The Salesforce CRM is the key enabler in managing business-critical and customer data, marketing, sales, and customer service processes. However, certain challenges plague data management in the CRM such as poor data quality, complex and error-prone data entry processes, and issues in data synchronization with other systems – especially the legacy one. Additionally, the native Salesforce tools have limited capabilities to handle complex queries and extensive datasets. Collectively, these challenges impact the overall usability of the Salesforce CRM, making data management an uphill task for many.
Enter Heroku, an immensely robust platform for data manipulation, automation, and visualization that pushes Salesforce’s native capabilities. Heroku has the flexibility to handle huge datasets and complex processes while supporting different programming languages and integrating with external databases. Such capabilities of Heroku help to create personalized data pipelines that Salesforce can’t do alone.
What Is Heroku?
Essentially a PaaS or platform-as-a-service, Heroku enables businesses to develop, deliver, monitor, and scale a diverse range of apps with agility. To date, over 13 million apps have been developed on Heroku. Meeting the uber-dynamic market needs, the platform provides the most flexible option to develop apps: the low code/no code tools. As the name suggests, these tools don’t require any coding; apps are seamlessly created with clicks.
Heroku provides developers with a repository of servers, tools, and languages along with an extensive built-in infrastructure that mitigates the need to develop anything from scratch. This helps developers focus on the most important aspect: building employee, business, and customer-centric apps! Moreover, Heroku is a cloud application platform, bringing the ease of app development scalability without any maintenance or support issues.
Here’s what you get with Heroku:
- Heroku Platform
- Heroku Dashboard
- Heroku Metrics
- Heroku Elements
- Data Services
- Postgres
- Redis
- Apache Kafka
Heroku and Salesforce
Tightly integrated with Salesforce, Heroku ensures seamless data synchronization between both and allows companies to develop innovative apps spanning both platforms and leveraging their respective capabilities. Since Heroku is a part of the Salesforce platform, businesses can use customer data stored in the Salesforce CRM to enhance app functionalities. Parallelly, app data is integrated into the CRM to tweak various marketing campaigns, derive accurate sales forecasts, and gain an end-to-end view of customers.
Why Integrate Salesforce With Heroku?
Modern-day business systems have different aspects with diverse interfaces for a wide range of units and users. These interfaces are designed to bring data together from diverse sources. Through microservice architecture, these systems are decoupled into standalone modules for easy maintenance.
Moreover, such independent modules provide endpoints that pull together disparate systems. Heroku is one such platform where these microservices and apps are run and used with Salesforce through different integration methods. Other than this, four key reasons for integrating apps on Heroku with Salesforce are:
- Data Replication
- Data Proxies
- Custom User Interfaces
- External Processes
Let’s understand these reasons but from a different perspective:
Breaking Data Silos
Integration of Heroku and Salesforce breaks data silos and allows seamless data replication between the two systems. It’s used for legacy systems that may need data from the CRM or need to input data into Salesforce. This integration provides a low-latency, high-throughput interface for various customer-facing apps built on an open-source tech stack.
Transforming Data
The integration transforms how data is collected, stored, and utilized. Through data proxies, data stores are aggregated, but no data is copied from these extensive stores. It works on read-only-on-demand, which enables users and various tools to collate data from different data stores without replicating and storing it. Data proxies are used to integrate external systems and legacy systems with Salesforce to provide it with data and vice versa.
Crafting Custom User Interfaces
Different tech stacks such as Lightning Components and Visualforce are used to create custom user interfaces for Salesforce. With interfaces built on open-source technologies, including PHP, Node.js, and Java, these UIs are run on Heroku and integrated with the Salesforce interface or the CRM data. Many times, an external system or legacy one provides a UI that requires it to be reflected in the Salesforce user interface.
Automating External Processes
Various external processes offload trigger event handling and batch processing to Heroku-based apps. Through this approach, machine learning, data science, integration with external and legacy systems, and image and video processing offload their external processes to Heroku.
How to Integrate Heroku With Salesforce
To integrate Heroku with Salesforce, there are several integration approaches at your disposal. Let’s discuss some of the prominent ones:
1. Heroku Connect
Heroku Connect offers data replication as well as data proxies for Salesforce. Here, data replication between Heroku Postgres and Salesforce is either one-way or bidirectional, depending on the configuration.
Heroku Connect uses Heroku Objects to provide Salesforce with a data proxy through the OData protocol. Heroku External Objects provides the Heroku Postgres database, which Heroku Connect maintains a connection for – an OData wrapper. This functionality facilitates external web services to retrieve data from within a particular Heroku Postgres database by utilizing RESTful endpoints created by this wrapper.
The key advantage of utilizing Heroku Connect is instant data replication, allowing easy and quicker accessibility of Salesforce data to Heroku-based apps.
2. Salesforce Connect
Formerly known as Lightning Connect, Salesforce Connect works as a data proxy and pulls OData or any other required data source into Salesforce on demand without replicating data on the CRM database. By running endpoints on Heroku, OData 2.0 is exposed or the ones provided by external systems are used.
Heroku Connect exposes the Postgres database as OData which is consumed by Salesforce Connect. On the other hand, through Salesforce Connect, custom adapters facilitate Salesforce to replicate any data source that Apex can talk to, including SOAP and REST with JSON and XML.
The key advantage of selecting Salesforce Connect is that it pulls the required external data into the Salesforce user interface while showcasing it as Salesforce’s native data. However, it’s just replicated on demand from the source. This process enables easy collation of disparate data for Salesforce users without worrying about storage.
3. Salesforce REST APIs
Heroku-based apps access the Salesforce data with Salesforce REST APIs through JSON-formatted HTTP requests. This integration method is ideal for custom user interfaces and data proxies.
Open-source technology-based applications running on Heroku utilize OAuth to permit users in a custom user interface and then take care of interaction with Salesforce data on users’ behalf. Specific use cases without any involvement of a user interface liaison data between external systems and Salesforce.
4. Callouts
Callouts from Salesforce are used to bring in external processes on Heroku. Callouts are either written in Apex, or various outbound message actions are used to create events on Salesforce, triggering the process execution on Heroku. This process utilizes either one of the integration methods to fetch process results back into Salesforce.
Exploring Salesforce and Heroku Through Use Cases
Now it’s time to check out some use cases for utilizing Salesforce and Heroku in tandem:
Scenario 1: Real-Time Inventory Management
Let’s assume you manage your product catalog on Salesforce while having a third-party inventory management system. Now the requirement is to sync the Salesforce product catalog with the latter. Through Heroku Connect, Salesforce and the inventory database are integrated in real time. Any alteration in either of the systems is reflected in the other system, ensuring consistency and accuracy across the product data.
Scenario 2: Tailored Mobile Apps
If your customer service team requires a mobile app that helps them access customer data, generate service bills, and place orders while on the field, Heroku is the best shot. Create a mobile app, host the back-end with Heroku, and integrate the app with Salesforce data via Heroku Connect. The integration provides the service team with end-to-end customer data, improves productivity, and enhances customer satisfaction.
Scenario 3: Predictive Analytics
Want to leverage predictive analytics for your Salesforce data? Try using Heroku Postgres to store and process real-time and historical data. Utilizing third-party tools and building machine learning models for predictive analytics is easier on Heroku. The outcome? Enhanced data-driven decisions, better anticipation of customer needs, and greater revenue generation.
Scenario 4: Marketing Automation
If you’re seeking an end-to-end marketing automation solution, then think of integrating Salesforce with Heroku. Salesforce as a CRM is a preferred choice to store customer data and Heroku easily handles the custom logic required for tailored marketing campaigns. With both systems working in tandem, you have the most effective, targeted, and efficient marketing initiatives in place.
Final Thoughts
The combination of Salesforce’s and Heroku’s capabilities through the right integration approach unleashes the optimal potential of business and customer data, streamlines various operations, and provides businesses with a much-needed edge.
As an entrepreneur or tech leader, if you’re considering manipulating Salesforce data to get its juices flowing, put your faith in Heroku for this transformative initiative. Integrating Heroku into Salesforce is the first step toward realizing the business goal and exploring the real worth of your data treasure.
