Marketing permissions for storing and applying opt-in / opt-out information
I noticed that still several customers use marketing attributes to store opt-in / opt-out information they receive from their customers.
Consider to use marketing permissions instead.
This functionality is available in CRM 2007, and higher.
The advantage is that segmentation and campaign execution consider marketing permissions in standard.
Besides you can define opt-in / opt-in regulations per country, region, and even per communication channel, for example e-mail. This is done in Customizing.
Check out SAP Note 1574230 for details.
Dear Jutta,
Thanks for sharing... but when using marketing attributes it was easy to manage the "unsubscribe" process (see this fantastic blog post from John Burton: Using ERMS to Handle Email Opt-Out (Unsubscribe) Requests – by John Burton and Vinod C).
Are you supporting the same features with marketing permission? Would you have an oss note that describe the ERMS service that we can use then?
Thanks a lot,
Nicolas Busson.
Hello Nicolas,
Thank you for your feedback.
I read John Burton's blog. You are right. It is a nice and easy approach.
In principle the same should be possible also for opting-out based on marketing permissions, instead of based on marketing attributes. However ERMS would definitely need to offer several options, as the marketing permissions allow an opt-in/opt-out per communication channel, not only one opt-in/opt-out overall.
As of now we don't provide functionality that supports opting-out based on marketing permissions, with ERMS.
However let me check with my colleagues if they are willing to provide such functionality.
Regards,
Jutta
Hi Jutta,
Thanks: I'd really like to have your feedback on this... because IMHO if you don't provide anything to handle the opt-out process, marketing permissions are missing the most important part and I'd recommend to keep on using marketing attributes instead.
Cheers!
Nicolas.
Hello Nicolas,
I would like to give you an update on this.
We plan to offer an application (HTML-based) that can be used by customers to realize self-registration scenarios, including entering information about marketing permissions, such as "You can contact me by e-mail".
The colleagues investigated also in extending the ERMS-based approach. They consider it as potentially risky for updating marketing permissions. For example, technically it can happen that ERMS triggers an update; but this update cannot be realized as the corresponding object is locked.
Regards,
Jutta
Hi Jutta,
Thanks a lot for the feedback. And it's good to know that ERMS is not recommended by SAP when it comes to updating existing data. Looking forward to testing this new HTML-based application that you will offer to realize self-registration then! Will it be included in EhP4, or one of the next support pack maybe?
Cheers,
Nicolas.
Hi Nicolas,
Thanks for your positive reaction.
We want to deliver this application as an example, ideally quite independent from a EhP or SP delivery. But of course some prerequisites are necessary in any case.
In doubt we would like to get it included in one of the support packages of CRM 7.0 for EhP3.
I will keep you posted so that you can test it, and give feedback.
Regards,
Jutta
Great! Let me know once it's available and I'll be glad to test it/give feedback of course.
Hi Jutta,
I'd like to add another very bad point to marketing permissions: they are not supported by the business partner merge functionality until EhP3... That means if you are running SAP CRM 2007 (up to 7.02) and have BP 1 with marketing permissions, and BP 2 without marketing permissions, when merging both BPs and selecting BP 1 as "master", your marketing permissions will be lost.
I just opened an SMP message about that: the answer is "works as designed". We need to upgrade to EhP3 to make it work, which is obviously not an option.
Regards,
Nicolas.
Hi Nicolas,
I agree.Unfortunately a downport is never "for free". We need to skip other valuable features then if we decide for a downport. That's why we decide against a downport as often as possilbe.
Anyway it makes sense to upgrade regularly and go for using the latest features. I understand that it doesn't make sense always. However an upgrade is even harder if you wait too long.
Thanks,
Jutta
Well IHMO when you deliver a new functionality it should be consistent and coherent with the rest of the application. In this case it is not. If the business partner merge is not supported, what about the extraction to BW? Or the archiving? Modification history? Etc. I mean, at least customers shouldn't have to find out by themselves. If the limitation is not mentioned anywhere it should be considered a bug.
Just my opinion. Otherwise people won't trust your moto "best run businesses" anymore.
Cheers
Nick.
Understood.
Thanks,
Jutta
Hello, Jutta.
Just on the last weekend I found this blog post and your discussion with Nick. And here we go. Today (on Monday) one of our current customer faced the same issue with merging marketing permissions. They are on Ehp2. Using marketing permissions a lot. And merging a lot.
So I have quite a simple question:
- should we state that marketing permissions are not fully supported on Ehp2 (but they have been introduced even in Ehp1)?
- should we open an OSS message asking to downport this function? (I saw 'not for free') What a chance to success here?
Hello Andrei,
It is quite difficult to state in a general what is necessary to make a functionality complete.
I understand your and Nick's concerns; and be sure I take your feedback seriously. Still this is the situation we are in with marketing permissions.
You can of course open an OSS message asking to downport this function. The chance to get the downport then is probably not too high.
I want to be honest with you.
Regards,
Jutta