How to Integrate Microsoft SharePoint & Salesforce : 7 Easy Steps

Customer Relationships and Data Management processes are essential for the growth of any organization. Nowadays, the majority of companies are deploying Salesforce to provide a hassle-free buyer’s journey to their customers and to manage their data.

To take things one step further, companies are now looking to use the Salesforce SharePoint Integration to enhance their data management.

This article introduces Salesforce and SharePoint along with their key features. Also, it lays out a detailed guide, explaining the steps to set up the Salesforce SharePoint Integration.

Read along to understand the steps of this integration and learn how it can benefit your business!

Prerequisites

• A Salesforce account.
• A SharePoint account.
• Working understanding of Salesforce and SharePoint.

Introduction to Salesforce

• Salesforce provides Customer relationship Management (CRM) Software as a Service (SaaS).
• It offers a variety of software solutions and a platform for users to develop and deploy custom software. In this tool, several clients share common technology and they are all running on the latest Cloud version.
• Moreover, it can seamlessly manage your Sales related data and also enables you to collaborate with your Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service Teams.

Introduction to SharePoint

• SharePoint, developed by Microsoft, is a document collaboration and management platform. Companies use it to optimally utilize the archives, documents, reports, and other essential content that affects their business process.
• SharePoint platform is designed by keeping the needs of enterprises in mind. However, companies of all sizes can use it to work with their business data. 

Steps to Set Up the Salesforce to SharePoint Integration

• Step 1: Initiate the Salesforce Files Connect Tool
• Step 2: Grant Permissions to Salesforce Files Connect Tool
• Step 3: Establish the Authentication Provider
• Step 4: Configure SharePoint Account
• Step 5: Configure the Developed Application
• Step 6: Set up Salesforce Files Connect Tool
• Step 7: Generate an External Data Source

Step 1: Initiate the Salesforce Files Connect Tool

• To start your Salesforce SharePoint Integration, log in to your Salesforce account, and in the Quick Search box type Files Connect and press search.
• After clicking the Files Connect from the search results, go to its Edit option and update the settings according to your requirements. Make sure to check the Enable Files Connect box while configuring the settings.

Step 2: Grant Permissions to Salesforce Files Connect Tool

• On the Salesforce homepage go to the Quick Search box and type Permission Set. Select the User Access Permission Sets in the search results and enable them to give access to your users and File Connect to make the required changes on the platform.
• After providing access, you and other users will be able to make any necessary changes to make the system ready for Salesforce SharePoint Integration.

The following 2 points should be kept in mind during this step:

• If you are using latest version of SharePoint in the Salesforce SharePoint Integration, click on On-premise File Connect and check the list of users who share the same permission sets as you. 
• Also, your users should have Cloud authorization that is present in the Profile section of Files Connect. Again, make sure you’ve permitted all of your users to access the information.

Step 3: Establish the Authentication Provider

• Your Salesforce SharePoint Integration requires certain authentications before it can be deployed. After granting permissions in the previous step, go to the Quick Search box on the Salesforce homepage and type Auth Provider.
• In the search results, click New and then select Provide Type option. Now, in the Provide Type option, choose Microsoft Access Control Services as the provider of the SharePoint platform.

Important Tips – After that, enter the required details and click on Save. This will take you to the Auth Provider screen that will contain a Callback URL. Save this URL as it will be useful for the next steps of Salesforce SharePoint Integration.

Step 4: Configure SharePoint Account

An important task during the Salesforce SharePoint Integration is to configure your SharePoint account. To do this, sign in to your SharePoint instance and navigate to any collection of sites that you wish to integrate. Note the location (path) of the site collection, it would be useful later.

Now, you need to create a Microsoft 365 application using a Client Sheet using the following steps:

• Visit the URL: https://[your company name].SharePoint.com/[site collection path]/_layouts/15/appregnew.aspx.] 
• This will lead you to the App Information page. Now, click on An app running on a web server option and then select the Generate button present alongside the Client Id. In the same way, create and save a Client Secret which will be used later.
• Now Salesforce domain will act as your application domain. Click on Create to generate a new application. You will be redirected to a new page that will display the newly generated application.

Step 5: Configure the Developed Application

• At this point, you have successfully created a miniature version of an application and are now ready to configure the application you created.
• Now, navigate to the URL which will open a new form, where you will be prompted to add the app ID you created in the previous step.
• After pasting the same, select the Search option which would result in the display of a permission set box on the screen. Provide standard entry in the box and decide what level of access you are willing to grant users out of the following 3:

1. http://SharePoint/content/sitecollection/web: This allows users of Salesforce SharePoint Integration to access a single site collection, but prevents them from accessing the subsites.
2. http://SharePoint/content/sitecollection: This constrains the users of Salesforce SharePoint Integration to a single site collection, however, all the subsites of that collection are accessible.
3. http://SharePoint/content/tenant: This is used to allow the users of Salesforce SharePoint Integration to access every site collection.

Step 6: Set up Salesforce Files Connect Tool

• Now that the SharePoint app is configured, you need to reconfigure the Salesforce files. Go to the Salesforce File Connect option and provide the required data according to your preferences.
• Note: Consumer Secret in the Salesforce File Connect will be the Client Secret that you generated in SharePoint in Step 4.

Step 7: Generate an External Data Source

• This is the last step of Salesforce SharePoint Integration. Once the SharePoint platform is configured, you must create an external data source and provide the necessary permissions to it.
• After that, you can see SharePoint in your external Salesforce tabs, which you can now start using as needed and convenient.

Benefits of Salesforce SharePoint Integration

1) Improved Load Balancing

• When it comes to archiving file loads, SharePoint has the upper hand over Salesforce. Although Salesforce provides the option to attach documents and notes to your accounts, this will create a huge pile of data consisting of your invoices, contracts, work records, etc.
• This will ultimately slow the Salesforce application and will diminish its operational capacity. The Salesforce SharePoint Integration solves this issue by allowing you to move files in SharePoint which is a document management system and is the optimal choice for such work.

2) Efficient Customer Portal

• SharePoint websites enable users to share their ideas and knowledge by using Article Announcements and Promotions. Salesforce on the other hand uses a Customer Portal to provide information to external users.
• The customer portal when implemented using Salesforce proves to be a costly option. However, using the Salesforce SharePoint Integration, the portal will be based on SharePoint integrated with the Salesforce CRM.
• The former option may seem simpler but using the integration will reduce your cost and improve productivity.

3) Collaboration in Low Cost

• Salesforce provides a feature called Salesforce Chatter that makes it easier for employees to collaborate and communicate with user profiles, flows, groups, etc.
• However, this particular service is expensive and users on the free level of Chatter can’t see Salesforce data or edit documents in the CRM. Moreover, you may bring external users into Chatter, but Salesforce grants them access to limited functionalities.
• They can’t access events, calendars, content libraries, and even contacts. So even the collaboration between internal and external users suffers from disconnection.

Important Tips –SharePoint doesn’t have these limitations, and it is cheaper in comparison to Salesforce Chatter. So, the Salesforce SharePoint Integration provides the option to use SharePoint as a collaboration tool while retaining Salesforce as a CRM.

4) Enhanced Documentation

• The Salesforce SharePoint Integration also enhances the document management process for your business. SharePoint provides automatic file versioning for your  Salesforce documents.
• This allows your Sales Teams to have better control over the documentation process. Furthermore, they can now review, edit and share documents seamlessly online even on mobile devices.
• The scale and data limits of documents using the Salesforce SharePoint Integration are also much higher as compared to managing documents on Salesforce.

Read More About: Sharepoint API

Conclusion

The article introduced Salesforce and SharePoint applications and described their key features.

It also provided a step-by-step guide using which you can set up your SharePoint Integration with Salesforce.

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