As Oracle Eloqua users, our jobs require that we wear many hats, from html coders and database managers to email creators and strategic thinkers. Like everyone, I certainly have my favorite hats. I was talking with a client recently who said she just doesn’t like spending time in the integration area of the platform. I could tell she has a solid understanding of integration and can make changes as needed; however, she prefers other roles and wants to leave the integration work to us.
Even if your role is not to maintain your integration, a basic understanding of how it works will make you a stronger and more valuable team member. Understanding the terminology is the place to start.
So grab your integration hat, make sure it fits snugly, and let’s hit the data highway.
Traffic Patterns
When you navigate to the Integration area, you see tabs for Inbound and Outbound. This is an Eloqua-centric point of view. The Inbound lane brings data into Eloqua, and Outbound heads out from Eloqua.
Inbound
Think of your inbound data as busses in a transportation system. These vehicles run on a schedule whether one person hops aboard or 50 people are at the stop.
In Eloqua, the Auto Syncs, automatic synchronizations, are your busses. They are scheduled to run on specified days, at specific times, importing records from your CRM that have been created or modified since the last run. The Auto Sync runs on schedule whether it imports 0 records or 50,000 records. Many clients have an every two-hour schedule for their Auto Syncs, but they can run as often as every half hour to a minimum of once a week.
This incoming data is commonly Lead, Contact, Account and Opportunity information, but it can be a wide-range of data that marketing needs for segmentation and personalization.
Outbound
While your inbound data is like busses, think of your outbound data as the cars in a transportation system. We get into our cars because we have an event, a job or social gatherings we need to travel to.
In Eloqua, the Internal Events are your cars. Unlike the “Eloqua busses” that are on a schedule, your “Eloqua cars” need to have an event in order to trigger the sending of Eloqua data to your CRM. These events can be an Activity Event (Email Open, Email Send, Website Visit, Form Submit), a Campaign Event or a Custom Event.
Typically your integration events are triggered from Program Builder, which executes Create Lead, Update Lead and Update Contacts calls.
Note: If you are not seeing the correct data passing from Eloqua to CRM, check that the Eloqua contact records are flowing through your CRM Update Program. Contacts can be added to your CRM Update Program via form submits, shared lists or filters.
External Calls
Whether the vehicle is a bus or a car, it needs a key to start up and connect the rubber to the road. This is true for both the inbound and outbound data flow within Eloqua. In this case, your key is an External Call that connects Eloqua to the CRM system.
Eloqua initiates the External Call for both the Internal Events and the Auto Syncs. Eloqua logs into the CRM system with specific user credentials, and then sends or requests the data based on the entity (e.g., lead or contact) and field mapping. When mapping the fields between the two systems (fields integrated are defined by the customer user), the Source is where data is coming from, and the Target is the destination of the data.
That’s the basics. Auto Syncs, Internal Events and External Calls are the parts that make up your integration. If you understand these concepts, you have passed your permit test and are ready to start driving, under the guidance of a more experienced user, of course.
If you have Eloqua and you need support with email strategy or building emails, please contact us! We love helping companies transform their marketing automation.
