WDCi Blogs

Integration between systems is not only bringing data over from one system to another. It is an art to get two very different systems working seamless as one. In addition to having your data synchronized in both systems, you can also get a lot of business value from it.

Let’s take a Support System and an Issue Tracking System as an example. You may have a different combination of the following:

• Integrate RightNow with JIRA
• Integrate Netsuite with JIRA
• Integrate Parature with JIRA
• Integrate Salesforce with Bugzilla
• Integrate Salesforce with JIRA

Whatever support system and issue tracking system you are using, you will get similar advantages if you integrate both systems together seamlessly:

#1 Use support volume to prioritize bug fix

Development teams can see the impact a bug has caused and prioritise accordingly. You can link one bug with many support cases together.

#2 Enhanced Communication between Support Engineer and Developer

click to view full picture

Support engineer and developer have a dedicated channel to chat. The content is hidden from the support system and the best thing is you don’t have to create 2 logins for everyone!

#3 Support Engineer to provide more details of the bug

When support engineer goes through the bug verification process, they can fill in useful information and that data will be synchronised over to issue tracking system. For example:

• Environment: Operating system, browser, JVM version
• Steps to reproduce
• etc

All these can be automated by the integration process.

There are more benefits, but I can’t mention them all. If you are interested to find out how to do that, feel free to contact us.

Note: Special thanks to Daggy to share these wonderful ideas!

TIM here again - with another Tip, hope it’s helpful.

Boss: TIM, I need you to integrate CSV to Salesforce.
TIM: CSV integration? How hard can that be? I can do it in one day.

A day after…

Boss: TIM, have you completed that CSV integration?
TIM: Hmmm, Boss, I need more time to do this…  (credibility completely shot at this point)

You may be thinking like me. CSV import? How hard can it be. Well it depends, not all CSV imports can be uploaded easily.  Let me give you an example:

1) David owns a company that sells power tools
2) He would like to export sales from his home grown accounting system and import them into Salesforce

This is what the CSV export looks like:

In this scenario, you may need an advanced tool such as Boomi to work out:

• Line 1 to 4 is Order #1 and Line 5 to 9 is Order #2
• Order #1 has only 1 item. Order #2 has 3 items

A lot of people think that CSV integration is simple and it’s just data/field mapping - I wish.

Apart from using the right tool, you also need to have the right method of doing it. Here’s a few things I’ve worked out that you need to know:

1. How the CSV file will be provided? Email? FTP? Read from a local folder?
2. How to handle rejected data? Email or write into a file?
3. Understand what objects are involved during the CSV integration.
4. Understand all mandatory fields in all related objects.
   • If the column is empty in the CSV, do we use a default value or write those records into a file?
5. Understand the data format for all fields. For example, the date format for the target system may be yyyy-MM-dd’T'HH:mm but your CSV date format is yyyyMMdd HHmm.
6. Understand the data constraints of each field. For example, First Name field can only accept 100 characters.
7. Understand the data type of the field. For example, you may need to use a cross reference table for a select list.

Quite a bit to think about, I definitely need a Pina Colada now.

TIM here again with another tip - don’t tell the boss, he thinks I’m working.

Need to sync or integrate Salesforce data with your other systems?

Maybe you want to sync:

• Accounts/Contacts, Invoice/Sales Order data, payment information, Products and inventory.

So, what are your options?

It depends on what type of  data sync or integration you need and the applications involved, ie:

1. Do you need real-time or near real-time sync of your data?
2. Does the data go one way in or out of Salesforce or are you wanting bi-directional updates?
3. Do you want the whole process automated or are you ok with some manual data loading?
4. Do you have the budget to integrate?
5. Does your Salesforce license allow access to the force.com Web Services API?
6. Is there an existing integration tool that has Connectors/Adapters to your other applications?
7. How customised are your applications?
8. Are there any pre-built integration solutions that solve your problems?

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

Let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios:

Some manual work is ok

A good option here is to use one of the Data Loader tools:

1. http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Apex_Data_Loader
2. http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0330000005kRLFAA2

• Export your data from your application and use the Data Loader to map this data and upload it into Salesforce.

• You can also use the tool to export from Salesforce objects into a database or CSV files, you can then manipulate the data and upload into your target applications.

You need the whole process automated

This is where you will need to plan a bit further before you invest in automating the solution.

Do you know your use-cases?

• You will need to be clear on the process or processes involved and what should be done in the event of failure.  An example of this would be:

• You want Closed/Won Salesforce Opportunities to generate Invoices in your Accounting system automatically.

You also need to consider any limitations of your Accounting system and if your Products are inventoried

• ie what will happen if there is no inventory
• how should the integration process handle such a failure

A good first step here is to take a look at our integration planning guide.

Ok, so you’ve gone through the planning stage and now you want to automate your solution, what tool to choose?

You have a lot of options and the Appexchange is a good place to start.

Some of the key vendors represented include Boomi, Informatica, Pervasive, Cast Iron, Jitterbit and the list goes on.  If you’ve read any of our We Dids you’ll know we are big fans of Boomi and Talend to migrate, manipulate and integrate data.

I’ll cover some of these tools in another blog, but for now, I need a Pina Colada.

Warm the set and cool the tinnies, it’s time to check out our latest video.

I know, our timing is bad.  The oscars are over and here we are releasing a potential blockbuster - the day after.  Speculation in the office is rife that we felt the competition was too steep (and this ain’t no Avatar), but you can be the judge of that.

This time it’s SSO using PingIdentity’s PingFederate.  We’re doing SSO to a Liferay Portal plus Salesforce CRM & Portal.  Check it out: http://www.wdcigroup.net/video/Liferay-Salesforce_SSO_demo.htm.

Want more details?  Contact us for more information on how to simplify your identity management challenges.

TIM here again - with another Tip, hope it’s helpful.

In my experience integrating various SaaS applications such as Salesforce, Netsuite, Parature, RightNow, JIRA, etc,  bi-directional integration is a popular requirement.

So, why use bi-directional integration? Consider a bi-directional update between the Salesforce and RightNow Account Objects as an example:

• When the record in Salesforce is updated, the linked record in RightNow will also be updated  ie it works both ways.

Now, this isn’t ideal for all systems and mostly suitable for real-time integration. There are a few things to be aware of:

• You need a mechanism to stop an endless update loop. ie:

1. A Record updated in Salesforce triggers the integration to update the record in RightNow.
2. RightNow’s updated record will trigger the integration to update Salesforce’s Record and on and on - you get the idea.

• In this scenario you should define which fields/data is the Master.
• Make sure you are checking for timestamps to avoid the scenario where out of date data will update what was the correct data.

Time for a Pina Colada now I think.

There are some good articles from developerforce that teach you how to implement your own Single Sign-On (SSO) solution in your force.com application or Salesforce instance.

• Single Sign-On for Salesforce Client
• How to Implement Single Sign-On with Force.com

Beside solutions recommended from the above website, you can also look into some of the proven technologies that offers you additional benefits. For example: Ping Identity. With Ping Identity’s solutions, you can enjoy all these features:

• Ability to run PingConnect in the cloud or PingFederate on-premise.
• User Account Management with User Provisioning: Activating and deactivating users in your domain with just a few clicks.
• Proven Security Standards: Uses SAML 1.x, SAML 2.0 or WS-Federation standard.
• Flexibility to choose your Identity Store(s): Database, Active Directory/LDAP, Google Apps or even your Salesforce instance.
• Ability to integrate with your existing identity management and security infrastructure (Siteminder, TAM, Oracle Access Manager).
• Rapid Implementation: It takes days to implement the solution.
• Ready Integration Kits: You can integrate to just about anything.
• An SDK to create custom adapters.

If you would like to know more about the Ping Identity solutions, feel free to contact us.

In our attempt to rival Universal Studios, we’ve been at it again, creating videos of some of our ReadyMade integration solutions.  Check out our latest video on how easy it is to integrate Salesforce & MYOB.

Want to know more about how to get Salesforce & MYOB talking? contact us or check out our other MYOB demos and information on our website.

You can.

Ping Identity allows you to universally login to your SaaS applications, using Salesforce as your user identity store.

No need to install, configure, manage, maintain and backup a local Active Directory or LDAP user store if you don’t want to, just have Salesforce manage the user identities.

What does this mean?

• You can use Salesforce as your source of user information and login credentials for your other SaaS and Internet applications.
• Users login to the Salesforce portal, then directly access their other Internet-based applications by simply clicking a link.
• No further authentication is required, minimizing login failures and password resets.

Our CTO (Walter Dewildt) captures the benefits well - “”With Ping Identity’s Universal Login, Salesforce becomes the hosted identity provider, reducing license, infrastructure and ongoing maintenance costs of traditional identity stores, while leveraging the Salesforce platform’s reliability and security.”

Check out the full press release here.

Single Sign on (SSO) for salesforce.com can take various forms.

The Winter 10 version supports SAML2 for salesforce.com and the Salesforce partner & customer portals. It does not support SAML2 for Salesforce Sites yet. (Sheduled for a coming release).

When setting up SSO here are some issues you should consider:

• What is your User or Identity store? Is it an internal store such as Active Directory, Oracle access Manager or a Custom LDAP? or do you want to use a cloud based store like Salesforce, or Google to manage your user identify information?
• Do you have more than one user identity store?
• Do you want to auto provision (activate/create) the Salesforce users (Just in time) or do you have an existing provisioning process?
• Do you want to allow deep linking to URLs? or always force people to login via a “home page” or “dashboard” ?
• Is SSO for your internal users or your customers/partners.  Do you have separate data stores for each?
• Do you want users to keep existing usernames & passwords or get a new “single” username/password?
• Should I use salesforce.com’s Delegated Authentication model or the SAML2 SSO?

Sounds like a lot to think about.

The reality is that there are many variants and solutions to meet your specific requirements.

At WDCi we have been looking at these issues for a while and using our partnership with Ping Identity to provide solutions to  Single Sign On requirements for Salesforce.com and other systems.

Take a look at the Identity pages on our website or contact us for more information on the right solution for SSO for your company.

While Xero pushes into the Australia market, we’re studying the possibility to integrate Xero and any other SaaS/On-premise applications.

Q: How will we do it?
A: We use a technology called Boomi to integrate Xero with all your other applications.

Q: What applications have we integrated before?
A: Too many to mention here, a few of them are (Salesforce, RightNow, Netsuite, etc), eCommerce (VirtueMart, eBay, Business Catalyst etc), Warehouse Management System (SmartTurn, etc), and of course database and flat file integrations.

Q: What type of information should you integrate?

A: Transfer your online purchases and transactions to your online accounting system, Xero.  Synchronise your Account and Contact data across all of your applications and gain visibility to your customer’s interactions with your company.  Here’s how we see Xero as part of an integrated system for your company:

Find out how we implement our solutions.

Contact us and let our integration team bring your systems together fast, saving you time and freeing you up to manage your business, not your data.