Heroku Salesforce Integration: 4 Easy Steps

With the digitization of businesses, data related to Sales and Clients have increased exponentially. As a result, organizations have turned to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to manage this vast volume of data. Salesforce is one such CRM solution that offers various features focused on fulfilling the Customer Service and Data Automation needs of enterprises. This software unifies Marketing, Sales, and Services into a single platform so that businesses using it have an integrated view of their customers. Moreover, it enables companies to manage their client data optimally.

Companies involved in application development are drawn towards the Heroku platform. This Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is often considered the fastest, and cheapest, way to build an enterprise-grade application. Moreover, the Heroku Support Ecosystem Powered by Salesforce and AWS is nearly impossible to beat with an in-house solution. Now, Salesforce empowers businesses of all sizes to create amazing app experiences that strengthen customer relationships. Using the Heroku Salesforce Integration makes it easy to deploy engaging public Cloud applications.

This article will introduce Salesforce and Heroku along with their key features. It will also provide you a detailed guide to set up the Heroku Salesforce Integration using Heroku Connect. Furthermore, the article will list down the benefits of combining these 2 platforms. Read along to understand the process and advantages of Heroku Salesforce Integration.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Introduction to Salesforce
• Introduction to Heroku
• Steps to Set Up the Heroku Salesforce Integration
  • Step 1: Create a New Heroku Application
  • Step 2: Implement Heroku Add-ons
  • Step 3: Perform the Heroku Connect Salesforce Process
  • Step 4: Create a Heroku Salesforce Mapping
• Benefits of Heroku Salesforce Integration
• Conclusion

Prerequisites

• A Heroku account.
• A Salesforce developer account.
• Working knowledge of Heroku and Salesforce.

Introduction to Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the most sought-after Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms that uses Cloud technology for providing Data Automation and Customer Management solutions to businesses. It provides a single platform for tracking and managing your data related to Marketing Campaigns and Leads. Moreover, it uses a Data Analysis module that can provide you with an in-depth view of your customers. When you collaborate with other tools, this module brings all your teams together and keeps them on the same page. 

These attributes make it a versatile solution for your Marketing, Sales, and Service Teams. Using Salesforce, you can customize built-in features, such as various data structures and user interfaces, and easily collaborate with your various teams. One of the main reasons for the growing popularity of Salesforce is that it provides a holistic view of your company’s day-to-day interactions with customers.

Key Features of Salesforce

The following features make Salesforce essential for businesses around the world:

• Simple Setup: Salesforce requires just a few weeks to fully set up, unlike many CRMs on the market, which can often take up to more than a year to set up and fully deploy. 
• Convenient: Salesforce provides a straightforward user interface and workflow. Thus it requires absolutely no training to get started with this tool. 
• Customization: Salesforce allows businesses to easily customize some of its built-in features. Therefore, companies can modify this tool according to their strategies. 
• Invoice Planning: Salesforce provides enough information about your customers for your Sales Team to develop optimal strategies for these prospects, targeting them individually. It can make your customers more valuable and increase your success rate. 
• Availability: Salesforce works on Cloud technology and thus enables its users to access their Salesforce account from any remote location. Therefore, if you have an active internet connection, you can easily work with this tool. In addition, Salesforce has an attractive and powerful mobile app that is popular among its users.

To learn more about Salesforce, click here.

Introduction to Heroku

Heroku is a well-known platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that supports developers to perform hassle-free deployment, scaling, and management of applications. It provides virtual containers called Dynos which can run and test your applications. Dynos are fundamentally virtual Linux containers that can run code based on user commands. Moreover, you can work on this platform using a wide range of programming languages ​​such as Java, Ruby, PHP, Node.js, Python, etc. 

Heroku supports every stage of the application development lifecycle process, enabling users to build, run, manage, and scale projects easily. Also, developers can customize their application stacks with add-on features such as Logging, Monitoring, Data Stores, and more. Heroku provides an optimal ecosystem for deploying and running modern applications. This gives developers an integrated approach to building applications using their preferred development tools and workflows. Developers can get rapid application development by using Heroku and it is quite affordable as it charges its users based on the number of Virtual Machines required for their applications. 

Key Features of Heroku

In today’s markets, Heroku is in much demand due to its following features:

• Automates Extra Processes: Heroku automates many processes like server management during application development. Moreover, it provides developers access to an easy-to-use web user interface. They can easily create new software releases in the form of release branches and quickly deploy branches to different environments. Heroku’s ease of execution makes it a cost-effective choice for application development.
• Convenient Pricing: Heroku offers a free version that is popular for developing small applications. Developers can also opt for different tier packages better suited to the complex requirements of large enterprises. Moreover, the intuitive dashboard of the Heroku platform helps users to easily scale, manage and monitor applications
• Secure Development: Heroku provides numerous safety features that allow developers to create applications securely. This PaaS platform reduces the need for developers to apply constant security patches. This proves helpful, especially while developing more sophisticated web applications. Furthermore, Heroku guarantees a high level of security for both the servers and the application code.
• Horizontal Scaling: Once an application is developed, Heroku enables you to use Horizontal Scaling and create an unlimited number of independent copies of that application. Heroku provides an auto-scaling feature that can easily detect traffic spikes and create more Dynos accordingly.

To learn more about Heroku, visit here.

Steps to Set Up the Heroku Salesforce Integration

Heroku Connect can be used to set up the Heroku Salesforce Integration easily. Heroku Connect tool enables you to develop applications that can share your data with Salesforce. Moreover, it collaborates the data in your Heroku Postgres Database with contacts, accounts, etc., in the Salesforce Database. The following steps will help you to implement the Heroku Salesforce Integration:

• Step 1: Create a New Heroku Application
• Step 2: Implement Heroku Add-ons
• Step 3: Perform the Heroku Connect Salesforce Process
• Step 4: Create a Heroku Salesforce Mapping

Step 1: Create a New Heroku Application

Sign in to your Heroku account, navigate to the Heroku app creation page and, click on “Create New App”. Provide a suitable name and region for your application and click on “Create App” as shown in the below image.

Step 2: Implement Heroku Add-ons

Once a new application is created you will be navigated back to the Heroku Dashboard. Now, go to the top menu and select “Resources” as shown in the below image.

Then, in the “Add ons” search box write “Heroku Connect” and select provision to add Heroku Connect in your application as shown below. 

Repeat the same process for another add-on “Heroku Postgres” and use the “Hobby Dev Free” plan for provisioning it as shown in the below image.

This step will add both Heroku Connect and Heroku Postgres Database to your newly created application.

Step 3: Perform the Heroku Connect Salesforce Process

Since the required add-ons are present in your application, you can now initiate the Heroku Salesforce Integration process. Click on the “Heroku Connect Resource” and you will be navigated to a new page. Now, to set up your Heroku Salesforce connection click on “Setup Connection” as shown below.

Provide a name for your schema and then click “Next” to perform the Salesforce connect Heroku process. This is shown in the below image.

After that go to “Environment” choose production from its dropdown menu. After that, select your API Version and then click on “Authorize” as shown in the below image. This will bring you to the Salesforce login page. Enter the credentials for your Salesforce account and click on “Log in“. With that, your Heroku Salesforce integration will begin.

Step 4: Create a Heroku Salesforce Mapping

Now since the Heroku Salesforce Integration is in place, you can easily map the desired Salesforce object with Heroku. Log into your Heroku application and go to “Resources”. Open Heroku Connect add-ons and click on “Create Mapping“. Now, choose the object you want to map, and then select the required fields to sync with your Heroku application as shown below.

Once the Heroku Salesforce Integration is in place and you have created a mapping, data from the Salesforce object will be automatically synced with the Heroku application. Moreover, you can monitor the Salesforce data by clicking the “Explorer” option present at the top menu on the Heroku dashboard as shown in the below image. 

That’s it! Your Heroku Salesforce Integration is ready.

Benefits of Heroku Salesforce Integration

The Heroku Salesforce Integration will provide the following benefits to your business:

• Heroku Connect provides the Data Replication and Data Proxy features for Salesforce. Data Replication synchronizes data between your Salesforce account and your Heroku Postgres Database. The synchronization however can be either one-way or bi-directional. Data Proxy, on the other hand, provides Data Proxy to ​Salesforce using Heroku ​External Objects which retrieve data from other web services ​to the specified Heroku Postgres database using  ​RESTful endpoints 
• Heroku Connect prevents you from mixing the Salesforce API interactions with the Heroku application code. Moreover, you can develop applications on Heroku that use the leading open source ​database, Postgres, and perform data transformations in Postgres using SQL. Information like detailed logs, subscription notification, etc from Salesforce also aid your application development process in Heroku.
• Heroku Connect offers an API that can automate tasks like creating, maintaining, and monitoring the sync operations involved in the Heroku Salesforce Integration. This API is useful for tasks that require repeatable automation. For example, Consistent configuration across development, staging, and production environments. The API also simplifies the task of managing multiple connections across Salesforce and integrating Heroku Connect status with existing operational systems and alerts.
• Data storage configurations and limitations can often cause queries in Salesforce to slow down. With the Heroku Salesforce Integration in place, you can offload selected data into the Heroku Postgres Database. This will allow faster processing of your SQL scripts with Heroku features like Fork and Follow that enable Cloning and Horizontal Scaling of your data. 

Conclusion

The article introduced Salesforce and Heroku applications and described their key features. It also provided a step-by-step guide using which you can set up your Heroku Salesforce Integration. Furthermore, the article listed the various benefits of integrating your Heroku and Salesforce accounts. 

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

Now, you may want to go one step further and perform analysis on the Salesforce data. This will require you to transfer data from the Salesforce account to a Data Warehouse using various complex ETL processes. Hevo Data will automate your data transfer process, hence allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business like Analytics, Customer Management, etc. This platform allows you to transfer data from 100+ multiple sources like Salesforce for free to Cloud-based Data Warehouses like Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, etc. It will provide you a hassle-free experience and make your work life much easier.

Want to take Hevo for a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite first hand.

Share your understanding of the Heroku Salesforce Integration in the comments below!