Salesforce integration is a process of connecting third-party systems, apps, or databases with salesforce CRM for effective bidirectional data flow. These integrations help businesses to automate tasks, synchronize data across platforms, and enhance overall productivity.
Integration becomes important because business data is often stored in multiple systems. Customer, contact, and product information may exist in different applications and needs to be synchronized in both directions.
For example, companies integrate Salesforce with their accounting systems to directly link these two platforms. When any sales opportunity is closed, salesforce sends data automatically to the accounting system that develops invoices without manual intervention.
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Why Businesses Prefer Salesforce Integration
When Salesforce is integrated with other external systems, it enables smooth data flow, automation, and collaboration across the business. This integration makes it possible to achieve the following benefits.
End-to-end visibility
By integrating sales, service, marketing, experience cloud, and commerce cloud, there is end to end visibility of the entire customer, the entire account, and the entire data. And agents and employees don’t have to toggle between tabs and windows.
Reduced case wrap up time
With integration, businesses can decrease case wrap up time because of so much automation, AI, and pre-built solutions. By using action plans, actionable relationship sites, forecasting, and automation, case wrap up time can be reduced significantly. This gives customer satisfaction and allows businesses to close more cases and deals faster and more efficiently.
Real-time insight
Integrations help businesses capture real-time demand insights by having the real-time data into the system from different data sources. This helps understand how the demand of any particular product is growing or reducing.
Omnichannel Experience
Integrations help foster omnichannel experiences by taking care of the services, taking care of customer claims, taking care of cases, and taking care of chats with customers, thereby providing better customer experiences.
Increased ROI
Integration helps organizations achieve ROI, which is important for any business and any transaction.
Types of Salesforce Integration Architectures
There are three common ways to create an integration, and these are referred to as integration architectures. Let discuss the following three types:
- Point-to-point integration
- Hub-and-spoke integration
- Enterprise Service Bus integration (ESB)
Point-to-Point Integration
This type of architecture connects salesforce with external systems directly via a one-to-one relationship. There is no intermediate layer that connects two systems together rather they are connected directly to each other.
Suppose you have Salesforce sending customer data to an email marketing tool, to a customer support system, and to an internal reporting application. Each of these systems needs its own separate integration with Salesforce. If later the support system also needs data from the marketing tool, another new integration must be set up between those two systems as well.
This architecture is simpler with respect to implementation, quick in deployment and is less expensive with respect to initial expense but becomes costly as integrations increases
As we know that, we need separate integration for each system, so it becomes difficult to manage systems as integration increases. Moreover, it is difficult to maintain because changes to one system may require updates to multiple integration points.
Hub-and-Spoke Integration
With hub-and spoke integration, salesforce CRM and your business’s accounting, billing and other systems are connected to a third system called hub. If you want to send information from salesforce CRM to your own internal system, it first goes to the hub and then to the desired system. The hub is responsible for routing all traffic, and you only need to build one connection for each new system.
Let’s consider the same example we discussed in point-to-point integration. In hub and spoke integration, salesforce sends information to a centralized hub and then hub routes that data to other systems like email marketing tool, the customer support system, and the internal reporting application. If later the support system also needs data from the marketing tool, the hub still manages that flow, so you don’t create a new direct integration between those two systems
Hub-and-spoke replaces many scattered integrations with one controlled connection per system, which directly addresses the scalability and maintenance problems found in point-to-point integration.
Enterprise Service Bus Integration (ESB)
An enterprise service bus is the more advanced form of hub-and–spoke integration as it actively manages how applications connect and interact with each other using an integration engine rather than simply passing the information through a centralized hub.
ESB allows the system to support enterprise level functions such as:
Routing
It controls the flow of data. For example: A sale is closed and the system needs to notify accounting, billing, and other systems. Salesforce sends this information once to the ESB. The ESB checks its routing rules, such as: If sale is closed; send data to accounting. If billing is required; send data to the billing system, If shipment is involved; send data to the fulfillment system. The ESB automatically routes the same message to all required systems. Salesforce does not decide where to send the data every time. The integration layer itself handles that logic.
Orchestration
Orchestration controls the order in which actions happen. For example, when a new customer account is created, one system must first verify the customer’s details and return a confirmation. Only after that confirmation is received can another system activate the customer’s services or grant system access.
Transformation
It changes data into the format each system needs. For example, two systems store data differently. Suppose the billing system might use short field names and codes, while the shipping system stores data in full names and structured fields. The integration engine, while moving the data from one system to another, transforms it in a format compatible with the receiving system.
Security handling
It protects data using security rules. For example, when one system tries to send data to another system. The integration layer checks the identity of the system and verifies its permissions. Only after successful authentication and authorization is the message allowed to pass through, ensuring that sensitive data is protected.
Using an ESB, each of the systems within the integration gets an adapter that you can plug and unplug to your ‘bus’. Moreover apps and systems do not depend on each other and are not affected if one system fails, updates, or changes. This makes the integration setup more scalable and avoids a single point of failure.
How to Integrate with Salesforce?
Salesforce offers multiple integration methods to accommodate different technical requirements and business needs. Here are the primary ways to integrate an application with your Salesforce environment:
App-based Salesforce Integration
App based integration is a way to connect salesforce with another application using integration tools like Zapier, MuleSoft, or Workato. These tools have built-in connectors for connecting salesforce CRM with other apps.
For example, you choose apps like facebook lead ads and salesforce and slack to create a system. Facebook ads and salesforce, and salesforce and slack are connected via tools like Zapier. Whenever lead is generated via facebook ads, the integration tool sends data to salesforce, where lead is added and dashboard gets updated. Lead update acts as a trigger for second integration and integration tool sends information to slack that posts information about lead.
Code-based Salesforce Integration (Apex)
Salesforce has a built-in proprietary programming language called Apex; similar to Java or C#; that lets technical teams customize the whole system based on their business needs and requirements.
With Apex, developers can
- create your own custom APIs that other systems can connect to
- build custom rules to keep data in sync between systems
- handle errors and failures properly when something goes wrong
- run automatic actions before or after a record is created or updated
Apex is extremely useful when you have very unique business requirements and basic integration won’t help you productively.
User Interface Integration
Salesforce allows for user interface (UI) integration through techniques like mashups, which is ideal for accessing multiple applications from within the Salesforce interface.
A mashup maintains large data sets in a different application and then makes that application available within Salesforce. For example, you can:
With UI integration, you can:
- show an external website or app inside a Salesforce tab
- embed interactive dashboards from analytics platforms
- add maps to see locations and geographic data
- exchange information with external systems in real-time
Everything users need is visible in one place. They don’t have to switch between different apps, which makes work faster and easier.
Business Logic Integration
Business logic integration allows processes and rules to extend from one application to another, ensuring consistent application of business policies across systems.
There are two types of business logic integration:
- Inbound logic integration: Business logic extends from outside the platform into Salesforce. It means that the trigger from an app or external system initiates an action in Salesforce. And Salesforce then uses its own rules, validations, or processes based on that data. Inbound logic integration is commonly implemented with Apex Web Services.
- Outbound logic integration: Business logic extends from within Salesforce to external systems. Triggers in salesforce generate an action in any other app or external system. It is implemented with Apex Callouts.
Business logic integration ensures that important business rules are always followed whether data is created or updated inside Salesforce or in another system, the same rules apply every time. For example, a deal must be approved before it is closed, that rule will still apply even if:
- the deal comes from a website,
- is updated from an external system,
- or is changed directly in Salesforce.
Data Integration and APIs
Salesforce provides different APIs that help it share data with other systems and keep information in sync.
The most common APIs include:
1. REST API
REST API focuses on data-based operations. It allows other integrated systems and applications to read or change data present in Salesforce via following actions
It uses following actions like:
- GET to retrieve data from salesforce
- POST to create a new record
- PUT or PATCH to update an existing record
- DELETE to remove a record
2. SOAP API
It’s best for system-to-system integrations, back-end system communication, and for applications that require formal hand-off (contracts) between the API and the consumer
SOAP API uses more bandwidth as compared to REST API. It is stable and dependable, but modern applications usually prefer REST because it is faster and lighter.
3. Bulk API
The Bulk API in Salesforce is used when systems have to handle high volume data. It can process up to 100 million records in a 24-hour period. It is ideal for heavy data operations. It works in both directions: inbound and outbound. Therefore it is used when systems need to move large datasets into or out of Salesforce. It is especially useful during initial data migration, such as loading customers, accounts, or historical records into Salesforce for the first time.
4. Streaming API
The Streaming API sends real-time event notifications about changes in Salesforce data. Rather than constantly asking Salesforce for updates, external systems can subscribe to event streams and get notified when specific changes happen, enabling real-time updates in dashboards or applications.
FAQs about API Integration with Salesforce
1. What is API integration with Salesforce?
API is a communication layer between Salesforce CRM and other integrated apps. It lets the data flows from one system to another and the transfer is based on specific rules defined by the type of API.
2. Why do businesses need to integrate Salesforce with other systems?
Integration is important for businesses because business data is often stored in multiple systems. Customer, contact, and product information may exist in different applications and needs to be synchronized in both directions.
3. What are the main types of Salesforce integration architectures?
Salesforce supports three integration architectures:
- Point-to-point integration
- Hub-and-spoke integration
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
4. What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous Salesforce integrations?
In this type of integration, salesforce requests another system and waits for its reply and only resumes the process when response arrives. The common use cases for this type of integration include data validation before saving a record, checking qualification information, availability, and pricing etc. In asynchronous integration, salesforce sends a request to another system and does not wait for its reply to continue processing. Asynchronous API calls are used when creating a new organization from scratch to avoid waiting for everything to complete before receiving a response.