We live in a digital world where systems solve problems at various scales. Systems need to communicate to share essential information across platforms. However, we know that different systems are developed using various languages and architectures, which often leads to incompatibilities. This raises the question: how can different systems communicate with one another? And what are the best practices to consider?
In this article, we’ll address these questions and other aspects related to system integration. We’ll focus primarily on Salesforce, a widely used platform in the business world. However, if you work with a different type of system and want to learn more about integrations, keep reading—you’ll find valuable tips that can be applied across various systems and contexts.
Understanding Salesforce Integrations
In essence, Salesforce integrations involve connecting Salesforce with other applications, databases, and systems within an organization. One of the primary reasons for these integrations is to facilitate the flow of data between Salesforce and other systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Most companies have multiple systems serving distinct purposes. For example, a company might have a specific system for invoicing, another for Human Resources, one for Accounting, and so on. To centralize all these data into a CRM like Salesforce, integration is required to consolidate the information needed from various systems.
Given this scenario, there are several common approaches to integration:
- API-Based Integration: This approach uses well-known APIs in integration processes, such as REST API, SOAP API, or Bulk API. The choice of API depends on the system we are connecting to, security requirements, and data volume.
- Middleware-Based Integration: Several integration platforms, widely used at the enterprise level, facilitate complex integrations and provide a robust architecture that ensures the scalability of systems and processes. Some of these platforms include MuleSoft, Boomi, and Zapier, which act as intermediaries in integrating Salesforce with other systems.
So far, we have looked at the importance of integrations and some of the approaches used in this process. Next, we’ll examine the key points to consider before starting an integration process.
Key Points to Consider Before Starting the Integration Process
Before starting the integration, it’s essential to plan and evaluate the factors that will impact its success. This planning phase is delicate, as any mistake can jeopardize future developments. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to every detail.
We know that it can be challenging to consider every point that will impact the integration process: requirements change, businesses evolve, and all this can significantly affect long-term integrations. It is thus essential to establish a scalable plan that allows for the addition of new functionalities over time.
Some key points to consider during the planning phase:
- Defining Objectives and Scope
Clearly defining the objectives of the integration is crucial. Questions to consider: Do we want to optimize processes? Improve data consistency or present real-time information? In terms of scope: Which system will be integrated with Salesforce? What will the data flow look like? Which processes do we want to automate? - Understanding Data Sources and Requirements
Understanding where the data feeding into Salesforce is coming from is fundamental to planning the integration. Data may come from an external database, a third-party application, or a legacy system. Another important point is to understand the structure and types of data that the other system will provide. These could include Customer, Transaction, or Product details. Understanding these characteristics greatly aids in accurate data mapping.
Related to data mapping, it may be necessary to create custom objects or leverage the standard ones that Salesforce provides for correct mapping. Again: IT IS CRUCIAL TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE DATA INVOLVED AND BUSINESS RULES TO ENSURE ACCURATE MAPPING. Any errors in mapping can seriously compromise the integration. - Compliance and Security Needs
Integration involves handling data, which is often sensitive. Therefore, it’s essential to consider data privacy, especially when dealing with customer, financial, or health information. We certainly wouldn’t want our sensitive information to be accessible to unauthorized individuals. Thus, data security must be a constant priority. To ensure data security, encrypt sensitive data both at rest and in transit to keep it unreadable without proper keys. Use strong access controls, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), to restrict access to authorized users only. Regularly audit and monitor system access to detect unauthorized attempts or vulnerabilities. Finally, adhere to relevant data protection laws, such as GDPR, to ensure privacy and comply with regulatory requirements. - Planning for Error Handling and Monitoring
We will delve into this topic further on, but from the planning phase onward, it’s important to anticipate that errors may occur. Therefore, establishing a solid error-handling and monitoring strategy is essential to promptly identify and correct issues during integration. - Establishing a Testing and Validation Strategy
Testing is often overlooked, but it is essential for ensuring integration quality and data accuracy. End-to-end testing and validating data accuracy at each stage of integration is crucial to maintain consistency and avoid data duplication.
Now that we better understand what should be done before starting the integration process, we will examine what is necessary during the integration process itself. This section is closely related to the previous one, but we’ll focus more on practical and technical aspects to apply during development.
Best Practices for Integrating with Salesforce
- Building a Structured Data Integration Workflow
Data mapping is a vital part of integration. Without accurate mapping, data won’t be precise, potentially leading to a loss of customer confidence in the CRM. To avoid this, it’s helpful to create a data dictionary that defines each field and its Salesforce equivalent, preventing confusion during mapping.
Kompetenza has an internal tool dedicated to facilitating the integration process, one of its features being data mapping. Through an intuitive interface, you can map fields returned by the external system to existing fields in Salesforce, simplifying the integration process. If you’d like to know more about this solution, feel free to contact us. - Using APIs Efficiently
Choosing the right API for integration is important. Based on experience, this often depends on the external system we are connecting to. If it’s an older system, SOAP API may be best; with modern systems, REST API might be more suitable. However, the choice ultimately depends on the integration requirements and the external system’s characteristics.
It’s essential to monitor platform limits and control the frequency of API calls during integration. If you need to make numerous API calls or process large volumes of data, it’s advisable to use batches to avoid overloading the platform. - Focusing on Secure Data Transfer and Compliance
Security! Ensuring data is transferred securely is crucial, and it’s advisable to use OAuth 2.0 for access management via tokens. This is a secure and widely adopted approach in companies to manage access to an application’s resources.
To maintain security, it may be necessary to encrypt and mask data, ensuring that only authorized individuals have access. Certainly, you wouldn’t want your credit card number, passwords, or other sensitive information accessed by unauthorized or, even worse, malicious individuals. Therefore, data security is a priority, especially considering data protection laws.
There are serious security mistakes that any professional should avoid, such as storing passwords in plain text, allowing passwords to be freely passed in JavaScript, or sending passwords via email in unencrypted text. In fact, all of us, regardless of our experience level, have a lot to learn about information security, which is why continuous learning is essential, and caution is always required.
On the subject of security, having a solid data-sharing model on the Salesforce platform is essential to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to certain records. - Implementing Comprehensive Error Handling and Logging
Errors are inevitable, but they can be minimized with the right approach. It’s important to log any errors that might occur during integration, recording relevant information to identify the error types, when they occurred, their causes, and any records affected. This information is vital for debugging.
A useful approach for error handling is implementing a retry logic for errors that might resolve with another attempt (such as connectivity issues). This approach reduces the need for manual intervention in problem resolution. - Maintaining a Robust Testing Strategy
It’s crucial to test various scenarios and ideally conduct tests with large data volumes to assess integration behavior. Testing with 10 or 20 records is different from testing with over 10,000 records; scalability is essential, and mass data is necessary to test it effectively.
It’s also important that the end-user has the opportunity to test the integrations, as they will use the system daily. This way, the final users can verify that the integration meets the established requirements.
Conclusion
In summary, integrating systems like Salesforce with other platforms requires careful planning and structured execution to ensure accurate and secure data flow. From choosing the right APIs to implementing security practices and error monitoring, each step is essential in building a reliable and scalable integration. Through rigorous testing and end-user validation, we ensure that the integration meets organizational needs and supports business growth. In the end, attention to detail is fundamental to a successful integration that guarantees data reliability.
