Options to integrate third-party outbound channels with SAP Marketing Cloud

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Background

With SAP Marketing Cloud, there are various standard integrations for outbound channels available. Examples are SAP Digital Interconnect or Amazon for outbound mails and/or SMS, WeChat or Line for message campaigns or Google Ads for Paid Search or Display Ad campaigns (among others).

If you want to integrate additional third-party outbound channels, SAP Marketing Cloud offers different options to implement these:

• Campaign-based approaches (push)
  
  
  
  • External campaign execution
  
  
  • Open Channel integration
  
  
  • Generic Email Service Provider integration
  
  
  • Generic Text Message Service Provider integration
  
  
  
  


• API-based approaches (pull)
  
  
  
  • Export File API
  
  
  • CDS View-based OData API
  
  
  
  

All of these options serve different purposes. This blog post serves as an overview and comparison about the options.

Comparison

	External campaign execution	Open Channel integration	Generic Email Service Provider integration	Generic Text Message Service Provider integration	Export File API	CDS View-based OData API
Overview	Replicate campaigns for execution in external systems, e.g. for Ad campaigns (any DMP, DSP)	Transfer target groups to outbound channel which require custom processing	Integrate any Email Service Provider (ESP), e.g. Inxmail	Integrate any Text Message Service Provider (SMS, social, mobile messages), e.g. WhatsApp integration via MessengerPeople	Read content of export files based on Export Definitions	Read data from CDS views via generated OData API
Entity types	Campaign (mandatory, incl. parameters) Target groups (optional, incl. personalization data) Campaign success (optional, see below)	Campaign Target groups (incl. personalization data)	Emails content [HTML + plain text] Recipient Sender sentAt campaignId OutboundId …	Text messages content [plain text] Recipient Sender sentAt campaignId OutboundId …	Target groups (incl. personalization data)	Any entity from standard or custom CDS view target groups campaigns custom business objects ...
Personalization	Performed in external system Transfer of personalized contact attributes via export definition (optional)	Performed in external system Transfer of personalized contact attributes via Export Definition	Performed in SAP Marketing Cloud Transfer of personalized emails	Performed in SAP Marketing Cloud Transfer of personalized text messages	Performed in external system Contact attributes are available via API	Performed in external system Contact attributes are available via API
Maximum package size	10.000	1.000	1.000	1.000	Packaging highly recommended	Packaging highly recommended
SAP Marketing Cloud custom logic support	-	Five enhancement implementation options: Define Implementations (mandatory) Define Parameters for Implementation (optional) Define Global Settings for Execution (optional) Enhance Payload for Data Transfer (optional) Define Template for Outbound Interaction (optional for outbound, mandatory for inbound)	-	-	-	-
Standard campaign success handling	SAP Marketing Cloud requests campaign success data in a periodic way (every 4 hours)	Enhancement implementation for writing outbound interactions	SAP Marketing Cloud requests bounce information every 10 minutes, when the campaign has been executed within the last 48 hours. After 48 hours the bounces are collected every 4 hours Typically tracked by ESP: bounce, complaint Tracked by SAP Marketing Cloud: mail sent, mail opened, link click	SAP Marketing Cloud requests status information every 10 minutes, when the campaign has been executed within the last 48 hours. After 48 hours the bounces are collected every 4 hours Typically tracked by message provider: bounce Tracked by SAP Marketing Cloud: message sent, link click	-	-
Additional campaign success handling	On project basis (API-based)	On project basis (API-based)	On project basis (API-based)	On project basis (API-based)	On project basis (API-based)	On project basis (API-based)
Transfer messages / campaign content	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Instances per system	1, more can be requested via ticket	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited
Communication scenario ID	SAP_COM_0037	SAP_COM_0049	SAP_COM_0234	SAP_COM_0258	SAP_COM_0311	Derived from CDS view name

Summary

This blog post has presented and compared the different options to integrate additional third-party outbound channels. While external campaign execution should be used to replicate campaigns and Open Channel to transfer target groups to a system which requires custom processing, the generic adapters for emails and text messages enable an integration with ESPs or text message providers. The two presented API-based approaches help to provide relevant data for external execution via APIs.

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Your SAP CX Services – Marketing Practice team.