3 Ways to Integrate NetSuite with Salesforce

3 Ways to Integrate NetSuite with Salesforce by Brian Newbold.

In our digital world, we can’t afford to spend time re-entering our Salesforce sales into a billable form in NetSuite. A swivel seat is excruciating both in time spent and accuracy errors. And when it’s time to automate, it seems like all suggestions start with “it’s an easy-to-use template” yet ultimately end up being custom-built solutions.

My company, like yours, is certainly a special snowflake – unique in how we process orders and report our sales and financial data. But aren’t snowflakes also nearly identical in their structure, form, and function? Surely when you look very closely you will see the many fine and unique details, but at the macro level, they’re pretty much just the same. Similarly, aren’t our business processes nearly alike at macro with a modicum of uniqueness? 

In the sense of integrating NetSuite with Salesforce, it seems our business needs across most companies fall into separate categories in about 3 different ways: 

• First and most basic, where your processes fit the sample templates and have low volume. Everything pretty much just works out-of-the-box with the lowest-cost tier middleware
• Second, where most of us fit, having a healthy volume of orders and reasonable depth of customizations. We’ve outgrown the templates and pushed the boundaries a bit 
• Third and most complex, the large-enterprise ERP with a few thousand products and hundreds of thousands if not millions of customers. High volume and highly customized, where you’ve hired a team of purpose-driven integration engineers.

So now with a general idea to which category you belong, which tier of software should you choose? Well, that can be a bit confusing depending on whose advice you take. A wise man once told me that if you ask a plumber to fix your house, you’ll get a plumbing solution. Ask a roofer to fix the same house and he’ll fix it with… well, you get the point. 

When you reach out to an SI consultant, you will certainly get a systems integrator solution; but is it a fresh solution or the same old templated rollout? Plumbing and roofing haven’t changed much since 2006, but what about software solutions? Keep in mind the iterative progress your proposed solution will make in the coming years and strive to find a balance of features and longevity, as any solution is likely to be your solution for some time to come.

Enough with the cautionary tales and down to the suggestions.

Tier 1: Basic functionality, no customization

In this tier, my preferred go-to solutions are Zapier, Celigo, or Mulesoft and making use of built-in templates. This approach will perform the wire-up of NetSuite and Salesforce but will be nothing but the basics. The cost will be minimized but functionality will remain far from ideal. Growth is a little tough too and is sure to look closely at the transaction-based pricing structure and make sure it will continue to fit your growth plans.

Tier 2: Robust functionality, good customization.

In this tier, I would consider Celigo or Boomi with initial SI stand up, or Breadwinner with SI optional. Celigo and Boomi being many-to-many iPaaS solutions are phenomenal when you need to wire up an entire BizApps ecosystem. However, they come with hidden costs associated with the necessity to use a great systems integrator (SI) and a longer timeline than most expect. The NetSuite and Salesforce orchestration is generally the most complex wire-up of anything you’re connecting and will require diligence.

A bit of a hidden gem in the Tier 2 space is actually not an iPaaS, but rather a purpose-built NetSuite and Salesforce orchestration suite called Breadwinner. My favorite part of Breadwinner is that they’re constantly adding features and enhancing their product. Since it’s hosted on the AppExchange, it’s hosted from Salesforce itself. 

The clear advantage with Breadwinner comes in when you realize you’ve got all the NetSuite data stored and reportable alongside Salesforce. It’s a product you deploy, rather than a project you embark on. Definitely worth a nod as they’ve saved me a ton of time and have given a far more complete integration in their free trial, rather than the many-to-many packages deliver in their end product.

Tier 3: Custom functionality, all customization.

In this tier, expect the best fits to be Boomi, Talend, and the like with dedicated staff and definitely an initial SI standup. This is where the heavy hitters come in that can handle millions of transactions and complex transforms. By far the costliest solutions but sometimes the only ones that can get the job done. These are full-fledged ETL tools and if you’ve got the resources, these are for you. 

Boomi in my experience has been the easiest to set up initially, but I’ve pushed it and hit the upper limits of transactions. Talend’s strengths are in delivering great integrations in distributed node environments. A bit more programmatic than drag-and-drop, but well worth it when you’ve got those unique environments. 

Where does your business fit in?

Salesforce Lightning Performance

Salesforce Lightning promises a lightning experience, however, some users experience a much slower performance in Lightning compare to Classic. Let's discuss how Lightning different from Classic and what we can do to improve the performance.

In Salesforce Classic, web pages are generated by the server, and then they’re rendered on the client (your user’s desktop or mobile device). In Lightning Experience, pages are loaded on your user’s device progressively, component by component.


1. IdeaExchange
Vote for this idea Lightning Experience LEX - lightning speed please! - as of now 55,490 points, feel free to vote that idea, but as performance is a long journey, let us dig further what we can do to increase the performance


2. Geographical
Yes, Salesforce is on the cloud, meaning you can access Salesforce from anywhere with an internet connection. However, your Salesforce org. still located in an instance with physical hardware in the data centers.

You may see instance APxx, EUxx, NAxx, which represents the data center's physical location that hosts your Salesforce org. (Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America). You should choose the instance that near to you. However, if your users are scattered around the world, select the instance where most of your users are located. When the user is located nearer to the Salesforce data center, latency will be lower and have better performance.

Using the speed test provided by salesforce, we can check the latency between our computer to salesforce org. that we are accessing. Make sure you already log in to Salesforce before running the speed test, you just need to add speedtest.jsp after salesforce.com/, here is the syntax https://[domain].my.salesforce.com/speedtest.jsp

The latency is 107 ms for my computer in Singapore to access the AP4 instance

The latency is 276 ms for my computer in Singapore to access the NA89 instance

From the above screenshots accessing the AP4 instance is much faster for me compare to the org located in NA89.

For the fastest and most stable experience, Salesforce recommends:

• An Octane score of 30,000 or greater
• Network latency of 150 ms or less
• Download speed of 3 Mbps or greater
• At least 8 GB of RAM, with 3 GB available for Salesforce browser tabs

Minimum requirements are:

• An Octane score of 20,000 or greater
• Network latency of 200 ms or less
• Download speed of 1 Mbps or greater
• At least 5 GB of RAM, with 2 GB available for Salesforce browser tabs

3. Hardware

In the above screenshots, at the top left, the speed test measures the Octane score. An Octane score is a benchmark that measures a JavaScript engine's performance by running a series of automated tests. The higher the Octane score, the better your Lightning Experience performance will be. Make sure your device has enough RAM. 

4. Web Browser

Lightning Experience supports most browsers, but you may find that it runs faster in some browsers than others. For instance, Lightning Experience runs faster in Google Chrome than Safari. 

You can check the best performance by browser from Lightning Usage App and select the Browser menu under Usage.

5. Experienced Page Time (EPT) 

Experienced Page Time (EPT) is a performance metric Salesforce uses in Lightning to measure page load time. EPT measures how long it takes for a page to load into a state that a user can meaningfully interact with.

To see the page load time/EPT counter from a page, you just need to add ?eptVisible=1 at the end of the URL, for example, https://domain.lightning.force.com/lightning/page/home?eptVisible=1

Each page will have a different EPT depending on the components added to the page. 

6. Lightning Component Debug Mode

Follow this document to enable debug mode for certain users. Salesforce is slower for any user who has debug mode enabled. Don’t leave debug mode on permanently. Users who have debug mode enabled see a banner notification once a week while it’s enabled.

Once the debug mode is enabled for you, you will also see the page load time (similar to eptVisible=1) and network bandwidth. You can click on the network bandwidth numbers to clear the storage, otherwise, it will be kept adding.

7. Lightning Page Analysis 

You can analyze lightning a page performance by editing the page and click Analyze button, you will get the predicted page load time (in seconds) and performance breakdown by component.

Reference: 

• Improve performance and speed in Lightning Experience
• Measure lightning page load times
• Lightning Experience Performance Optimization
• Improve Speed and Performance in Lightning Experience
• Measure Lightning Experience Performance and Experienced Page Time (EPT)

Salesforce Inbox

Almost 2 years ago, we shared how to check the Salesforce Inbox License, but we have not discussed the Salesforce Inbox itself.

Salesforce Inbox is a productivity tool to integrate Salesforce with emails, such as Outlook and Gmail. It is available with additional cost, except your company already purchased additional products that include Inbox. Inbox work in Core Salesforce platform which is Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Lightning Platform.

You can get Inbox license through the following products:

• Sales Cloud Einstein
• High Velocity Sales
• Inbox

Additional productivity features offered by Inbox:

• Calendar availability
• Email tracking and Links tracking
• Text shortcuts
• Scheduling email delivery
• Inbox mobile app

Here screenshots of the Salesforce panel in Outlook for users with and without Inbox

View/Open Email

Related tab is the default tab for both users with and without Inbox, from here, users able to log email open to Salesforce. Also will display information related to People, Accounts, Opportunities, and Case, based on the email address of sender and recipients.

Tasks tab is also available for both users with and without Inbox. This tab will show your Tasks in Salesforce.

Feed tab will show you tracked emails that have been opened and links have been clicked, this is only available for Inbox users.

Schedule tab will show all email has been scheduled for delivery, you can edit the send time and delete the email scheduled, the email itself is stored in the Draft folder. This only available for Inbox users.

Compose Email

Related tab, this is similar for users with and without Inbox, with the exception of "Log Email on Send" move to Compose tab for users who have Inbox permission, the default tab for Inbox users is Compose, instead of Related.

Tasks tab, this is similar to the tab when user view/open email.

Feed and Scheduled tab, both these tab are similar to the tabs when view email and only available for Inbox users.

Compose tab, this is the default tab for users with Inbox. There are a lot of productivity features from:

• Manually add your availability slots with visibility of your Outlook calendar
• Enable email for tracking and tracking links
• Add text shortcut, this is useful when your user always send the same wording
• Send Later, to make sure the email sent to appear on the recipients business hour

Inbox mobile app

Inbox also provides an additional mobile app that offers the same features as in the Outlook plugin, you can download it from App Store or Google Play Store.

Reference:

• Salesforce Inbox License
• Salesforce Inbox
• Inbox Clients

Einstein Analytics: "Fix" data with Update transformation

Scenario: there are changes in the business, based on the revision given, we need to update data stored in an existing dataset or create a new dataset.

Solution: use dataflow, in this scenario, we are going to use the update node, which is not so commonly used in the dataflow.

JSON behind update node

 "updateMaster": {

    "action": "update",

    "parameters": {

      "left": "getMaster",

      "update_columns": {

        "ID": "ID",

        "Desc": "Note"

      },

      "right": "getRevision",

      "left_key": [

        "ID"

      ],

      "right_key": [

        "Old_ID"

      ]

    }

  }

For the register node:

• Put the same Alias/Name to the master dataset if you want to overwrite it, the existing dashboard will work as per normal
• Use different Alias/Name from the source master dataset if you want to create a new dataset, you need to edit the existing dashboard to use the new dataset created. 

Reference:

• update Transformation

Empowering People and Businesses Through Technology

This blog appeared first on https://www.salesforce.com/ap/blog/2021/04/meet-trailblazer-johan-yu.html

At Salesforce, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Johan Yu, a Salesforce MVP, business systems architect, blogger, and author, based in Singapore. Johan loves using the power of data for the benefit of all business stakeholders.

In the remote Indonesian village where Johan Yu grew up, electricity was a rare luxury. Therefore, all tasks connected to his father’s farming business were done manually. Along with the farming itself, these included record-keeping of expenses, crop production levels, and sales accounts.

At school, Johan began to learn about computers. Very soon, he recognised the power such technology would bring to his father’s business, as well as his community. Johan wasn’t thinking of anything sophisticated like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or robotic automation. Such technology was still a long way off. He could simply see that certain jobs were better left to machines, enabling humans to be better at what they do.

“At my high school, we had a computer lab and I became very interested in computers,” says Johan. “Once my teachers knew I was interested in computer science, they guided me on a path to study at university in Jakarta.”

Johan earned a Bachelor of Computer, Management Information Systems, at Jakarta’s BINUS University. Then, he took a Master of Management, Information Systems, at BINUS University and Australia’s Curtin University. 

While studying,  Johan realised his dream could come true. As a child, he had imagined using the power of computing to help businesspeople like his father. Today, he is a business systems architect and Salesforce MVP, who works with businesses to solve problems using technology.

Becoming “skilled, more competent, and faster”

For seven years during and following university, Johan worked for an insurance firm. Then he moved to Sydney, Australia, and took a job with the country’s first Salesforce partner. Immediately, the Salesforce platform made sense to him. It wasn’t so much about what it did, but more about what it allowed him to do.

“I had come from using basic systems to building applications,” Johan says. “And I realised there were a lot of things that I thought IT professionals shouldn’t have to do any more.

“I saw that we could focus more on how technology can enable the strategic needs of the business, rather than just the infrastructure required. The capabilities of the technology enabled us to think about the business in a different way.”

The capabilities of the Salesforce platform made him feel “skilled, more competent, and faster”, Johan says. In the past, he had never experienced a strong community around a platform or brand. So when he had challenges, it was sometimes difficult to find solutions. But once he discovered how active the Salesforce community was, he realised he was able to find answers immediately, from Trailblazers all over the world.

“I appreciated the speed to execute,” he says. “In the past, I had to spend a long time setting up the server, the database, and more. But the Salesforce platform is so convenient. I could just start working on projects immediately. And reach out to the community for help when needed.”

Success = user experience + empowerment

Johan is currently working in a multinational company, from his home in Singapore, with more than 10,000 people around the globe. How does he ensure they’re all making the most of a platform or application that has been developed for them? 

“We try to make sure apps are simple for users to understand and interact with,” he says. “We don’t want to put too much effort into documentation. If it is user-friendly, then it makes sense. If it’s not user-friendly, it’s just wasting money.”

Importantly, Johan says, technology is not about replacing people. Its true power, as he realised when he was a young boy, is in making people even better at what they do.

“In the corporate world, we don’t use AI to replace people. We use it to enable people,” he says. 

“Our people can use AI to see how likely it is that a sale will close. The propensity to close is based on historical data and on the experience of similar customers. So, the AI helps salespeople to prioritise their work. We see that it makes them more successful.”

Leading the Salesforce community in Singapore

In Singapore, Johan is well-known as a generous leader within the Salesforce community. He is considered a knowledgeable expert, who spends a great deal of time helping others to find solutions to powerful business challenges.

This assistance includes a Salesforce-themed blog site, managed and written by Johan, which attracts more than  2,200 people every day from around the world. Most of his visitors are not from Singapore. They come from the USA, UK, and India. His reputation has spread around the globe.

The prolific sharer of knowledge has also written three books. They are Salesforce Reporting and Dashboards, Salesforce Lightning Reporting and Dashboards, and Getting Started with Salesforce Einstein Analytics.

“One of my passions is sharing knowledge with other people,” Johan says. “It’s something I really enjoy. The community has always given me answers fast and shared its knowledge, so I like to do the same.”

Salesforce: Query User Assigned with Package License

Scenario: your company purchased X licenses for a package software installed in Salesforce, what is the easy way to extract users has been granted with that package software?

Solution: open the Package Details then click the "Manage Licenses" button. However, this is not easy when you have thousands of users.

Alternative solution: use SOQL, so we can extract the data easily.

1. Query the Package Id

You need to know the Namespace Prefix of the package to get the Package Id. You can get the Namespace Prefix from Package Details, including allowed licenses and used licenses.

SELECT Id, NamespacePrefix, AllowedLicenses, UsedLicenses, CreatedDate, ExpirationDate, Status FROM PackageLicense ORDER BY NamespacePrefix

2. Query User Package License object

SELECT Id, PackageLicenseId, CreatedById, CreatedDate, UserId FROM UserPackageLicense

By query UserPackageLicense object and filter with PackageLicenseId, you can get :

- UserId: user assigned with the license

- CreatedById: who grants the license

- CreatedByDate: when is the license granted

But unfortunately, you can't use relationship query for UserId to get the name and profile and so on, so you need to query to User object again, subscribe for this KI.