Salesforce has helped organizations in handling their customer databases for over two decades. This means the technology has been in the domain for a considerable time.

This technology is prominent because it enables users with the right mix of personalization and automation to tailor the services to the client’s requirements. Even if your business demands to extend the functionalities of CRM and merge it with other platforms, Salesforce integration comes into the picture.

As a company offering Salesforce Development Services in USA, we want to highlight all about Salesforce Integration. Whether you’re new to the business world or already are an established business, the article will benefit both. Let’s first start by understanding what Salesforce Integration is.

What is Salesforce Integration? 

Salesforce’s primary purpose is to offer users a unified experience. Salesforce integration is merging the data and functionality of Salesforce with another application. Doing so enables any team with a mix of features from both platforms. Salesforce users face the issue of reconciling data between two platforms and switching them when performing certain activities. Salesforce Integration relieves you from this issue by offering a centralized platform to work on.

Why do Businesses Prefer Salesforces?

This technology is still used by numerous companies across the globe as it helps them be more effective particularly in the areas of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and remote workforce. While customers and employees are two of the strongest pillars of a successful business, companies flock toward Salesforce.

Now that we know what Salesforce Integration is, let’s look at two major approaches to carry out the process of Salesforce integration.

Code-based Salesforce Integration 

One can carry out Salesforce integration even with the help of a programming language instead of using dedicated applications. Apex is among the most prominent programming languages used for code-based salesforce integration. Since the syntax of this language is similar to Java, you will get many developers to code for you.

A few benefits of carrying out code-based Salesforce integration with Apex language are:

• If offers built-in support for Salesforce lightning platform
• It is apt for different API versions
• It is easy to understand and simple to use

If you want to know more about this approach, take Salesforce Integration consulting from a well-known company offering development services like ours. Let us look at another Salesforce Integration approach: App-based.

App-based Salesforce Integration 

As per the name, app-based Salesforce integration is carried out with dedicated applications. These apps enable users to integrate data between two applications and build a unified platform with a few clicks. If you need to integrate your Salesforce CEM with other applications, you will need a robust integration platform that lets seamless transfer of data between two applications. There are some more prominent third-party apps that enable effective Salesforce integration like Jitterbit and Zapier and many others.

While these two are the most used approaches to integrate Salesforce in your system, there are several others. We will have a look at these approaches. Salesforce integration can be done for varying layers within your CRM platforms like user interface, data, and business logic.

User Interface Integration 

Through this integration, users are permitted to enter different applications via a single unified platform. The approach used here is similar to that of Facebook wherein different application vendors are allowed to post content on a single platform. This is one of the most crucial integration types since users in companies need to traverse through different applications from a single platform.

Business Logic Integration 

Business logic integration involves using Apex Web Services for handling inbound and outbound business logic across different applications. The aim here is to accomplish end-to-end business processes. When an application has a business logic integrated, it lets users work efficiently with large amounts of data.

Data Integration

Through data integration, you can use SOAP or REST APIs(types of APIs) to allow a centralized application in your organization. It acts as a key source of a specific business object. This type of integration does not require any coding and it can’t be used to implement any type of custom logic. Data integration, unlike business logic, is fixed. 

Salesforce Integration Checklist 

Salesforce has an integration checklist for all companies/businesses wanting to integrate its services. Before moving ahead with Salesforce integration, ensure you adhere to this checklist for a seamless integration process. You can consult a Salesforce expert if you need to be certain of adhering to this checklist.

Extensive Implementation Planning 

The most significant part of Salesforce Integration is to develop an extensive implementation plan. Just how any other project requires you to create a project timeline to clearly define the objectives of the project, so does Salesforce integration.

Ensure you list down all the technical requirements required for Salesforce integration and the objectives you want to achieve. Also ensure you’re thoroughly aware of the Salesforce integration guidelines and practices while preparing the plan. If you can afford, it’s best to take professional help with Salesforce integration.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, the blog helped you know all about Salesforce Integration and how to do it. If you’re looking for Salesforce Integration services in USA, feel free to contact us. We offer consulting, development and post-development services for your mobile app or website. All we need are your business and budget requirements!

Salesforce Chatter–a cloud-based collaborative tool enables an opportunity for salesforce.com to reach every employee of an organization. Salesforce is the world’s leading cloud-based software provider delivering services to over 15000 businesses globally.
If you’ve ever wondered about Salesforce Chatter, its purpose, or why you should consider using the tool, this blog will satiate your curiosity.
Before we get to the nitty gritty of this tool, it is worth noting that it is World’s first Cloud 2 enterprise social collaboration application unlocking huge potential. Moreover, its unique features make it better than the existing collaborative tools. Let us understand what Salesforce Chatter is.

What is Salesforce Chatter?

Salesforce Chatter is a collaboration application that enables employees to share information, talk to each other and work together. The tool lets you follow people and groups within the organization’s internal network. The working of this feature is similar to the working of Facebook. So, it is a miniature social-networking platform explicitly designed for businesses using Salesforce.

Now that we know what Salesforce Chatter is, below is a breakdown of its features and benefits that make it a one-of-its-kind tool. Let us dive right in.

What are the Key Features of Salesforce Chatter?

As a company offering Salesforce Application development Services, we want to highlight some key features of Salesforce Chatter.

Upload files and manage version control

How many times did you have to rework because of having the wrong version of a document? While these may seem like small bugs, they could have more significant client-facing issues. Chatter offers version control that helps you stop running into such matters. You can keep files like PDFs or word documents up to date with Chatter Files.

Create tasks and polls

Creating actions is an excellent feature for any chat application. It lets users write types of Chatter posts and create & edit records from the Chatter feed. Another helpful part is creating Poll posts. You can use this feature for effective decision-making, such as who to staff on which project, when to start a meeting, etc.

Automate an Out of Office message

You won’t have to wait for answers from employees who aren’t working. With Chatter’s ‘Out of Office’ status, users can write a post and specify their start/end dates for the time they’ve gone.

Reject or Approve records

The tool lets users reject or approve changes to records in several situations, including managing work hours, approving them, and checking updates on other information. To reject or approve records, users should search for the record and find where to reject or approve.

More than a tool for effective communication, it is a comprehensive tool that helps your team collaborate effectively. It allows users to communicate securely at work to share files, establish connections and share status updates.

What are the Benefits of Salesforce Chatter?

After knowing the key features of Salesforce chatter, let’s dig a little deeper into understanding its benefits. While features let you know what the tool offers, benefits state how businesses can use these features to solve their business challenges.

Cleanse emails

You can efficiently declutter emails with chatter tools like group forums, file sharing, and online chats. The tool also allows you to update your projects and share them with other members, after which you can track the updates with the help of the comment section of your post.

Easily share files

Imagine spending time uploading large files and sending them across through emails. This way of sharing files has now taken a back seat when tools like Salesforce Chatter can do the task within a few minutes.

Bid farewell to meetings

Unnecessary meetings take up a lot of time and adversely affect the business’s overall productivity. With Salesforce Chatter, groups can virtually discuss all their ideas and even cancel meetings when not required. The group forum feature lets you share valuable information with other team members, which is a sure-shot way to have more meaningful and constructive discussions.

Promotes organizational unity

The tool is especially suitable for organizations where employees are constantly leaving and coming or where employees are spread across varying regions and countries. Salesforce Chatter comes to the rescue as it helps maintain a healthy work environment with remote employees from across the globe.

Helps save time

The above-mentioned tasks save time along with real purpose. Less uploading and downloading time, proper communication, etc. help you save a lot of time. With the help of this, work efficiency also gets maintained. Features like Version control in Chatter are responsible for saving time for the employees and the organization.

Connected teams

As a company offering Salesforce CRM Integration Services, it comes under our umbrella of responsibilities to also help you integrate plug-ins or activate features like Salesforce chatter. This tool offers real-time updates and alerts for any changes in the projects going under discussion or among teammates. It also enables you to chat with your team members through audio/video calls or texts while viewing the same screen of Salesforce.

Overall, an efficient workplace

These overall benefits aid in an efficient workplace. Salesforce Chatter application helps to make the workplace more efficient for the entire organization. With the help of chatter features, your team can communicate effectively, which leaves your business time to indulge in meaningful activities rather than having long meetings.

Business Challenges of Salesforce Chatter

While we may think Salesforce Chatter is all perks, it’s far from true. There are many challenges with this feature as well. Let’s have a look at a few challenges.

It can be uncomfortable for new users

Chatter is a new thing for users. While some may be comfortable with social networking tools, others may have had no exposure. For those who won’t be comfortable using the tool, it can make them uncomfortable, and it may take considerable time to get accustomed to it. A well-thought communication plan will familiarize users with such social media tools. However, it could be time-consuming.

Communication overload

Yet another common concern for businesses using Salesforce Chatter is information overload. Employees may have a habit of checking their inboxes before ending their workday. Chatter posts as emails would overload their inbox with unread emails. It’s important to note that implementing Chatter can cause an overload in communication and can be overwhelming for some.

No control over what users’ chat about

Many executives get nervous thinking about the fact that they can’t control what people say on Chatter. While they can provide best practices stating what to use and what not to use on Chatter, but at the end, the users control conversations. This could pose a threat to businesses because if the employees use the tool for negative purposes, it could backfire and adversely affect the business’ overall productivity.

You need full Salesforce access

One of the primary challenges of Salesforce Chatter is that your business needs to implement Salesforce. You can’t use Salesforce Chatter without Salesforce since it’s not a standalone feature. This could be an issue for businesses with a tight budget, as implementing Salesforce might not be feasible for all businesses.

Inexperienced support team

Once the implementation is complete, you’ll need ongoing support to ensure that the platform works properly under different circumstances. However, a lack of proper support can severely impact your team’s productivity. So investing in a reliable support team is of utmost importance for a business to run smoothly.

As stated above, Salesforce Chatter has its perks and challenges. However, with a smooth and experienced Salesforce Integration company like ours, implementing this feature makes the process seamless.

In Conclusion

The blog talks about everything you should know about Salesforce Chatter. As a Salesforce Integration Company in USA, we at CloudFountain Inc. offers Application support, Amazon Web Services Consulting, Cloud Consulting, Big data consulting, Custom Application Development. If you intend to know more about our services or specifically about Salesforce chatter feature activation, we’re more than happy to help you solve your queries!

MicroStrategy is a platform which provides Business Intelligence service, interactive dashboards, scorecards, highly formatted reports, ad hoc query, thresholds and alerts, and automated report distribution.

Integrating Salesforce.com and other applications with MicroStrategy, will turbocharge your operational reporting with advanced analytics and excellent visualization in MicroStrategy.

In such an environment, MicroStrategy is able to mix data from Sales, product, operations with financial data and give insights which are not possible to derive from just one application. These reports can be displayed inside Salesforce.com using a Canvas application. This enables users to view MicroStrategy reports without navigating out of Salesforce.

Some of the problems encountered in MicroStrategy in such integrations are:

1. Database is in Use.

Solution: Set the CreateDB parameter to 2.

The following are valid values for the ‘Create Database/CreateDB’ setting:

• If set to 0 (No), the driver will check to see if a database exists and if does not find one the connection will fail.   The driver will not attempt to create the locally embedded database.
• If set to 1 (ForceNew), the driver will delete the existing database if it exists and will create a new database for each new connection.
• If set to 2 (NotExist), and the driver detects an existing database it will not attempt to create the database.  If the driver does not find an existing database it will create the database.

2. QueryEngine encountered error: Connect failed.

2017-10-01 20:21:41.534-05:00 [HOST:xyz123-1.abc123.com][PID:xxxx][THR:2837067520][Query Engine][Error][0x80042300] QueryEngine encountered error: Connect failed.

Error type: Odbc error. Odbc operation attempted: SQLDriverConnect. [HY000:-40: on SQLHANDLE] [MicroStrategy][ODBC Salesforce driver][Salesforce]General error: java.util.ServiceConfigurationError: javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider: Provider com.ddtek.sforce.externals.org.apache.cxf.jaxws22.spi.ProviderImpl could not be instantiated: java.lang.NoClassDefFo Connection String: DSN=SF;UID=abc@xyz.com;..

Solution: This is due to JDK environment setup issue and requires a manual restart.

3. “column not found” issue

Solution: “REFRESH SCHEMA SFORCE;” before the query of the cube, so this should run every time the cube is executed.

If you need any additional details on Salesforce.com and integration, please feel free to contact ketan.benegal@thecloudfountain.com.

Salesforce is introducing Lightning Data Service Beta version in Summer ’17 release. This will prove to be a very useful and exciting feature for the developers. Consider Lightning Data Service a response to Standard (Set) Controller for VisualForce pages. Lightning Data Service allows to load, create, edit, or delete a record in your component without requiring Apex code as well as handles sharing rules and field-level security for you. Additionally Lightning Data Service improves performance and user interface consistency.

Problem 1: Data Reuse across different component.

Let us consider a scenario where we have 3 components and each component is making an independent call to the server to perform the CRUD(Create, Read ,Update and Delete) operation on the same set of data.

In such scenario, you would have Apex code being called separately for each component creating overhead for the system.

Problem 2: Data Inconsistency

It is possible that the field is updated but because of some issue it is not reflected everywhere.

Lightning Data Services to the rescue!!(Well Almost!)

Salesforce brings Lightning Data Service to the rescue (I said almost because it is in Beta state, hence we will have to wait until it goes live and get the finalized version. But don’t let it dampen your spirits!). Consider Lightning Data Service to be the Standard (Set) Controller for your Lightning Components.

With the LDS a consolidate request is made and stored in a highly efficient cache, the caching is shared across components on the users’ browser, so server requests are not made on cache hits. LDS further optimizes the cache, by only storing the fields that have been requested

When a component updates the viewed record, all the other components using that record on the page are notified, and in most cases refreshed automatically. Additionally, it also supports the parent-child relationship between SObjects.

This retains UI consistency and eliminates the need for a programmatic refresh.

Benefits of LDS

• No Apex or SOQL.
• Performance boost from client cache.
• Data available offline.
• Data consistency across components.
• Automatic record refresh from server.
• Automatic notification when record changes.

Lightning Data Services consist of following:

• force:recordPreview tag
• getNewRecord() method
• saveRecord() method
• deleteRecord() method
• recordUpdated Event
• changeType event.

I am excited to try my hands on with LDS. Here I am creating a lightning component using LDS to edit the accounts record.

Step 1: Create ContactEdit.cmp component

<aura:component implements="flexipage:availableForAllPageTypes,flexipage:availableForRecordHome,force:hasRecordId,force:lightningQuickAction"
access="global">
<aura:attribute name="recordError" type="String"/>
<aura:attribute name="recordInfo" type="Object" />
<aura:attribute name="simpleRecord" type="Object"/>
<aura:attribute name="curView" type="String" />
<force:recordData aura:id="recordHandler"
recordId="{!v.recordId}"
layoutType="FULL"
targetRecord="{!v.recordInfo}"
targetFields="{!v.simpleRecord}"
mode="EDIT"
/>
<div>
<div>
<lightning:input type="text" label="Department" value="{!v.simpleRecord.Department}" />
</div>
<div>
<lightning:input type="text" label="Phone" value="{!v.simpleRecord.Phone}" />
</div>
<div>
<lightning:input type="text" label="Title" value="{!v.simpleRecord.Title}" />
</div>
 
 
<div>
<lightning:button variant="brand" label="Save"  onclick="{!c.saveRecordCntrlr}"/>
<lightning:button label="Cancel"  onclick="{!c.cancelSaveRecord}"/>
</div>
</div>
</aura:component>
 

Step 2: Create ContactEditController.js

Step 3: Go to Setup -> Object Manager -> Contacts -> Buttons Links and Action and create a quick action and select ContactEdit component and click save.

Now we can see the output below

Like always your feedback is invaluable. Please keep posting your questions or concerns. I will try to put more graphics for clarity.

Salesforce CRM Content Overview

Salesforce CRM content feature helps organize, share, search, and manage content within your organization and across key areas of Salesforce. Content includes all file types, from traditional business documents such as Microsoft® PowerPoint presentations to audio files, video files, Web pages, and Google® docs.

Key Features

• Organizing – Salesforce CRM Content stores files in fully searchable file repositories known as libraries with different permissions, access level, filters and private libraries features.
• Searching – The powerful Salesforce CRM Content search engine scans the entire body of the document as well as content properties such as the title, description, tags, categorization data, and author name. 
• Subscribing – Content subscription ensures that you receive an email notification when new versions are published or changes are made to the file’s properties. 
• Previewing – If the content is a Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Excel, or Adobe® PDF file, you can preview the entire file in your browser without downloading it. Some aspects of files may not be displayed in previews. Copy-protected PDFs can’t be previewed.
• Contributing – Uploading new or revised files in Salesforce CRM Content is fast and easy. During the upload process you choose a library and record type for your file or Web link, write a description, assign one or more tags, and fill out any customized fields that help categorize and define your content.  
• Sharing Content in Salesforce – Salesforce CRM Content is also integrated with leads, accounts, contacts, opportunities, cases, products, and custom objects.
• Sharing Content in Salesforce Mobile Classic – Users can share content with customers and colleagues from the mobile application when they’re away from their desks.

Setting up Salesforce CRM Content

Implementing Salesforce CRM Content for your organization includes:

• creating licensed users
• defining organization-level settings such as content fields, record types, and page layouts
• customizing the libraries where contributors will add and view content
• if applicable, enabling Salesforce CRM Content in your customer or partner portals.

Creating Salesforce CRM Content Users

To create a Salesforce CRM Content user:

1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click Edit next to the user’s name, and then select the Salesforce CRM Content User checkbox.
3. Optionally, select the Receive Salesforce CRM Content Emails as Alerts checkbox or the Receive Salesforce CRM Content Alerts as Daily Digest checkbox.
4. Verify that the Salesforce CRM Content user has the appropriate Salesforce CRM Content user permissions enabled.
5. When you are finished editing the user record, click Save.

Enabling Multilanguage Support

To allow users to publish, edit, and search in any of the Salesforce-supported languages, from Setup, enter Salesforce CRM Content in the Quick Find box, select Salesforce CRM Content, and then click Enable multilanguage search and contribute.

Enabling Content Packs

What are content packs?
A content pack is a collection of related documents or files that are stored as a group in Salesforce CRM Content. For example, you may want to create a content pack with a product list, price quote, and contract to send to a particular customer.

Enabling Content Deliveries

What is Content Delivery?
Content Delivery:

• Converts documents  like Word and Powerpoint presentation into an online format
• Makes viewing as easy as clicking link
• You can send it to recipients inside or outside your org
•  You can track how frequently content was viewed
• Provide password protection to the content

Enabling Google Docs

If Add Google Docs to Salesforce service is enabled in your org, you can add Google documents/spreadsheets/presentations to content libraries on Library tab.

Content Permissions

To use content, you must enable Content in your org (Setup –> Customize –> Salesforce Files –> Settings –> Salesforce CRM Content):

Associating Content with Standard and Custom Objects

You can attach a content to Standard as well Custom objects by adding the Related Content related list on the page layouts.

1. To search for content using the Related Content related list you have two options:
   1. Search All: Searches content in all the libraries accessible to the user
   2. Find Content: Searches content relevant to the record
2. On the search results page, filter your results as needed by entering search terms or selecting filter criteria from the sidebar.
3. Click Attach for any file that you want to attach to the record.
4. Click the Back link to return to the detail page.

Configuring Libraries

Step 1: Create a New Library

1. Click New in the My Libraries section of the Libraries tab home page.
2. Enter a unique library name.
3. If you want, add a Description.
4. Click Save and Add Members or, if you want to add members later, click the Save and Close button.

Step 2: Add Library Members

1. On the Libraries tab, click the library name if the library isn’t already open.
2. In the Members section, click Add Members.
3. If the member you want to add isn’t listed, start to enter their first name in the search box and click Find.
4. Select members from the Available Members box. Members can include individual Salesforce CRM Content users or public groups containing Salesforce CRM Content users.

Tip: If you have many Salesforce CRM Content users, create a public group and add it to a library rather than adding users to the library individually.

5. Click Add to add the members to the library.
6. Click Next.

Step 3: Assigning Library Permissions to Members
Select a library permission for each user or public group and click Save.
Restricting Record Types in a Library
To restrict the record types allowed in a library:

1. On the Libraries tab, select a library from the My Libraries area.
2. Click Record Types.
3. Optionally, change the default record type for the library.
4. Select the Restrict the record types available in the library checkbox.
5. For each record type that you want to allow in the library, move it from the Available Record Types list to the Selected Record Types list.
6. Click Save.

Library Permissions

Each library member has specified permissions that determine what actions they can perform within the library:
You can add new permissions as well as modify the existing ones. To edit a Salesforce CRM Content library permission, from Setup, enter Content Permissions in the Quick Find box, then select Content Permissions. Then click Edit next to the appropriate permission.

Enabling Salesforce CRM Content in Portals

Salesforce CRM Content is available in the Customer Portal and partner portal. Two levels of access to Salesforce CRM Content can be granted to portal users:

• Portal users without a Salesforce CRM Content feature license can download, rate, comment on, and subscribe to content if they have the “View Content on Portals” user permission.
• Portal users with CRM Content feature license can :
  • Access content in libraries
  • Move and Share content among libraries
  • Delete content
  • Contribute content
  • View CRM Content reports

Note: While Portal users with Content feature license can contribute content which is creates a content and a content version, they cannot distribute it (content delivery record cannot be created). If you would like to do that, you would need a batch apex running in the background under the System Admin’s context to create the content deliveries.

Accessing Salesforce CRM Content

Licensed users can access Salesforce CRM Content by choosing Content from the Force.com Apps drop-down list.
Let’s look at the Salesforce CRM Content Application. It has three tabs:
Libraries tab
Under Libraries tab you can:

1. Access your personal library
2. View/edit a shared library
3. Analyze library usage and activity
4. Create new libraries
5. Publish files, web links, Google docs and custom content packs

Content tab
On Content tab user can view:

• Files, content packs, weblinks, Google docs published in Content libraries
• If Chatter is enabled, files posted to chatter groups
• Public Chatter files
• 20 most recently modified items
• Search and filter content

Subscriptions tab
On Subscriptions tab user can:

• view and toggle on/off Content subscriptions
• Click Content, Tags, Authors or Libraries subtabs to view subscriptions