Connect Salesforce to Firebolt: 2 Ways to Integrate Data

Salesforce is designed for organizations to manage comprehensive consumer data for improving business operations. However, it only offers basic data insights for businesses to keep a tab on their performance metrics. As a result, for in-depth data analytics of your sales and marketing activities, you should migrate data from Salesforce to Firebolt, a cloud-based data warehouse. 

Firebolt supports complex data analysis through its parallel processing capabilities. Migrating data from Salesforce to Firebolt effectively handles complex reporting and analytics using a huge volume of customer data. This can allow you to make informed decisions to gain a competitive advantage.

This article will help you understand the two ways to load data from Salesforce to Firebolt. 

Methods to Connect Salesforce to Firebolt

The two methods to connect Salesforce to Firebolt are as follows:

• Method 1: Move data from Salesforce using CSV files export feature. 
• Method 2: Use a no-code tool to automate the salesforce to Firebolt migration process. 

Prerequisites

Before heading for Salesforce to Firebolt integration, you must fulfill these prerequisites:

• An active Salesforce production account or sandbox account.
• An active Firebolt account.
• A Firebolt database for loading your data. Read these steps to create your Firebolt database.
• A General Purpose engine is attached to the database.
• An Amazon S3 bucket in the same region as the Firebolt database.

Method 1: Move Data from Salesforce Using CSV Files

These following are the steps involved while moving data from Salesforce to Firebolt using CSV files:

• Step 1: Extract data from the Salesforce platform in CSV format.
• Step 2: Upload exported data to an Amazon S3 bucket.
• Step 3: Upload data to Firebolt.

Step 1: Export the Data from Salesforce

Exporting data from Salesforce in CSV format includes the following steps:

• Within the Salesforce Dashboard, select the Setup icon on the top left.

• In the Search box at the top, enter Data Export.

• Click Export Data to extract the data immediately.

Note: Once your data is extracted and ready, you will receive a mail with a zip archive link attached to your registered Email id.

Step 2: Upload the Data to an S3 Bucket

Follow the below-mentioned steps to upload data to an S3 bucket,

• Sign in to your AWS console and open the S3 service. 
• Create a new bucket to upload the data.
• Open the newly created bucket.
• Click on the Upload button.
• Click on the Add File button.
• Now, select the file from your system to upload.

Note: Firebolt needs access to S3 to migrate the data. Provide S3 bucket resources with the required Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions using AWS Management Console.  

Step 3: Upload Data to Firebolt

To upload CSV data from the S3 bucket to the Firebolt database, you must follow these steps:

• Create an external table: Create a table with the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command and point it to S3. Firebolt would be unable to view or import Amazon S3 data without the proper AWS IAM authorization.

In the external table definition, provide the credentials enabling Firebolt to read from S3. There are two ways to enter credentials while establishing an external table. You could give an Identity and Access Management (IAM) role or access key.

• Create a fact table: The external table you created in the previous step only serves as a connector to external data sources. However, to store the downloaded data in Firebolt, create a fact table.

• Import the data into the fact table: You need to execute the INSERT INTO command to migrate the data from the external table to the fact table. Firebolt will consider the IAM role specified in the table definition to retrieve data from the designated location.

With these steps, you will successfully connect Salesforce to Firebolt. 

Although the CSV file export method may be time-consuming, it proves advantageous in the following scenarios:

• One-time exporting: This method is suitable when you require occasional data exports as it does not require establishing a robust ETL pipeline. You can use the native features to export and import small amounts of data occasionally.

• Data security: If you do not want your data to move into a third-party server for security reasons, you can use this manual import and export method. This will keep your data secure. 

Limitations of Using CSV Files to Move Data from Salesforce to Firebolt

While there are some advantages of a manual process, it has its own limitations that you should consider before embracing the manual method. Here are some of the major limitations:  

• No data validation: In a manual process, you often need to pay more attention to data integrity and quality validation. This is primarily because there is no automated process to check for the accuracy and completeness of the data. This can lead to issues like duplicate data, missing values, and more. For instance, you might import the same sales data twice or might accidentally delete the data while handling manually, leading to incorrect datasets for analysis.

• Performance impact: For very large datasets, CSV file exports and imports can result in performance bottlenecks. As the sales and marketing data increases, parsing and processing large CSV files can be time-consuming.

• Lacks real-time integration: CSV file export is typically a batch-oriented process, and it does not help with real-time data integration; for regularly updating the data to the warehouse, you need to export and upload the files repeatedly, which is resource-intensive. 

Method 2: Automating the Data Migration Process Using a No-Code Tool

Migrating your data from Salesforce to Firebolt manually is not an ideal solution to obtain a seamless analytics workflow. As a result, you should implement a fully automated data migration process with no-code tools. Here are the advantages of using no-code data migration tools:

Faster implementation: No-code tools typically provide pre-built connectors and templates for popular data sources like Salesforce and destinations like Firebolt. This streamlines the setup process and enables quick implementation, saving time and effort.

Visual mapping and transformation: No-code tools often offer visual data mapping and transformation capabilities. This visual approach allows users to easily configure how data from Salesforce should be mapped and transformed to fit the data model of Firebolt without delving into complex code scripts.

Scalability: No-code tools can often handle data migrations of varying sizes, from small datasets to large-scale enterprise migrations. This scalability allows businesses to adapt the migration process to their specific needs and growth. Irrespective of how quickly your Salesforce data increases, the no-code tool can scale automatically to move your customer’s data without any human intervention.

Hevo Data is a widely used no-code tool offering a straightforward process for establishing the Salesforce to Firebolt ETL pipeline. It provides error-free, near-real-time data integration that takes only a few minutes to set up. 

You can access numerous data connectors on the Hevo platform that can help you extract data from the source to load it into the desired destination quickly. 

Here are the steps you can follow to move data from Salesforce to Firebolt using Hevo:

Step 1: Configure the source 

Step 2: Configure the destination

Once you complete these two steps, you can load data from Salesforce to Firebolt in a few minutes. 

The Salesforce connector has a default pipeline frequency of 3 hrs for data replication. While the minimum pipeline frequency is 15 minutes, the maximum is 24 hours. Select any integer value from 1-24 to set a custom frequency. 

Let’s look at some of the significant features of Hevo Data for Salesforce to Firebolt migration.

• Minimal maintenance required: Since the entire data replication process is fully managed and maintained by Hevo, you don’t need to worry about maintenance tasks. This eliminates the need for resources or time needed to ensure the smooth working of the data replication pipeline. 

• Automated data validation: Hevo provides built-in data validation checks in the ETL pipeline to ensure data accuracy and integrity during migration. This helps identify and rectify any data discrepancies before they reach and affect the target data warehouse.

• Pre-built connectors: Hevo offers over 150 pre-built connectors for popular data sources like databases, cloud applications, CRM systems, and more. This makes connecting and fetching data from different sources and loading them into the desired destination is simple.

• Live support: Hevo provides round-the-clock support to its customers. You can connect with an expert using email, live chat, or even call to get assistance from the Hevo team. 

What Can You Achieve by Integrating Data from Salesforce to Firebolt?

Migrating your data from Salesforce to Firebolt can help in achieving the following benefits: 

• Boost revenue with better insights: Businesses can predict potential consumers by combining CRM data and customer activity across multiple channels. The insightful data empowers the sales team to take proactive measures for higher conversion rates.

• Advanced sales analytics: Firebolt’s high-performance architecture allows complex analytics and reporting on large datasets. By integrating Salesforce data, you can perform in-depth analysis, generate meaningful reports, and gain valuable insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and other critical metrics.

• Sales team productivity: By integrating salesforce data into Firebolt, you evaluate your sales team’s performance. You can determine the sales representative’s productivity and optimize it if necessary. For instance, you can identify slow movers and train them to boost productivity. 

Conclusion

Integrating data from Salesforce to Firebolt offers many advantages that drive data-driven decision-making and improve business outcomes. By migrating data from Salesforce to Firebolt, organizations can achieve a 360-degree view of their customers, enabling better customer segmentation and personalized marketing efforts. 

However, moving CSV files manually comes with a set of challenges and limitations, such as the incapability of handling huge volumes of data, time-consuming, and more. However, with Hevo, you can overcome all these limitations and establish an automated data Salesforce to Firebolt migration pipeline. Hevo’s pre-built connectors make connecting to various data sources seamless, saving time and effort during integration.

Want to take Hevo for a spin? SIGN UP for a 14-day free trial and simplify your data integration process. Check out the pricing details to understand which plan fulfills all your business needs.

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