Apps Save Time.
One of Salesforce’s main advantages is its ability to integrate with a wide variety of different apps, programs, and systems. There are also hundreds of both paid and free Salesforce integrations and plugins that solve a need that Salesforce doesn’t have an out-of-the-box solution for.
I find it useful to differentiate between an “integration” and a “plugin” (these aren’t standard Salesforce distinctions). An “integration” connects Salesforce to a different app that you would use on its own (e.g. an integration between Salesforce and QuickBooks or an integration between Salesforce and Gmail). A “plugin” is something you use only in relation to Salesforce. Examples of plugin functionality include advanced calling/texting capabilities; building forms and surveys whose data goes exclusively into Salesforce; or sending eSignature documents that are housed exclusively within Salesforce.
This is part of a series of posts providing a basic introduction to what Salesforce is and how it can be useful to you and your nonprofit. Click here to see all of the posts in this series.
Salesforce has something called the “AppExchange” which is similar to Apple’s “App Store” or Android’s “Google Play Store”. This is a place you can search for different plugins and integrations and install them into your own Salesforce system. There are a lot of paid and free Salesforce apps on there. Most of them are of pretty good quality, but I’ve also seen a number of apps that haven’t been updated in a while and I doubt work as intended.
When I’m attempting to figure out the quality of integration apps in particular, I first consider who made the app. Some apps on the AppExchange are made by the company the integration is for. DocuSign is an example – they have created their own Salesforce Apps. When I search for Docusign on the Salesforce AppExchange, I find these four apps below. All of these apps were created by DocuSign itself.
In other cases, apps are made by third-parties who have created an integration between Salesforce and the other app. Quickbooks is an example – these apps below were NOT made by QuickBooks.
Some of these QuickBook integration apps could be very good, but when the company itself doesn’t make them, it requires a bit more due diligence when assessing them.
Below, I’ll show you a variety of different plugins and integrations that I’ve seen work well.
Email – Gmail & Outlook
This one is actually a Salesforce out-of-the-box integration that you simply have to enable and set up. This integration allows you to sync Google and Microsoft email and calendars. From either Gmail or Outlook, you can log emails to Salesforce, access Salesforce contacts, create new Accounts, Contacts, etc. You can also create email templates which you can then use when sending emails.
Conga
Conga is a very popular company that has a few different app offerings.
Conga’s most widely used product is Conga Composer, which allows for the creation of Word Doc and PDF reports that draw from data within Salesforce. It’s the equivalent of a Mail Merge from an Excel to a Word document (except in this case, it would be from Salesforce to a Word document or PDF).
Basically, you create a template for a written report and then Conga Composer will fill in the data from Salesforce. In this example, we have a word document we’re using as a report template and the unfilled fields are highlighted in yellow.
And then after you press the Conga Composer button it takes the data from Salesforce and puts it into the template. Now the yellow highlights contain the actual data from Salesforce.
In addition to creating a Word Doc or PDF, Conga Composer can also send emails using this “merged” data from Salesforce.
AirSlate
AirSlate can also do what Conga Composer does – taking data from Salesforce and filling it into a template – but it also goes beyond composer and also can do eSignature (like DocuSign).
Here’s an example of a template in which the basic data will be filled by Salesforce (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Birthdate), but then the recipient will also be asked to include an eSignature.
And here’s what it looks like filled. The fields were filled by Salesforce, and the Signature was input by the recipient, in this case, Mickey Mouse.
AirSlate can also be used for forms. You can create an AirSlate form and AirSlate will provide a linkURL that you can share with others (anyone with a web browser – no Salesforce license required). Those people can fill out the form and whatever they input will be automatically entered into your Salesforce database in the method you choose.
You can also go both ways – have fields in a form filled FROM Salesforce, and then if someone wants to make a change to their data, then that info will be updated back INTO Salesforce.
For example, the “Sample eSignature” form above that had info filled FROM Salesforce could also be repurposed to be a form so that anyone with the linkURL could submit their basic info and a signature, and whatever they typed could be automatically entered INTO Salesforce.
You can also go both ways – have fields in a form filled FROM Salesforce, and then if someone wants to make a change to their data, then that info will be updated back INTO Salesforce.
Zapier
Zapier is not a single integration like the rest of these apps, but’s it’s very related and extremely useful.
Zapier is an integration platform that can connect a bunch of different systems together, including connecting Salesforce to a vast array of possibilities. Let me explain by providing two examples.
This screenshot is from the Zapier website. It shows a connection between Salesforce and the payment company Stripe. In this example, the nonprofit uses Stripe to collect donations. This Zapier integration will know when a new donation is made through stripe (via the nonprofit’s website) and will then automatically log a donation in Salesforce. It’s very customizable.
The second example is a connection between Salesforce and QuickBooks. It’s basically saying that if you make changes to a contact in Salesforce, then that contact should also be updated in QuickBooks. You can make all sorts of different “rules” like this to ensure that everything is synced up. Zapier allows for a good degree of customizability so that you can configure everything to your specifications.
If a company does not have their own Salesforce app on the AppExchange, Zapier is often going to be the second best shot (and sometimes, it will beat even the company’s app, honestly). Zapier cannot connect Salesforce to everything, but it often has good coverage for larger companies.
Email Automation Newsletters (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc)
Most big email automation newsletter apps, like MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc., have created their own Salesforce integrations. Typically the integrations allow for synching of Contact data between the two systems, as well as the ability to build audiences/segments from Salesforce Contacts and use those as email lists in the email automation newsletter app.
Asana
Asana is a popular productivity and project management app personal and team organization app. The Salesforce integration allows you to create Asana tasks from within Salesforce, relate those tasks to particular Salesforce records, and make automations that create Asana tasks based on data or activity in Salesforce (i.e. when there’s a new donor, create an Asana task to follow up with them).
OwnBackup
OwnBackup is an organization that specializes in backing up data from Salesforce. Salesforce does have a free, out-of-the-box backup option, but you can only schedule it once a week, you have to manually download it yourself, and it’s options to restore lost data are a bit complicated.
OwnBackup allows for automated backups every day and that are available for viewing/restoring for months and years. It has easy ways to back up partial data (i.e. you want to restore Contacts in the city of San Francisco from three days ago, because those ones were accidentally deleted). It also has a bunch of reporting features allowing you to see what’s happening with your data.
Conclusion
Integrations and Plugins can be extremely useful and really help to not reinvent wheels. Ensuring your different systems can “talk to each other” saves a lot of headaches, and Salesforce is certainly the database with the widest variety of integrations and plugins.
And also please keep reading to dive deeper into what Salesforce has to offer!