>> Continuation from Eloqua vs Marketing Cloud – Architecture and Security
When considering different use-cases and architecture there are few things to keep in mind related to the Data Model and related Data Processes.
That being said, this article taps into some of the most critical aspects, as listed below.
Table of Contents:
- Data Model
- Data Retention
- Data Tools and Processes
- Standard Data Integrations
- Form Integration
- Standard Data Imports/Exports
- Summary
Data Model
Oracle Eloqua
As mentioned in the earlier post, Eloqua has quite a simple data model.
The Eloqua Contact table stores both Lead and Contact records. This table has a one-to-many relationship with Accounts.
Custom Data Objects (CDO), can have many-to-many with both Contacts or Accounts, but not both.
Very important to mention, which often is quite an architectural challenge, CDOs can’t be related to other CDOs.
Meaning, you can’t expand the data model to multiple levels.
In regards to the Account-Contact relationship, the data model will not work in cases where you might want to relate a single Contact to Multiple Accounts, such as Households, and similar.
The following diagram shows a simplified overview of the Eloqua Data Model.
Taking this into account, enterprise solutions such as CRM, ERP, etc. have significantly more complex Data Models.
When designing the integration, be aware of the potential challenges that might arise.
An example would be an e-commerce platform, where orders can have multiple items, which can further link to a specific product.
Eloqua will not be able to replicate this scenario, e.g. data model.
The only feasible option, in this case, is to aggregate the data.
Additionally, storing many records in CDOs will significantly affect the performance. Though I have seen CDOs with over 60-70 mil records, it was quite a challenge to work with.
Oracle recommends no more than 20-25 mil records (max 50 fields per table), across all CDOs.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud is a different beast for that matter.
It allows for building quite more complex data models which can more or less mirror your CRM data model.
The key feature around this is the concept of Data Extensions (DE).
These DEs add an additional layer of functionality, as described below, and are capable of storing large volumes of data.
In a matter of fact, for up to 1 mil records it will be a breeze for Marketing Cloud, but as you get closer to 100 million, you might experience some performance issues.
No matter what you should avoid storing more than 100 million records in a single Data Extension.
With the Marketing Cloud Contact Builder – Data Designer, you can design your own data model, which works best for your needs.
The following screenshot shows the entry point of the Data Designer.
The following screenshot shows an example of some relational tables.
Data Retention
Data Retention is quite an important feature not only from a performance perspective but also from legal and data privacy compliance, e.g. GDPR.
Oracle Eloqua
Data Retention in Eloqua is not possible out of the box. This means, either you have to use some third-party app, or you build your own auto-deletion process. This is typically a huge issue for retail companies, which often store many records, purchase history, etc.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Again, Marketing Cloud is a bit more flexible in this case.
As part of the Data Extension configuration, you can define a Data Retention policy.
The retention policy can run dynamically within a specific period or a fixed date and can affect individual records, all records, or the entire Data Extension.
This is quite an important feature, as it will save you from lots of headaches as you build up more data over time.
Data Tools and Processes
This is another important set of features, to help keep data clean, enriched, and normalized.
Oracle Eloqua
Eloqua is quite on top of the game in regards to this area. Eloqua provides a toolbox called Data Tools, which allows you to create, Update Rules, Match Rules, Deduplication Rules, Lookup Tables, and more.
With this set of features, you can easily create custom processes to normalize, deduplicate, and cleanse data.
These processes are also referred to as Data Washing.
It is important to mention that none of these features require any coding.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud, as obvious so far does things quite differently, and unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way around this challenge.
There are however few options are available to choose from.
With the help of Automation Studio and custom SQL Activities, you can write your own query which can process specific fields and update back the same Data Extension records.
Additionally, with the help of AMPscript, or SSJS you can process the data as required.
If this is not enough, you can check the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace where you can find tons of third-party apps to help with this challenge.
Ultimately, if you create integration with Sales Cloud, things might get a bit easier.
Basically, Sales Cloud can do all data cleansing, so Marketing Cloud focuses mostly on Automation and Orchestration.
Standard Data Integrations
When we refer to a standard integration, we mean some sort of integration connector that is provided by the platform itself.
That means the provider in this case Salesforce or Oracle is responsible for hosting and maintenance.
Oracle Eloqua
In regards to this aspect, Eloqua has been going through a transition phase.
For the last 10+ years, users were able to configure the Eloqua Standard/Native integration.
This integration connector was natively available for Salesforce, Microsoft CRM, and Oracle On Demand.
However, this year (2021), Oracle officially phased out this connector.
It is still running for existing installations, but it is not officially supported by Oracle.
Instead, Oracle launched something called Oracle Eloqua Salesforce Integration App.
This is a two-way integration connector, capable of mapping almost all objects between Eloqua and Salesforce.
Unfortunately or fortunately (if you use Sale Cloud), this new connector works only for Salesforce Sales Cloud.
It is significantly faster compared to the previous version, and it offers a much improved GUI.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud, as out of the box offers integration with Salesforce Sales/Service Cloud.
This is possible by configuring a connector called Marketing Cloud Connect.
This is quite a sophisticated app, which helps you sync data from Sales Cloud down to Marketing Cloud.
Additionally, you can sync tracking data back to Salesforce.
Besides the Marketing Cloud Connector, another tool which we describe in the upcoming articles, called Journey Builder, can also integrate with Sales Cloud.
Journey Builder uses several different activities, such to perform certain actions, such as Create/Update Lead/Contact, and more.
You can find more about these activities here.
Form Integration
Forms Integration is basically a way to integrate your website/e-shop forms with your marketing automation platform.
Oracle Eloqua
The form builder in Eloqua is quite powerful and offers a great amount of functionality which often makes things easier and more intelligent.
This tool works on the drag-and-drop principle, where you can quickly design your web form.
Additionally, as part of the form submission, Eloqua allows you to trigger specific actions, called Form Processing Steps.
The following screenshot shows the possible options to chose from.
Once the form is created it can be used as part of an Eloqua Landing Page, or you can export the form HTML.
Additionally, form data can be posted to this form from anywhere, such as an external website, e-shop, or even as a blind-form submit, for example, as a link in an email.
This flexibility makes the Eloqua forms quite a powerful tool for lead generation.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Unlike Eloqua, Marketing Cloud, unfortunately, takes a different route.
There is a similar form design tool called Smart Capture, however, it is extremely limited compared to Eloqua’s form builder.
Instead, the best way to build forms and process forms submission data is by using AMPscript directly on the specific landing page.
This significantly slows things down and requires developer resources. However it provides total flexibility, and the possibility to build highly customized functionality.
Standard Data Imports/Exports
When we refer to Data Import and Exports we mean a flat-file (.CSV, etc.) data integration between the platforms.
In general, this is a legacy feature from the last epoch, which some companies still rely on. Especially when integrating platforms that don’t provide direct API access.
Oracle Eloqua
Eloqua offers quite a simple tool to address this aspect of data integration, called Data Export and Import.
With this tool, you can import Accounts and Contacts, and export Account, Contact, and Activity data.
Both Imports and Exports can be scheduled or run on demand.
SFTP location will have to be specified unless you export data on demand, in which case the list is saved on an Eloqua-hosted URL.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud is a bit more advanced or at least offers some more possibilities.
One of the key advantages is that Marketing Cloud provides an account-specific FTP landing zone.
This means you are in full control of your files and file structure. Basically, you don’t have to ask your IT or DevOps team to create an SFTP landing zone.
You can define different file locations, and your own encryption keys to secure your data.
You can read more about Marketing Cloud FTP here.
Typically once you set up your FTP location, you can upload data from a third-party source, or export data from Marketing Cloud which can be shared later on.
The tool which helps you import and export data to Marketing Cloud is called Automation Studio.
Automation Studio is quite a powerful tool that can do several things as part of the data upload and processing.
For example, you might want to upload the data to Marketing Cloud’s safehouse before importing it to any Data Extension.
You can also unzip, and decrypt the imported data.
Additionally, you can define various file name patterns which can be used to select the file to import.
More about Automation Studio you can find, here.
All in all, if you can’t implement an API integration, flat-files imports and export will do the work just fine.
Summary
As you can see both platforms have quite different ways of how their Data Models and related Data Processes are designed and function.
It is important to notice that, Marketing Cloud is a lot more powerful solution, with a significantly more flexible data model.
But this comes at a cost, not only in terms of license fees but also required IT skills to configure and maintain.
On the other hand, Eloqua is much simpler in this way and will require fewer resources to configure certain processes.
However, you need to keep in mind that, Eloqua can’t handle very complex setups, especially if you expect more complex data models and a large volume of data.
We are a Salesforce Certified Partner and a Digital Experience (DX) Consultancy House, located in Copenhagen – Denmark, with over a decade of extensive experience in architecting and developing Marketing Automation and CRM platforms and technologies.
Want to know more? hello@advension.com
Photo by Cameron Venti on Unsplash
