a solution for us to gain the same or similar functionality? In other words, if we set up the custom fields we require such as Lead Score and Acquisition Program to sync data from Marketo to Salesforce, will that give us the same capabilities as when we had with the API access? Or am I way off base? Please help  

Thanks,

Charlotte

Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
December 8, 2016

Hi @Karen Byrum​

Uninstalling the MLM Package will remove all fields and any dependencies created by the package. However, if you have any other dependencies in your Salesforce, like Reports, Workflows or anything else that reference those original fields in any way at all, those dependencies must be removed first before you'll be able to uninstall the package. That's all inside of SFDC, so we lose visibility to it, especially since it's all entirely custom as well. So, best thing to do would be to check your workflows or reports, but the fields could also be referenced in a number of other places like formula fields, Apex Triggers, other AppExchange packages and others.

Hope that helps!

Mike

December 8, 2016

I'm trying to uninstall the MLM package and I get this error.

I have verified the fields, the backfill is complete, I've upgraded the Marketo Sales Insights package.

Any suggestions?

Thanks! Karen

Dave_Strang
New Participant
November 29, 2016

Thanks Mike – I checked the field mapping in Marketo and the API reference

is still the old package one. When re-checking the fields I created I

noticed that I had the marketo sync profile as read only – so I have

changed this to writeable for the fields I created. Everything else looked

fine so hopefully it will work now.

Thanks,

Dave

From: Mike Reynolds

Sent: 29 November 2016 15:33

To: Dave Strang <dave.strang@tvsquared.com>

Subject: You have been mentioned by Mike Reynolds in Changes to Marketo

Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions in Marketo Marketing Nation

Community

<https://nation.marketo.com/?et=notification.mention>

The Marketo Marketing Nation Community

<https://nation.marketo.com/?et=notification.mention>

You have been mentioned

by Mike Reynolds

<https://nation.marketo.com/people/b314881cf2c6f34ff6c1ea07c3f07a199f877a57?et=notification.mention>

*in

Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions in Marketo

Marketing Nation Community* - View Mike Reynolds's reference to you

<https://nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-3835?et=notification.mention#comment-28611>

Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
November 29, 2016

@Dave Strang​

Check out the field mapping for one of the specific fields. Go to Admin > Field Management, then highlight the field you've recreated, and look for the CRM mapping in the middle of the page. If it has the new API name starting with "mkto71_", then you know it was set up right because it automatically remapped those fields into the Marketo fields.

If it still shows the old "mkto2_" mapping like in the picture below, then there likely was a mistake setting up the fields somehow that prevented the sync from picking them up and remapping them to the existing fields in Marketo (which in turn would prevent the backfill from happening).

Thanks,

Mike

Dave_Strang
New Participant
November 29, 2016

Hi  Mike,

Pretty sure they haven't been updated yet. I'll revisit the guide and double check that I have set everything correctly.

Thanks

Dave

Mike_Reynolds2
New Participant
November 29, 2016

Hi @Dave Strang​

At this point, if you already created the fields and it was earlier this month, and assuming the fields were set up correctly, I'm betting it's got to be completed by now, so there's nothing else to do. It's up to you if you want to remove the old MLM Package and associated fields, but if you recreated the new fields earlier this month, the config work is probably done.

Thanks,

Mike