Lead Syncing - Backlog and Error Alert

[Lindsey_Veeh]

When syncing leads to our CRM (SAP) there is an occassional backlog or the lead sync errors and doesn't actually sync to the CRM. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if there is a backlog or an error unless I login to the CRM and notice that the lead did not come over or if I look at the activity log in Marketo. It would be great if there was some sort of alert system that would alert the administrators on the Marketo account if a syncing error occured or if there is a backlog in the system. With the backlog alert, it should give you an estimate as to how long it will take to get the leads loaded.

We expect our sales reps to follow-up on leads within an hour of receiving them. With a backlog of a few hours up to a day this makes the lead significantly colder and less likely to convert.

[Anonymous]

I would like to see at least the option to view the current backlog, with explanation of what a healthy backlog is.  I think being able to monitor performance would be a feature that should be added to this platform.

[Ayan_Talukder]

Didn't spot this earlier, hoping we can merge the ideas. This was the suggestion:

1) The first suggestion here is to add a sync backlog viewable in the Admin panel. We should be able to keep an eye on the sync backlog, and if it becomes an alarming number be able to investigate from there.

2) The second suggestion is Admins should be able to set a notification threshold number. For example if there is a backlog of 30,000 campaign updates, I would know something is wrong as that is a fair chunk of our leads. Everyone's instance is different, our backlog threshold may be different from another company which allows us to control what "warning notification" threshold we want set.

The second idea allows everyone to set an alert threshold as it will be different for each instance.

https://nation.marketo.com/ideas/8327?et=notification.mention#comment-25401

[Brian_Mueller]

We often run into this very same issue. The only way in the current state is to reach out to support to ask if we are currently experiencing a sync backlog. This is not efficient for us or the Marketo support team. If the data is available to Marketo, these numbers should also be available to admins.

When we are experiencing backlogs, we can request to temporarily increase the batch size for the object(s) causing the backlog to help churn through it quicker. I understand that it isn't realistic to increase batch sizes for every account Marketo has, but there should be a more permanent state for those who are processing large amounts of data on a regular basis.

Ideas for Marketo to Consider:

1. Visually show the current sync state in Admin so customers can quickly check to see if they are experiencing a backlog.
2. Have the system notify admins when a backlog increases/exceeds a certain threshold that is adjustable by the admin.
3. Better yet, have the system recognize a backlog and automatically scale up the batch size to work through the sync backlog.
4. Update the sync API between Marketo and Salesforce (all CRMs) to ONLY sync the updated data and not check all fields available to the sync user for updates. The API should be smart enough to know exactly what was updated, sync that field and move on to the next job in the queue.

We've read many of the community articles, paired down the sync user fields as much as possible and do our best to schedule large updates outside of peak hours. Even with all of those changes, we still run into these issues. Please implement something to address this. It has been an issue for 5+ years.

[Ayan_Talukder]

Completely forgot about this, and I commented 3 years ago! Hoping to see something like this in Sky one day.