Do ETL tools useful for data upload to SAP Marketing Cloud?

[mikhail_naumov2]

In my experience, ETL tools like SAP Data Services are often used for uploading data to SAP Marketing On-Premises, but do they still relevant for cloud version?

I guess not so much. Technically we still can use ETL but main point of using such tools are missing. Even if we extract data in bulk, at the end of the day we upload them in small batches via oData services.

PS
Good blog post SAP’s Data Integration Solutions in the Cloud

[KunalBansal]

Hello mikhail.naumov2,

In the latest version of Marketing Cloud, you'll find end-user friendly CSV or XLSX file templates which you can use to upload data using app Data File Load.

I don't think you need ETL tools for this as the Excel File is as simple as it can be for enduser.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Kunal Bansal

SAP Marketing Consultant

[Former Member]

Hi mikhail.naumov2. I think that ETL tools are very useful in a cloud context. In all of our projects we load the data using ETL tools with several technologies (depending on the client). Some of them are in Amazon Web Services, some others are custom developments in Python or SCPI (SAP Cloud Platform Integration) flows.

I recommend you to use ETL tools because:

1. Perform custom data quality checks in order to validate data you load in SAP Marketing.
2. Automate your data loading process, without worrying about getting the files and uploading them manually.
3. Integrate with external validation tools like Neverbounce for email validation or Twilio for phone validation, in order to sanitize your contact information and improve deliverability.

Let me know if you need help deciding which ETL tool fits to your needs. Regards,

[mikhail_naumov2]

Thanks! By "SCPI flows", do you mean CPI-DS or CPI-PI?

[Former Member]

I meant CPI-PI. It's not suitable for all the scenarios, but most of them are very straightforward with CPI-PI. The ones that don't fit very well are: heavy interaction with external APIs, heavy transformations or orchestration between processes.

If you have some data in a SFTP/S3 bucket and want to load it with not much transformation, CPI-PI will fit perfectly. SAP Marketing Cloud version includes a SCPI license.

Let me know if you need more help.

[mikhail_naumov2]

Thanks again! I agree that CPI-PI is useful for data load but I don't think we can call it an ETL tool, ETL capabilities of CPI-PI are very limited. It looks like SAP doesn't bundle any ETL tools with SAP Marketing Cloud licence, right?

[Former Member]

Well.. I totally agree Mikhail. The features are limited, but with the help of groovy scripts you can accomplish most of the "normal" tasks. CPI-PI is bundled with the SAP Marketing Cloud license! 🙂 I don't remember where to check that (I think it's on the launchpad). Let me know if you need help with CPI-PI or need some guidance on other tools. Regards,