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Tips for Integrating with Microsoft Dynamics if You've Already Been Using Marketo

Brian_Law_MKTO
Marketo Employee
Marketo Employee

Here’s a few tips if you’ve been using Marketo as a standalone system and are now planning to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics. Please note the following tips are for integrating with MSD using Marketo’s connector.

  • Check in the Marketo Admin area for the CRM icon. Contact your CSM if you don't see the icon.
  • If you're using MSD On-Premise, Marketo requires you to have Internet Facing Deployment (IFD) with Active Directory Federation Services 2.0+ (ADFS) configured. (Instructions)
  • Create a strategy for handling any fields which will sync from MSD which are already in Marketo
    • Start by creating a data/field dictionary
    • Marketo will automatically map the most common MSD fields with your existing Marketo fields like First Name
    • Consider switching from any Marketo custom fields you've created to your MSD fields or working with Adobe support to merge the fields together.
  • Create a MSD custom entity strategy if applicable
    • Make sure you evaluate whether your MSD custom entity setup will translate well into Marketo
  • Create a strategy for handing the duplicate person records (leads and contacts) which may be created in Marketo when you start the person sync
    • If you've been using Marketo for a while you've probably imported a lot of lists and records synced from MSD are NOT deduped against existing records in Marketo based on email address
      • Any records including duplicates based on email address syncing from MSD will sync to Marketo, records syncing from MSD are considered intended behavior
    • The easiest way to handle the issue is to delete all the records in Marketo before syncing with MSD. 
      Unfortunately, you will lose all your activity history.
    • Another option is to work with Marketo services or a Launchpoint partner to merge the duplicates together
      If you have a lot of duplicates, it may take some time (weeks) to merge all the records together
      • Merging records will preserve the activity history but may cause smart campaigns to fire, always test and be prepared to adjust your campaigns accordingly
    • Consider a hybrid approach by deleting the least valuable records
    • Read about implementing a custom sync filter
      • Caution:
        • Since the custom sync filter is a boolean field (aka True/False/Yes/No. The only way to tell Marketo to skip a record is to set the field value explicitly to be “False/No". 
          • Here's what it looks like in Marketo when the value is set to "True"Brian_Law2_0-1590162140932.png
        • It’s best when new records are created in MSD they are automatically and immediately changed to “True/Yes"
        • When a record changes its SyncToMkto value from “True/Yes” to “False/No”, Marketo is notified to stop syncing this record. However, the record is not deleted, instead, it stops getting updates and becomes stale. It’s NOT recommended to change the value to “False/No”
  • Read about how sync works
    • Note:
      • Marketo does not support sandbox refresh for Marketo Dynamics Sync. If you need to refresh your Dynamics CRM sandbox, a new Marketo sandbox will be required. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for additional details.
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3 Comments
Cate_Ufford
Level 1

Hey Brian! Thanks for putting this together - seems like there is a real lack of documentation on what to expect with a Dynamics integration. We're in the middle of one right now. Can you say more about the note you made w/r/t to the merges: that they may cause smart campaigns to fire? What kind of activity/triggers cause this that I could be looking for in our instance during testing? 

Brian_Law_MKTO
Marketo Employee

Hi, when you merge records together the following things may happen: 1) program membership is merged and the surviving record may be added for the first time 2) score is transferred from losing to surviving record 3) a data value may be change on the surviving record. 

Elliott_Lowe1
Level 9 - Champion Alumni

@Brian_Law_MKTO Can you now merge two records that are synced to Dynamics in Marketo?  If not, can you merge a Marketo only record with another Marketo record that is synced to Dynamics?