Salesforce to Salesforce Integration Guide

Do you have any idea of what Salesforce to Salesforce integration is? Data sharing is an important aspect of any business. Many ways exist for data to be shared across different organizations. For those business partners that utilize Salesforce however, sharing data will become much easier. This is because of the Salesforce to Salesforce integration capability that exists within the force.com platform.

Salesforce to Salesforce integration is a feature that is natively supported within Force.com. Therefore, sharing of data between business partners can be done in real time when the need arises. Updates can also be obtained in the same manner. Collaboration therefore becomes much easier for every party concerned.

What Salesforce to Salesforce Integration Can Achieve

Business partners can take advantage of integration to access all their common programs from one source. This will enhance visibility into the operations of your business partners.

Data can be integrated easily within multiple organizations through Salesforce. This reduces the need for repeat activities. You will also be able to manage the entire business pipeline including channel and internal sales through integration.

Integration of business processes including updates can be achieved across different organizations. Workflow and assignment rules can be used for this purpose.

Enabling Salesforce to Salesforce

If you want to take advantage of the Salesforce to Salesforce integration feature, you need to enable it first. You will need to access the setup menu in order to be able to do that. Remember though, that when that preference has been enabled, it cannot be disabled later on, so you need to be sure.

The enabling process is as follows:
  • Setup>App Setup>Customize>Salesforce to Salesforce>Settings
After that, you need to select the edit option, and then select the enable option before saving your choices.
  • Establishing and Managing Connections
You will need to establish a connection with your business partners through the connection finder in Salesforce. This will give your partners the chance to either accept your invitation or reject it. The connection however, can only be initiated if you have created an account and an associated contact for each of the business partners that you want to invite.

The process is as follows:

Connections>New>Contact name>Related account (optional)

After that, you need to select the user who will manage the connection. If you like, you can select a template to apply to that connection, then save the changes before clicking Send Invite.

The process of inviting multiple business partners simultaneously is nearly the same. However, instead of selecting one contact name, you can select a custom list view before clicking Go!

Once you send invites for connection, the business partners in question will receive them via email notification, if they opt to accept, you can find that out via the Connections tab.

On the other hand, if the invitation has been sent to you, you need to click on the email link provided. This will take you to the login page for Salesforce where you can log in if you have the authorized permission to do so.

You can then review the invitation details, choose to either Accept or Decline the invitation. You can also choose to Decide Later if you are not sure of what you want to do.

In order to ensure that the right users have access to the integrated Salesforce system, you need to give them the permission to do so. You can do this by selecting each profile of the users you have decided on, and enabling the Managing Connections permission. Alternatively, a new user profile can be created just for those who will be handling the integrated accounts.

Publishing and Subscribing to Objects

Once the connections have been established within Salesforce, you can start to publish different objects. You can also subscribe them if you like.

You can select the account from which you want to publish, and then access its Connections tab. On this tab will be the Publish option on which you can click. After that, you can select the objects that you want to publish, which may be either a standard or a custom object. You can then modify each object in order for you to select the fields that you want to publish. You should then save your options. Relevant information is available on how to create a custom object in salesforce page. 

The receiving account on the other hand needs to subscribe to the published objects. If you are on the receiving end, you will need to go to the Connections tab, select the account that is publishing the objects you need and then opt to subscribe. A list of objects, which have been published, will come up. You can choose to Auto-accept after which records from the particular publishing account will always be accepted automatically. The alternative is for you to keep on reviewing each incoming record before accepting it. Ensure that you save your options. That ensures that object mapping has been defined.

You also need to map different fields. Next to each object, you need to click on Edit and then map each field coming from the publishing account to your environment.

Additional Things You Should Take Note Of

Where certain fields are not available for mapping, you need you need to consider data type mapping. This entails mapping of data type fields, which are matched. You can also utilize field visibility. This can be done by enabling S2S through creation of a formula field, which can then be published.

If you want to update records and connections, you can utilize workflows to do that after Salesforce to Salesforce integration.

You can also use an escalation rule on the case to assign a case to a connection. The queue to which you assign a case must have the connection as a member.

You will need to keep track of all connection details and activities. In order to do this successfully, you will need to create a custom report. This can be done using Connection with Accounts report type. Only the account connections will be displayed using this method.

The sharing connection between two environments can be either one-way or two-way. In one-way one environment will publish objects while the other will subscribe. In a two-way option, both environments can publish and subscribe. 

Regardless of the method you choose for sharing purposes, changes in either environment will always be synchronized in both.

Records can be shared manually or automatically. It also depends on how much control you want to have over incoming records.

Bottom Line

Establishing business connections that keep data updated in real time is a great way to run your business. With the Salesforce to Salesforce integration patterns, you can do that in a way that keeps your business running smoothly.   Please join us for a free webinar Make Software Training Stick – Salesforce Edition on Tuesday October 7 at 1pm ET/ 10am PT. The webinar will look at some of the common challenges facing those responsible for software training. We will present how technology can help overcome these challenges, ensuring that training can both be effective and leave a direct and lasting impact on user performance. Save your seat by clicking here now.
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Amanda is the Lead Author & Editor of Rainforce Blog. Amanda established the Rainforce blog to create a source for news and discussion about some of the issues, challenges, news, and ideas relating to Salesforce usage.