Salesforce-SharePoint Integration Can Overcome Collaborative Pitfalls

Still, Files Connect has several drawbacks:

• Only document libraries are shown in a SharePoint site. Other library types and lists are not supported.
• Salesforce search may fail if files are not indexed by SharePoint. By default, PDF files, images, and videos are not indexed by SharePoint, so you will need to add an identifier to files in SharePoint.
• Extra fees are charged by Salesforce for the connection to SharePoint on-premises ($7 per user per month).
• There are limits for search results and file sizes for integration with SharePoint 2010.
• The much-awaited features for previewing references to SharePoint files and creating SharePoint files in Salesforce are not supported for now (and aren’t included in the Winter ’18 release).
• The size of uploaded files is limited to 75 MB.

Despite default availability, Files Connect isn’t absolutely free. It will take an extra investment to configure data transactions and overcome technical limitations.

Option 2: Custom Salesforce integration solution

A major limitation of Files Connect is the loss of focus on SharePoint users. It treats SharePoint as a static file warehouse, while a company may be using it for crucial business processes (e.g., managing contracts’ approvals). Hence, some collaboration scenarios may require a deeper integration between Salesforce and SharePoint. Let’s take the case of contract management as an example.

Step 1. A sales rep initiates contract approval within the Salesforce UI. Technically, Salesforce should automatically trigger a contract management workflow in SharePoint.

Step 2. A project manager, a legal adviser, and a bid manager—all of them SharePoint users—collaborate on the contract document in SharePoint, in line with the contract review workflow. If necessary, SharePoint users search for Salesforce records through SharePoint search.

Step 3. The sales rep stays on top of the contract approval process thanks to Salesforce notifications. When the contract is approved, its status is automatically updated in Salesforce and the sales rep gets the final version.

This case shows that integration should allow SharePoint users to access Salesforce records within the UI of the collaboration system, as well as connect Salesforce and SharePoint workflows. As such integration scenarios are not covered by Files Connect, a company will have to turn to CRM consultants to handle the integration project. Other additional features a company may be looking for is to create SharePoint records within the Salesforce UI, and vice versa.

The size of investment depends on the precise scope of integration needed. Even though a custom solution will cost more than configuring an off-the-shelf tool, only a custom integration solution will help to establish a seamless execution of workflows that rest on both systems.   

Option 3. Ready-made third-party integration

As of October 30, 2017, there were nine paid and six free tools for SharePoint integration listed on AppExchange. Even though they slightly extend the capabilities of Files Connect, none of them covers a complex integration scenario like the one above.

There are ready-made integration solutions outside Salesforce AppExchange that overcome some limitations of Files Connect, such as the lack of an option to create SharePoint documents within Salesforce, or the lack of access to Salesforce data within the SharePoint UI. These tools will still require configuration, however, to meet the exact needs of a particular company.

Salesforce-SharePoint integration helps to overcome the pitfalls related to simultaneously managing enterprise collaboration in both a CRM and a collaboration system. Files Connect, the default integration tool, can considerably increase the convenience of document management for Salesforce users. However, as it lacks focus on SharePoint users, complex scenarios, like contract management, require custom integration solutions.

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Darya Yermashkevich is a CRM Technology Observer at ScienceSoft, a software development and consulting company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Yermashkevich started off as a business blogger researching into web portal solutions, HRM, ITSM, and CRM technologies. Now she shares her hands-on experience based on real-life CRM analysis, as well as insights into the CRM industry in her business writing, with a particular focus on customer experience and advanced use of CRM software.