Salesforce Integration: How to Do It Efficiently
Customer Relationship Management platforms, also known as CRM platforms, refer to the technological solutions companies use so as to interact with their customers, as well as capture the key information during the interactions. There are quite a lot of different CRM solutions you can nowadays use to streamline your business and increase the efficiency and success of day-to-day operations, and to do much more that you can learn about here. Salesforce is one of those solutions you can adopt when aiming at finding a great CRM platform for yourself.
Have you been using Salesforce for a while? If yes, then you already understand how beneficial it can be for your business. Yet, you also realize that you could benefit from the platform more if you integrated some tools with it and thus improved its overall performance by tailoring the solution to your specific needs. By integrating this platform with other applications, you can tap into a huge number of resources, all of which will be aimed at improving your business operations.
While you may have already thought of those integrations, the truth is that you may not know how to do them right. Put simply, since you’ve probably never had the need to integrate different applications with Salesforce, you don’t really understand what to do and which steps to take towards achieving that. Completely normal not to be aware of everything right from the start.
Yet, you’ll have to learn. Put differently, you shouldn’t just randomly launch an integration process if you have no idea how it should go and what you should do to make it successful. Since all of this may sound complicated to you once you first start researching the actual integration procedures, you will need some tips on how to do this efficiently. And, that’s precisely what I’ll provide you with below, so read on to get a clearer understanding of what to do.
If still not clear on how you can benefit from CRM systems, this will help you understand things better: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15963-benefits-of-crm.html
- Choose the Tools You Want to Integrate
First and foremost, what you will have to do is choose the tools you want to integrate. The choices you’ll make here depend on the actual needs of your business. Connecting this cloud-based CRM platform with both internal and external software solutions, services, data sources and business applications is aimed at enhancing productivity and basically improving customer relations management.
Naturally, not all the tools you’ll come across while doing the research will be right for you. All businesses have different needs, so you can’t rely solely on what someone else recommends. Identifying the weak points of your business, for example, and pinpointing the areas you want to improve will further help you decide precisely which tools you want to integrate with Salesforce. Once you’ve made that decision, you’ll be able to move forward.
- Check the Salesforce Built-In Integration Tools
Moving forward, of course, consists first of checking the Salesforce built-in integration tools, such as the Salesforce Connect tool, the Apex REST API, as well as the Flow Builder. Each of those tools serves a different purpose and supports different types of applications you can connect to this platform. Checking which tool could work for you best will help complete the integration process more efficiently, since you won’t be using the wrong programs for the wrong purposes and you will, instead, know exactly what to do and, well, what to click so as to make the process simple and successful.
- Consider Data Volume and General Complexity to Choose an Integration Method
Furthermore, you’ll also have to choose an integration method to use when connecting Salesforce to other systems, and there are various ones to choose from here. All of the methods are categorized into batch and real-time integration, and the most common ones are SOAP or REST API, Bulk API and ETL tools. When trying to select the perfect method for you, remember to consider the data volume and the general complexity of the process, as well as latency requirements, so that you can make the smartest choice.
- Use an Integration Platform
The great thing is that you can also easily complete your salesforce integration with the help of certain platforms that are designed to assist in the process. I’m talking of data integration and automation platforms that can certainly be of huge help. With the right system, you will be able to transform your business processes easily and efficiently.
The only thing, of course, is that you’ll have to make sure you’re choosing the right platform for these purposes as well, and that could take some time. Checking the features and functionalities of the platforms you’re thinking of using will help. And, of course, so will research the providers in details, checking their legitimacy and their reputation, among other things.
