Today, companies are required with numerous tools, for sales, support, marketing and the accounts. However, when this doesn’t happen and there is instead a disconnection because of a poor connection the result is a mess and a mistake. That’s where integration comes in. With Salesforce Integration Solutions businesses can connect all their systems to Salesforce and make data exchange Continuous & most importantly time saving. But before choosing this path, ask yourself Is your business ready? Will it be a solution to everything now?
It is easy to choose the right decision step by step.
What Problems Happen Without Integration?
When the sales division has Salesforce, support has a different ticketing application and finance has a different system too, it is challenging to get a full picture of the customer. Verifying the systems is a job that requires checking them individually wastage of time and rising possibilities of error. Another error that may be caused by repetition of customer data on the various tools may occur when the phone number or name is incorrect and following up may be difficult. Preparing reports takes longer when data is spread out across multiple systems. Salesforce Integration Solutions can assist in these issues since they connect the systems together, provide the accuracy of data, increase access speed, and customer services.
How Integration Helps You Work Better
Once your systems get integrated, it all gets easier. Salespeople can easily view a customer’s full history in one spot. Support teams are capable of getting an update about an order or complaint immediately. Finance departments do not need to wait before getting sales information. The business climate becomes faster.
Some of the greatest strengths of it include that information is updated automatically. There is no need to move data between places. It helps save time and also reduces the chances of making mistakes. The other benefit is that decisions will be easier to make. Having everything together, managers can easily find out what is good and what needs to be improved.
Is Your Business Ready for Integration?
Before choosing integration, look at how your current systems are set up. Are your employees often frustrated with slow systems or repeating the same tasks? Are people in different teams dealing with different platforms, and do they have communication problems? Do you waste your time on such manual tasks as data export, emailing of updates, and error correction? This is a bright reminder that you should put the connected system into consideration.
There are companies that expand rapidly, and at the initial stages, free or easy-to-use tools are applied. However, these tools will not help as the company expands and there will be a bigger team and a greater customer base. Did you ever experience difficulties in tracking leads, support requests, or invoices in multiple devices and tools? If your systems start causing problems instead of making work easier, then integration becomes necessary.
Choosing the Right Type of Integration
The amount of connections between Salesforce and other tools is big. There are apps, which already have a Salesforce integration. It does not require much effort to install and set them up. They are suitable for businesses that have similar requirements and straightforward systems. But in case you use custom software, or your business processes are unique, then you may need more than basic apps. Such instances might require having APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) custom coded. Such an integration helps you have greater control with the added need of technical skills or development team.
It can also be done with the help of tools that serve as an intermediate area between your systems. They are responsible for sending and receiving data between Salesforce and other applications. These tools may be helpful when you are not prepared to perform full custom integration yet but a more Customizable solution is needed.
Role of Salesforce Integration Services
In case your team is unsure about how to address integration, it would be good to resort to the assistance of professionals. There are expert companies providing Salesforce Integration services that are aware of the functioning of various systems in place. They will examine your existing devices, your objectives and will then propose the most efficient route to link all this. The services are also capable of providing installation, testing as well as support after fulfilling the service. They assure that your data are secure, your employees are trained, and the systems continue to work. This is particularly useful when you have quite a number of systems, a huge team, and complex business rules.
Budgeting and Return on Investment
There are costs involved in integration. Costs include setup fees, monthly software fees and in some cases fees of the developers or service providers. But it’s important to see if the benefits are worth the money spent.
Consider how much your team is spending doing manual work. What are some of the mistakes that you correct on a weekly basis? Think about the customers you lose because of slow service. When integration has a potential of minimizing such issues, then the cost is worth it.
Write a list of what you will receive in advance. e.g. improved speed at reporting, downturn in support calls, or higher number at seals. This helps you understand how long it will take to earn back your investment and start making a profit.
After Integration: How to Measure Success
After putting everything in place, you do not just end there. Monitor the progress. Are your teams getting sped up? Are there less mistakes occurring? Are we serving the customers in a better way? Are you cutting costs on time and money? There are easy ways to measure such as time that task consumes, or duplicates in the records or the time that support departments take on each ticket. When these numbers can be better, then it will mean that your integration is working.
Final Thought
In the end, your current needs and future goals will determine whether you should go for Salesforce Integration Solutions. Integration could be your last step, in case your systems do not collaborate effectively and your team loses their time trying to fix them manually. Other companies might be in a position to deal with simple setup, and others would require the professional assistance of Salesforce Integration. The most important thing is to define the plan and work on long term improvement. Integration is more than a technological improvement, it will also be a way towards a more intelligent and interconnected business.
