Top 9 Most Common Mistakes in Salesforce Integration and How to Avoid them

Introduction

In today’s scenario, businesses utilize multiple applications to accomplish the work of different departments like sales, finance, HR or operations in the most efficient way. These departments are created to resolve all the business issues, but the major flaw among them is that there is no communication to sort out pop-up of any issue.

Don’t forget to check out: Integrating One Salesforce Org to Another Salesforce Org Using REST API

It then results in fragmentation of crucial customer information which can be removed only by integrating its existing platforms with Salesforce seamlessly.

With the utilization of Salesforce integration, you can assure yourself with a flexible data security model which will help in providing better data security at each level of the given architecture.

However, it may come to you as a stunner, but Salesforce integration services are not prone to come with clean chit! Integrating a given software model with your platform comes with numerous challenges and one single mistake will severely hamper the progress of your project.

You may also like to read - The Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Integration

Some of the most common mistakes occurring in Salesforce integration are needed to avoid at any cost to prevent them from acting as a roadblock to your business project. These are as follows:

I. Starting a project with no clear scope

If you have not developed any clear or specific goals related to your business needs and haphazardly started your project, be ready to face a total breakdown in your business.

It is a crucial step where if the organization fails to define its scope and objectives, the whole process comes to halt and results in spoiling your success party! To avoid this issue, you must first identify your business objectives in a clear and established manner.

Furthermore, you should also define which applications will be integrated so that no problems shall arise when Salesforce integration projects get underway.

II. Propagation of Bad Data

It is not a good option to incorporate bad data from any external system into your Salesforce because it will result in data duplication and low data integrity. It happens because of the pushing-up of old records or unnecessary information by external force into Salesforce.

Thereby, it becomes important to remove the outdated data and clean-up the entire system before paving the way for integrating your app with Salesforce. Then only the progress of your business will not come to standstill.

III. Improper Data Mapping

One of the common forms of issue faced by the organization with integrating Salesforce is the data mapping which includes mismatching between data fields and types. There might be differences in field type which may not be the same in two systems.

Furthermore, in such a scenario; writing codes require extra efforts which makes data mapping a tedious job. To avoid the occurrence of such an issue, you must ensure the mapping of the right field type or map the relevant data to ensure proper mapping of data.

IV. Failure to document system of record

One thing must be clear before starting the Salesforce integration project on which the system has the responsibility of storing master records. Failure to ensure it will result in several data mismatches and thus have a severe impact on the performance of the project.

The given issue can be avoided by establishing a system of record from where a call for correct data can be made appropriately. If there is such kind of clarity, then the flow for Salesforce integration can be executed successfully with no further delay.

V. Exceeding API limits

Salesforce API limits have been defined by the experts up to 1,00,000 API calls/day to ensure the service levels and quality of the system. If it exceeds by any organization, it might result in API access getting shut down for 24 hours, while any attempt is made to connect it.

To avoid exceeding the API limit, you can minimize the frequency in which your application works. Furthermore, if your requirement is of high API; then purchase some additional API calls to cope up with your business needs accurately.

VI. Ignoring data rate limits

As Salesforce works in a multi-tenant atmosphere, it has a liability to strictly follow the data limits imposed by Salesforce APIs. It determines your data access which should not exceed the present limit which is a single call and in one day.

If your organization goes beyond it, then it will result in Salesforce run-time error during the middle of the process which might affect your business operation. There is no way to come out of it and the only path to avoid is to design your Salesforce integration within the given limit judiciously.

VII. Implementation of improper system architecture

A proper system infrastructure is a must for the proper integration of your apps with Salesforce and in the given case, Force.com is utilized. However, if your system architecture is not proper, it increases the cost and time of the given project.

Some common mistakes include:

• Writing custom code instead of using the configuration of Force.com
• Directly jumping to development before building a prototype
• Ignoring the automatically generated screen to minimize development time
• Knowing less about the structure of reused code
• To avoid such mistakes, you should use the correct programming code, Apex in the given case to create a robust system architecture that will be beneficial for your business.

VIII. Misinterpreting real-time integration

Many businessmen have made a wrong assumption by believing that exporting and importing data from Salesforce is the same as real-time data integration. The given assumption has been proved wrong because the import/export of data records usually runs as batches.

Due to such a factor, it may not be possible to immediately sync data with real-time changes. Thus, the Salesforce application will remain out-of-sync until the current batch is executed.

So, the given Salesforce problem is an acute one and it can be avoided by ensuring that your data is accurate as well as consistent to work well in batches simultaneously.

Conclusion

In general, these are some of the major mistakes which affect the proper and efficient Salesforce integration and render big failure for the given project. Besides, these flaws can be avoided by developing a clear-cut strategy to ensure high success for your business.

If you want to provide high-quality Salesforce integration services, then think out of the box and utilize innovative concepts to avoid common mistakes associated with integration Salesforce with your apps wisely.