Salesforce Integration Patterns and Best Practices

Connecting existing CRM with external systems and applications for maintaining seamless data flow and efficiency is Salesforce integration. Starting from workflow automation for enabling better collaboration across platforms to managing your bulk salesforce databases, integration unlocks the full potential of Salesforce. In this blog, we’ll explore integration patterns, methods, and popular use cases to help you streamline your business processes.

What is Salesforce Integration?

Salesforce integration is a customer relationship management (CRM) software that connects businesses and their customers. It is a single, integrated CRM platform that gives a clear picture of every customer, including marketing, sales, commerce, and service departments. Salesforce developers can use a variety of tools to connect Salesforce with third-party apps.

Types of Salesforce Integration

At the process and data levels, many business areas connect their CRM to other systems. These can be divided into three basic forms of integration in Salesforce, which are mentioned below:

Data Integration: Data integration is used when data needs to be synced from two or more systems. As a result, real-time data will be shared by all incorporated extensions. Data integration makes use of SOAP and REST Salesforce API integration.

Integration of Business Logic: The integration of business logic enables the creation of robust all-around business solutions that combine a variety of back-end systems and apps. Apex Web Services for inbound and Apex Callouts for outbound are used in this connection.

Integration of User Interface (UI): Integration of UI is a good option if a centralized user experience has to be provided for all users. It is the best way to surface different applications in Salesforce. It gives the customers a single goal of segmenting into different applications. An example of this is Facebook apps that appear to be a Facebook occurrence but, in reality, the content is delivered by a variety of other applications.

Salesforce Integration Patterns

Salesforce typically requires integration with other apps when it is implemented. Even though each integration scenario is unique, developers must address some common requirements and challenges. Rather than describing a specific implementation, each pattern describes the design and approach for a certain case.

The various integration patterns are explained below:

Remote Process Invocation—Request and Reply: In this pattern, Salesforce starts a process on a remote system and waits until the process is finished. Once the process is done, it tracks the status based on the reply it gets from the remote system.

Remote Process Invocation—Fire and Forget: In this pattern, Salesforce initiates a process in a remote system but unlike the request-and-reply pattern, it does not wait for the process to finish. Instead, the remote process gets a request from Salesforce and when the request is accepted, Salesforce gets back its control.

Batch Data Synchronization: When modifications from the Salesforce Lightning platform are transferred to an external system, data saved on the platform is created or refreshed to reflect updates from the external system. Updates are made in batches in both directions.

Remote Call-in: In a remote call-in pattern, a remote system creates, retrieves, updates, or deletes the data stored on the Salesforce Lightning platform.

UI Update Based on Data Changes: As a result of changes to Salesforce data, the Salesforce UI must be automatically updated.

Data Virtualization: Salesforce has real-time access to external data. This eliminates the requirement to save data in Salesforce and then reconcile it with data from another system.

This is all about the integration patterns in Salesforce. In the upcoming section, we will discuss how to integrate apps with Salesforce; we will take a look at some apps that are integrated with Salesforce. We will also go through an example for a better understanding of the process.

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Salesforce Integration Processes

There are two major approaches to the Salesforce integration process:

App-based Salesforce Integration
Code-based Salesforce Integration

Let us discuss both in detail.

App-based Salesforce Integration

App-based Salesforce integration is performed by using dedicated applications. These applications allow the integration of data between two applications and build a unified platform very easily with a few simple clicks.

To achieve the above, a robust and smooth integration platform, which can allow the seamless transfer of data between two applications, is required. Some popular examples of such third-party apps include Zapier and Jitterbit.

Code-based Salesforce Integration

Salesforce integration is also performed by using a programming language. One of the most common examples of code-based Salesforce integration is the use of Apex. This proprietary programming language has a syntax that is similar to Java.

Some of the key benefits of code-based Salesforce integration using Apex include:

Simple-to-use and easy-to-understand language
Built-in support for Salesforce Lightning
Suitable for different API versions
Apex can be hosted on and entirely controlled by the Lightning platform

How to Integrate Apps with Salesforce?

Salesforce is used by a majority of organizations around the world on a daily basis to manage data, nurture leads, and offer great customer care for the end goal of increasing revenue production. Furthermore, most organization-level apps require integration with third-party applications to streamline the CRM process with business applications. Salesforce-to-Salesforce integration is used to effortlessly share data with Salesforce records.

Salesforce integration refers to the process of connecting salesforce.com with external frameworks. Various app integrations are available, a few of which are explained below:

Salesforce Gmail Integration

Integration of Salesforce with Gmail allows us to automatically log emails. It also allows the recording of chats sent from an email account as activities on leads, contacts, opportunities, and other records with activity history.

Salesforce Outlook Integration

It is one of the various solutions that allow sales employees to work from their email clients while keeping Salesforce data. Salesforce data is available immediately in Outlook; there is also the option to log emails and events to Salesforce records.

Jira Salesforce Integration

Jira is a leading project management and issue-tracking platform. It can help create cases for troubleshooting and monitoring the progress of a project. It also makes it easy to keep track of the progress of a project at any step.

CTI Salesforce

Computer telephony integration or CTI is a technology that integrates an organization’s telephone system with the organization’s business applications. This provides the business applications with more control over the calls. CTI can be used to make phone calls directly through softphones by using the Salesforce call center.

Salesforce MailChimp Integration

We may start developing email campaigns from leads and contacts in the Salesforce CRM by using the MailChimp integration. This free integration syncs all Mailchimp subscribers with Salesforce, and connects them to existing contacts and leads in the CRM. It creates a shared view across platforms and is also able to create new leads in Salesforce for email addresses that do not match the existing leads.

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Salesforce QuickBooks Integration

Integrating QuickBooks with Salesforce gives complete access to an organization’s operations such as customer information, sales orders, expenses, etc. Connecting with QuickBooks saves data-entry duplication, boosts efficiency, and provides more insights for improved decision-making.

LinkedIn Integration with Salesforce

LinkedIn integration can be used to target buyers and organizations that are interested in certain products and services. This helps to provide information according to the buyers’ interests. Sales activities can also be tracked using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The information in the buyers’ social profiles can be used to determine their worth. The following is an example of how to integrate Salesforce with LinkedIn:

For Salesforce–LinkedIn integration, you must have a professional, enterprise, unlimited, developer, or performance edition of Salesforce.

The Salesforce–LinkedIn integration is a simple and easy operation to complete. The steps to integrate LinkedIn with Salesforce are as follows:

First, go to your Salesforce account and sign in.
Go to AppExchange, then choose Apps, and click on Search.
In the search box, type LinkedIn and press Enter to begin the downloading process of the LinkedIn package.
After the file has been downloaded, begin the installation process. Choose the customization choice and security settings that best suit your needs.
Confirm that the installation is complete.
Take a look at LinkedIn’s Company Insider section. This may be found in salesforce.com’s Account area, where you may explore all of your account-related details.

There are various options available for integrating LinkedIn with Salesforce, which are as follows:

LinkedIn integration with AppExchange
Native integrations or APIs
Third-party integrations

Salesforce SAP Integration

The integration of SAP with Salesforce is used to synchronize data between the two platforms. When data for a new client is loaded into Salesforce, it is critical that this data is made available promptly for financials, performance management, and other SAP-managed business operations.

How to Integrate External Systems with Salesforce?

There is no in-built option for connecting the Salesforce solution to an external database. However, that can be resolved by applying the following two effective solutions:

Data Loader Integration with Salesforce

Data loader is a pre-built system that is used to extract data from database objects or insert data into Salesforce objects to transform them into the desired goal. It is also utilized for the purpose of mass deletion by using ID fields of information.

Database Integration Service

Database integration service is a web service that makes the linking of Salesforce to external systems much easier. It works on the principle of Apex callouts to stimulate backend data and perfectly makes data-retrieving calls with Apex. It is performed using two ways:

By using the WSDL facility, the data can be imported directly.
By using HTTP RESTful apex classes, service call messages can be created.

Why Salesforce Integration?

Salesforce is used by numerous organizations around the world to help them become more effective, particularly in the areas of CRM, workforce mobility, and general operations agility.

However, all of the massive fields of data generated by Salesforce can’t just sit there; all data must be redistributed and reallocated among numerous business channels and enterprise systems. This is when the integration solutions of Salesforce, which are fully automated, come in handy.

All of the numerous application modules that an organization uses, such as inventory, accounting, shipping, and so on, include massive volumes of data. If the departments use a non-Salesforce program, then a collaboration will be needed to be built between these apartments and other employees as quickly and efficiently as feasible.

Salesforce allows the integration and continuous syncing of the entire corporate infrastructure, resulting in improved communication between departments and the overall workflow.

Here are some benefits of Salesforce integration:

All-in-one access is available in Salesforce. Employees will not be required to switch systems in order to obtain what they require. They can complete all of their tasks while logged into a single system.
Productivity can be increased with Salesforce integration. To guarantee that data appears in all systems, teams undertake a lot of cutting and pasting. To ensure that they have the same information, integrated systems contain automated checks and balances. Employees will be able to get more done as they will spend less time duplicating data.
With integration in Salesforce, access to data has become simple. More data is available, and it can also be translated into useful information. Data retrieving is easier as well.
Salesforce integration improves communication. One department may prefer to use Salesforce, while another prefers to use a different system. Integrating the two systems allows both teams to operate in the system of their choosing, resulting in better information exchange and streamlined communication.
Workflows are automated without the need for code. Because integrated systems get along, their workflows can be automated with a few clicks.
More in-depth reporting is possible with the integration of Salesforce. Employees will receive more complete and relevant reports, which will aid them in making better decisions and taking the best possible actions.

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