How HarveyDavid Solved a Complex Marketing Automation Challenge with a Custom Cloud App

Recently, we worked with a client to develop a cloud-based application that solved their marketing automation challenges by connecting two major enterprise systems, streamlining campaign data and providing sales teams with crucial insights. Here’s the full story.

The Challenge: A Data Disconnect Between Eloqua and a Legacy on-prem CRM

The client’s marketing automation platform, Oracle Eloqua, did not natively expose campaign member data. Eloqua is very good at tracking and reporting on user activity, but isn’t as effective when tracking campaign membership. Understanding campaign membership is vital for the marketing team so they can measure all the contacts that are part of a campaign, even if they are excluded due to a filter restriction or status. This was further compounded by the client’s on-prem legacy Siebel CRM system, which required middleware to connect the APIs. As a result, they were left without visibility into the full scope of their marketing efforts.

The Solution: A Custom Cloud App to Sync Campaign Membership and Response Data

We designed and built a cloud application that enabled the seamless transfer of campaign membership and response data from Eloqua into their legacy, an on-prem version of Siebel CRM. This custom-built solution enables the customers’ marketing and sales teams to make informed decisions based on complete campaign analytics.

Our development approach followed a structured process:

1. Defining the Tech Stack – We worked with the client to select the preferred programming languages and cloud infrastructure.
2. Proof of Concept (PoC): The first goal was simple: prove that the two systems could communicate.
3. Security & Authentication – We aligned with Oracle’s security guidelines, ensuring safe data transfer and access.
4. Data Integration – The app was designed to collect campaign membership data in Eloqua’s Custom Data Object (CDO) and make it available in Siebel.
5. Tracking Membership and Responses—The next phase involved building functionality to capture campaign responses, such as email clicks, landing page visits, and form submissions.
6. Collaboration with IT – We worked with the client’s IT team to determine safe server infrastructure and hosting, choosing a private GitHub as the code repository.
7. Testing & Deployment – Extensive testing ensured data accuracy and system stability before rolling the solution into production.

The Outcome: A Game-Changer for Sales & Marketing

The client could not see a way to achieve a solution until we demonstrated the cloud app’s transformative impact. The tool extended Siebel functionalities, helping sales teams understand how many leads engaged with a campaign and track their progression to MQL status.

The project kicked off in September 2024 and was delivered to the client for testing in January 2025. 

Overcoming Development Challenges

While the project was a success, it wasn’t without hurdles. The client’s CRM was an older and heavily modified on-prem version of Siebel, so there was no effective technical documentation available. This required us to adopt a trial-and-error approach to getting specific functionalities working, making it a learning experience and an innovation challenge.

Security was an additional key consideration. Since we were passing data between multiple API endpoints, we needed to use OAuth 2.0 standards. Whilst this was easy in Eloqua, the on-prem version of the client’s Siebel CRM was more challenging. We needed to align with IT on these security issues. For this reason, we conducted many investigations with the client’s IT team and Oracle themselves.

The Role of AI in Accelerating Development

To speed up the process, we used AI tools, including ChatGPT, as an ‘always-on’ coding assistant. This allowed us to generate and refine code quickly, troubleshoot issues, and streamline development, enhancing productivity while maintaining complete oversight.

Conclusion: A Testament to the Power of Marketing Automation

At HarveyDavid, we specialise in making complex marketing operations simpler, smarter, and more efficient. This project is a perfect example of how custom automation can remove bottlenecks, provide better insights for sales, and support marketing success.

Want to learn how automation can transform your marketing? Let’s talk. 🚀