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Covers the basics, but usability and reporting poor.
October 24, 2012

Covers the basics, but usability and reporting poor.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Version 9

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Eloqua

  • Does the basics – lead scoring, automated programs, etc
  • Poorly designed from a usability standpoint/ very time-consuming for even simple tasks
  • It does not integrate well with Salesforce.com without having to dedicate an almost full-time IT-like resource.
  • Reporting was a mess and investment of time in things like Campaign Manager were nothing more than a slick marketing term for setting up your data sync – there was no value from an ROI perspective. Also, the engineers who wrote the reports for email opens/clicks, etc… used a slightly different formula than the ones who worked on the email dashboard reports within the individual emails. Marketers want (and need) to prove their value – numbers not matching is never a good thing.
  • The investment of internal resources was extremely high.
  • Our low productivity in the tool led to a need for more resources.
  • The complexity and failures we encountered led to needing a full-time IT resource instead of technical marketing expertise setting up advanced features. This resulted in need for transfer of budget $$ from programs to generate revenue to consulting hours to help diagnose, set up, fix, etc…issues.
There is no comparison to Marketo. They aren’t even in the same league in terms of usability, value, features, ease of use and especially integration. Marketo crushes them in every category.

I have also used lower-end product, Exact Target which I thought was easier in terms of setting up emails, lists, etc… and integration with Salesforce.com wasn’t bad. It was missing (at least when I used) the advanced features like scoring, automation.

Using Oracle Eloqua

2 - Previously support, client programs, marketing communications, marketing programs, etc... all used but due to complexity of system, people preferred to go back to outlook and in marketing dept, we had designated users
3 - We had to invest a full time IT resource in maintaining our integration to Salesforce.com instead of a technical marketing resource to work on advanced features/campaigns.
  • Lead nurturing
  • Lead scoring
  • Integration with Salesforce.com for lead to sales hand-off
  • Marketing ROI analysis
We chose to not renew and moved to Marketo.

Integrating Oracle Eloqua

  • Salesforce.com
Always failing. Sales began to not trust the information coming across which is one of the worst things that can happen as a marketer – your sales team has to trust in the leads and information you’re providing.
  • N/A

Evaluating Oracle Eloqua and Competitors

Our own internal email marketing platform.

Oracle Eloqua Implementation

Not satisfied; too many workarounds, not enough documentation.

I was a bystander at the time, but it took a full-time person completely offline for a long time.

  • Implemented in-house

Oracle Eloqua Training

  • Online training
  • In-person training
They offer very basic classes which are required for master certification.

After having been through it, I would not consider anyone with a master certification any more qualified, unlike Salesforce.com certification which is a more difficult thing to acquire. For example, one of the classes towards certification was around social media. I would have expected examples of how to incorporate into campaigns in the product, with a demo and hands-on test. Instead, it was a powerpoint slideshow that went on way too long and covered really basic stuff like “what is Facebook, what is Twitter”
Very basic level information.

Oracle Eloqua Support

I would actually rate day to day support a 1. We often knew more than the person on the phone.

I would however rate escalation support a 7. When we went to “red status”, support was very good. We were assigned a technical resource who performed a full audit. Unfortunately the integration to Salesforce.com still failed.

Using Oracle Eloqua

It was almost as if a marketer was not involved in the UI testing. It does not work the way a marketer thinks.

Features are spread apart in different areas of the product that would normally be a step by step for a marketer. For example, you create your emails in a separate area from your landing pages in a separate area from your filters and even distribution lists and all of that is completely divorced from the automation setup.

Technical people were taking 2-3 hours to set up an email.

By contrast, in Marketo – everything that you would need to run a campaign – email, landing, list, automated steps, etc, sits within the campaign folder so you can easily run through everything you need.

Oracle Eloqua Reliability