Administration is the key(bunch)

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Through this post I intend to shout out to all admins in the community (and elsewhere). Admin is really like the key-bunch which could unlock/lock and maintain all the goodies Marketo has to offer.

Like every other component, once in a while we do need provide healing touches to the segments which hasn't been working so well. Also, the ones that are working well could use a performance boost. So, here's what I'd want to know from you:

1. What according to you is the single most disliked feature of admin?
2. What is the most used functionality of admin for you?
3. Are there any commonly used workarounds which you'd like admin to cater for?
4. If we were to provide an export feature of configurations, what details would you like in that "data take-out"?

Any thoughts/comments/feedback/criticism (positive or negative) revolving around Admin are greatly welcomed. Please feel free to reach out to me to discuss some of the ideas you may have. 

Looking forward to hear from you.

Thanks,

Vikram R

email: Vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

[Casey_Grimes]

So, I'd actually like to advocate for two items that were previously on the Marketo roadmap but seem to have gone missing: Field Metadata API and User Provisioning API. The two most common things I do when in the Admin section are either creating fields or handling users—and the idea behind both of these APIs were to solve common pain points around both.

By having a Field Metadata API, third-party integrations could add/update fields as needed rather than forcing the end user to enter fields by hand. Likewise, the ability to mass hide outdated fields would be a big boon--I once spent nearly 20 hours hiding ~700 fields from a client instance, and I could have just as easily done that in 20 minutes with an API call that would let me review fields and then post an update to hide them from UI. 

Likewise, with most enterprises onboarding/offboarding marketing employees, there's automation for adding and removing Exchange inboxes, Salesforce users, HR software logins... but no way to hook Marketo into this setup. As such, you're stuck adding and removing users manually, which is a pain. There's no reason a user API couldn't just hook into Workday or other HR systems to make this part of the onboard/offboard process.

These things don't sound cool or appealing, so they tend to die on the vine--but the convenience they afford when given context makes them worth it.

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Hello Courtney,

you certainly seem to know your way around APIs well. I really appreciate that and your suggestions too.

I would like to explore why was this dropped off from the roadmap from my sources. 

If you don't mind, I'd like to learn from you on your specific asks on these APIs. 

The possibilities that you've pointed out does sound lucrative for Admins. 

Regards,

Vikram R

email: Vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

[Amit_Jain]

Some of these might already be pointed out but here is my take:

• SFDC Field sync: As of now, Marketo sync all the fields visible to marketo user in SFDC automatically and if we already have a similar field existed in Marketo, it creates a duplicate. We have to go to Marketo support to merge those fields. It would be ideal to let admin which SFDC field needs to be sync with Marketo and merge with existing field, if needed.
• Field Management:
  • Right now, it shows the field dependency in a list and if it's being used in lot of assets, we have a "load more" option. It doesn't show the number of assets it's being used. It would be really nice to have a feature to export all the field dependencies and also a summary table that will show the number of assets per asset type like forms, smart lists etc.
  • Delete the fields instead of hiding
  • Let Admin merge the fields if needed
• Custom Objects: Custom objects are really useful at times but it comes with an overhead of developing something outside marketo to feed the data. It will be really really cool to allow custom objects to be updated right from smart campaigns. It will seriously save a lot of time developing some solution using custom object.
• SFDC-Marketo sync: Today, it just shows the last sync time or if the sync is in progress. Would be nice to have some more details on the previous sync logs and also what is current being synced between the systems and how many records, expected sync cycle completion time. Also, it would be nice to have a button to start sync cycle immediately.

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Hello Amit,

Great inputs. Do not mind the repetition at all . More the merrier. In fact, it'll strengthen my understanding our customer pain points and asks. 

On the SFDC Field Sync, I hear you. It would be nice to have some form of self governance options for handling duplicity. 

Couple of things though. 

On Field Management, deleting the fields - what if those fields have old data? should that be removed too? On merge, similar question as well.

on SFDC-Marketo Sync - I would like to know, what data interests you about the sync. 

Also, please do put your thoughts on,

1. are there any workarounds that you use today for some of these problems?

2. if you're interested in a "data extract" feature in admin, for what would that be?

Would be happy to discuss these over a call with you. Please let me know if you could spare some time for the discussion. 

Regards,

Vikram R

email: Vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

[Amit_Jain]

On Field Management, deleting the fields - what if those fields have old data? should that be removed too? On merge, similar question as well.

If a customer wants to delete it, they might have either migrated the data somewhere or might not need it at all. So in my opinion if someone is deleting the filed they know why and should have taken the necessary actions beforehand.

on SFDC-Marketo Sync - I would like to know, what data interests you about the sync.

As I mentioned earlier, Would be nice to have some more details on the previous sync logs like what app objects were synced in previous sync cycles, how many records per objects and the sync completion time. In addition, it would be nice to see what all objects are currently being synced between the systems, how many records and the expected sync cycle completion time.

Also, please do put your thoughts on,

1. are there any workarounds that you use today for some of these problems?

2. if you're interested in a "data extract" feature in admin, for what would that be?

#1, for the field management, I try to merge the duplicate fields and if there are fields which were created for one time use only, I try to re-use them. On the Market-SFDC sync side, I sometime use this backdoor link https://app-sxx.marketo.com/supportTools for this purpose but it will be really nice to have this as an embedded feature within Marketo Admin section with some visualization.

I would be more than happy to jump on a call to discuss this further with you. Please feel free to DM me with your availability.

[Vikram_Ramesh]

great inputs Amit. I have replied to you over a direct message with details of my availability. looking forward to connect over a call to discuss more. 

Best Regards,

Vikram Ramesh |  Product Owner  |  Adobe  |  vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

BlueJeans | Calendly

[Josh_Hill13]

Amit Jain wrote:

Some of these might already be pointed out but here is my take:

  
• SFDC Field sync: As of now, Marketo sync all the fields visible to marketo user in SFDC automatically and if we already have a similar field existed in Marketo, it creates a duplicate. We have to go to Marketo support to merge those fields. It would be ideal to let admin which SFDC field needs to be sync with Marketo and merge with existing field, if needed.
  

Yes, orphaned fields are a problem and they typically appear based on their object in this case. Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes not:

Opt In (L) (C) or (A) if this happens.

But sometimes it's just on one object, sometimes not. The best thing to do in this situation is to ask Support to help you merge the fields. The challenge is to do this as soon as you notice this, or work with them BEFORE you create the field in SFDC. They can merge the fields, but it does destroy data if you don't do it right.

[Amit_Jain]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the suggestion but the problem is that before merging the fields, you have to remove all the dependencies and then you have to update it back after the merging. Sometimes, this become a tedious exercise and kind of impossible to do it manually.

[Nicholas_Manojl]

- Developers require Admin access to access the Custom Objects/Custom Activities consoles. Ideally, this wouldn't be necessary. 

[Vikram_Ramesh]

hello Nicholas Manojlovic‌,

are you suggesting that there needs to be an export of this information or extending the access to other users on the same page?Just trying to understand and then check for its feasibility here.

Regards,

Vikram R

email: Vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

[Nicholas_Manojl]

Hi Vikram - turns out my suggestion is on the 'we already have it!' list. I was unaware we could create a user role with defined Admin privileges. 

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Ah!  There was a similar ask where the list of fields was supposed to be exported to non-Admin users. I thought this was related to that. 

[ChristinaZuniga]

I didn't read previous comments so I could give an unbiased point of view. Sorry if I'm repeating everyone else!

What according to you is the single most disliked feature of admin?

Users and roles. There isn't enough rigor here - why can't I control what folders people have access to or get more granular? Some of it isn't clear (ex: Access Design Studio -> edit email. I've had jr. admins ask me if that means someone can edit in Marketing Activities but not Design Studio, which is a fair question).

What is the most used functionality of admin for you?

Field management!

Are there any commonly used workarounds which you'd like admin to cater for?

Better search via Audit Trail. Right now I export someone's audit trail to use "find" functionality so I can search across asset name, parent name, etc. It would be nice to have an integrated search option so I don't have to export to do this.

If we were to provide an export feature of configurations, what details would you like in that "data take-out"

FIELD MANAGEMENT EXPORT - I want to see if the field is connected to my CRM, if it's in use in any smart list or smart campaign (and possibly a list of which ones?). I'm going through hundreds of fields right now to clean up SFDC and it's the most painful experience. At least make this possible via an API.

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Great inputs Christina Zuniga‌. More inputs, the merrier . It'll certainly help me strengthen the case for the feature enhancement. 

on Users and Roles, would love to hear more on the granularity part. Indeed, the permissions could use the fresh take.

also agreed on Audit Trail could use the Parent name for the asset as one of the filters. 
on the Field Management, I need your help on identifying the specifics of the export. Probably this can be achieved in a short amount of time.

Please let me know the best means to reach you for a discussion on the features mentioned above.

Regards,

Vikram R  

email: Vikram.ramesh@adobe.com

phone: +91 988 607 4356

[Erica_Harris2]

Field Management is the area I use the most, and the one that causes the most frustration over the 10 years I've been a Marketo admin. Agree with comments made above about Field Management. It is terribly klunky.  I would like to be able to:

• rename fields in use without having to remove references
• delete instead of hide fields
• sort by asset type in the Used By list
•  have clickable links in the Used By list.  It is so frustrating when tracking use of a field to have to search asset by asset! And when you try to copy and paste, you often click by mistake if you place your cursor in the wrong place by a pixel.
• be able to export the Used by list with links in the export, so that you can do some audit reporting.

Audit Trail appears worse than useless.  I have never been able to get sufficient info about who did what when we've had an issue. 

Permissions could be more granular. Folder permission would be immensely useful, as not everyone wants to use Workspaces (or has it in their subscription).

Regards,

Erica

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Field Management and Audit Trail seems to be the top 2 areas which could use some elbow grease. And those are some great suggestions on Field Management, thank you for those

on Audit trail, I hear you. Please do let me know on how to get in touch with you. I would like to learn more. 

Regards,

Vikram R

[Meg_Stout]

Yes to folder permissions! That would be extremely useful. I think Marketo Sky will have this?

[Vikram_Ramesh]

Configuring folder permissions isn't planned as far as I know in Sky. That'd a great add to the feature list. Thanks for bringing that up

Regards,

Vikram R

[Vikram_Ramesh]

A big shout out to all of you who have replied to my post with your suggestions and asks.

Apologies that I haven't been active much on the community for past couple of days. 

Going forward, I would like to interact with you, based on your availability, to learn more.

Please do keep those suggestions coming in. :+1: 

Regards,

Vikram R

[Meg_Stout]

• There are third-party tools that can do this, but I would love to have the ability to communicate with our users within Marketo - an announcement/notification feature of sorts.
• This likely falls outside of the Admin section, but it would be great to have a smart list filter for "Marketo users" that would allow me to easily distribute emails to the active users in our account. 
• It would be helpful to have a "view as" feature to test user roles and troubleshoot permissions issues.