Have you ever gotten the feeling that your company tools were speaking different languages? Your amazing marketing platform doesn’t seem to be sharing information with your awesome sales platform? That’s the moment when Salesforce integration swoops in like a superhero!
Think of Salesforce as your main hub—your command center. When you integrate Salesforce, your main hub, with the other important applications for your business—including your marketing automation software, customer support system, accounting software, and/or e-commerce platform—you are creating connectivity between the important business components. This integration creates the magic that allows everything to “talk” to each other, and if you have it all connected, you will get a true 360-degree view of your customer, be able to eliminate inefficiencies, and ultimately, see a significantly better return on your investment (maximize ROI)!
But just like any superpower, we need to have the best Salesforce integration practices. So what are the best practices that will ensure you an integration success story? Let’s share friendly advice:
1. Divide and Plan Like a Professional:
Before you get to the fun part of connecting systems, you need to first brainstorm. What are your goals? What data needs to flow where? Who needs access to what? Developing an integration plan is your roadmap. Determine your main business processes and sticky point gaps where integration would make the most impact.
2. Choose a Methodology That’s Right for You:
There are numerous methods to integrate systems. You could choose native connectors (provided that Salesforce and the other app have a direct link between them), or a middleware platform (an intermediary that translates tasks from one application to the other), or custom integrations (taking very specific requests of you). Considerations include data volume transpiring, complexity of data, and budget. Your decision on the integration platforms will determine the ease of the event.
3. Data is the Boss (and Make Sure It is Clean!):
Garbage in, garbage out? Provide you make sure the systems you want to integrate have this data accurate, exactly the same, and up to date. You should take steps to data cleanse and data normalize and prevent errors in your data and paint reliable insight. Consistent data flow has led to higher data quality, which helps inform future decisions.
4. Always prioritize security:
The safety of customer data is the number one priority. Make sure that the integrations you work on are designed to the highest security standards. Understand how data flows and put in appropriate data security at all touchpoints; compliance and customer trust are key.
5. Test, test, and test some more:
Test your integrations in a sandbox before you go live! Simulate real-world experiences to find any problems and identify bottlenecks. Most of all, testing the integrations thoroughly will let you make the transition and hopefully eliminate any disruptions.
6. Monitor and maintain:
Integrating systems is not a one-and-done deal. You will want to monitor your integrations continually to watch for performance and error monitoring. You want to put alerts in place and have a maintenance and road mapping plan in place. Ongoing integration monitoring is an important part of your system maintenance to grow your business into the future.
When you tie these practices together, you will have gone from a potential integration headache to a powerful growth engine and a much higher return on investment (ROI). All of this is simply tying the dots together wisely so that your business makes smarter work for you, not harder work.
Looking for assistance with Salesforce integrations?
Tech9logy Creators is a Registered Salesforce Consulting and ISV Partner Company with over 10 years of experience. We have a certified team of developers with extensive knowledge about different Salesforce clouds and provide you with the best-in-class integration solutions. Our dedicated Salesforce experts help you bring the best out of your CRM and ensure your business operates at its highest potential.
Contact us for more information.
