Transform Your File Storage With Salesforce SharePoint Integration

Managing customer data and documents with Salesforce and SharePoint? Learn about integrating Salesforce with SharePoint and how we can simplify the process.

With the advent of new companies in the technology landscape, the competition in one’s industry has increased exponentially. When various other companies also provide similar solutions & services to customers, enterprises must maintain an edge over their competitors by continuing to offer the best quality services to their end-users. For this purpose, enterprises turn towards automated solutions that can efficiently handle their business procedures.

One such automation solution is the world’s #1 cloud CRM platform, Salesforce. Salesforce and SharePoint are each powerful on their own, but together, they offer a strategic advantage for businesses that need both world-class customer relationship management (CRM) and seamless document storage.

In this blog, we’ll break down everything you need to know about this dynamic duo.

Understanding Salesforce And SharePoint

Salesforce is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that helps businesses manage customer relationships, track leads, and drive sales while offering insights that fuel business growth. With over 150,000 users, its valuable services across different departments like marketing, sales, customer service, and finance make it the most trusted platform among enterprises.

On the other hand, SharePoint has over 200,000 users, excelling in document management, organizing workflows, and promoting collaboration. Being used by a huge chunk of Fortune 500 companies, SharePoint offers storage, retrieval, searching, archiving, tracking, management, and reporting of electronic documents and records.

Why Should You Consider Salesforce SharePoint Integration?

Here’s the thing: Salesforce is fantastic at managing customer relationships, but it’s not primarily built for document storage and management. One major issue with Salesforce is the limited nature of its primary file storage space, which works well until the large volume of files generated from managing customer information starts piling up.

This is why many businesses choose to move their documents to external storage platforms. Since most of them already use SharePoint, integrating these platforms becomes an easy and practical option. Tools like Salesforce Files Connect, help transfer files from Salesforce to external cloud storage. However, these tools come with some drawbacks.

Limitations when it comes to file storage:

Limited Storage Space

Once the limits are maxed out, you either have to buy more space or spend time deleting old files. Neither option is ideal, paying for more storage can get pricey, and constantly clearing out files is time-consuming, draining both energy and focus from other important work.

File Size Restrictions

Salesforce allows file uploads of up to 2 GB and attachments of up to 25 MB. While this may work for basic documents, it becomes a real challenge for businesses that need to store larger files, like high-res videos, big presentations, or detailed technical documents. This restriction forces users to find alternative storage or compress files, which can lead to a loss of quality.

Limited Search Features

Salesforce only lets you filter documents by name; not by date. This makes it harder to find specific files or track down older versions, creating inefficiencies and causing delays when teams need to access information quickly.

Limited File Sharing

In Salesforce, each file can only be shared up to 2,000 times. For big teams or companies that share files frequently, this limit can quickly become a problem. Teams may need to find other ways to share files, like using different platforms, which adds extra steps and can lead to confusion about where to find the latest version of a file.

To get more details on why Salesforce admins prefer Sharepoint as their external cloud storage platform, read the blog.

Boost collaboration and storage by 10x with XfilesPro integrations. Request a Demo now!

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Benefits of Salesforce SharePoint Integration

Integrating Salesforce with SharePoint gives organizations the best of both worlds: powerful customer relationship management and easy, secure document storage. Here’s why this combination works so well:

More Storage Space

SharePoint takes care of all your file storage, so there’s no need to pay for extra space on Salesforce. You get plenty of room for files without worrying about hitting storage limits.

Real-Time Collaboration And Access Control

SharePoint’s sharing features make it simple for teams to work together. It supports setting permissions for each file or folder to restrict the access, editing, and sharing options to the right individuals.

SharePoint’s real-time editing and sharing mean teams can work on the same document together without creating duplicates.

Better File Navigation

SharePoint’s search and tagging features help users find files based on keywords, dates, or document content. It saves time in searching for the right document and gets accurate results instantly.

Centralized Storage

SharePoint keeps all documents in one place, which means you won’t have to hunt through emails or multiple systems to find a file.

All of this is possible with one app from the AppExchange: XfilesPro. Salesforce SharePoint integration is achieved with minimal coding, enabling quicker decision-making, cost reductions, and better organization.

Setting Up Salesforce-SharePoint Collaboration

When you have decided to set up a seamless collaboration between your Salesforce system & SharePoint storage, there’s just the question of how to do that. Thankfully, being a customer-friendly platform, Salesforce can be easily integrated with different external storage to handle the issue with file storage limitations. There are several means through which the Salesforce-SharePoint integration can be established. These range from ready-made tools to the ones built from scratch.

Salesforce Files Connect

A Salesforce offering, the Salesforce Files Connect framework allows users to access, search, and share Salesforce files stored in external sources in real-time. It further allows Salesforce admins to set up the integration themselves with simple point-and-click tools. With Files Connect, you can configure custom properties—like columns, content types, and metadata from Office 365—enabling simultaneous search results for files in both Salesforce and SharePoint. The only downside is that this solution is rather pricey.

Custom-built Integration Applications

These applications can be designed in line with specific requirements and can address a need for multiple integrations, without exceeding the costs. However, the internal Salesforce administrator might not be able to build the custom integration app themselves, prompting external help, which adds to the cost.

Salesforce AppExchange Integration Applications

There are several options available on the AppExchange that the Salesforce admin can install. In case further features such as customized folder structure, scheduled document export, tagging, and more are required, the Salesforce developer can nearly always modify such apps.

XfilesPro: Salesforce Document Management Partner

One such AppExchange application that can help enterprises seamlessly store and collaborate files with SharePoint is XfilesPro. It is a highly customizable, admin-friendly application that performs exceptionally well with several Salesforce solutions like Service Cloud, Community/Experience Cloud, Sales Cloud, & Salesforce Platform. With this robust application, Salesforce customers can significantly reduce their file storage costs and enable 360-degree collaboration by integrating with various external storage like SharePoint.

Integration

In addition to SharePoint, XfilesPro can also seamlessly integrate the Salesforce system with various other external file storage systems. These include Cloud-based storage systems like OneDrive, Amazon S3, Google Drive, & Dropbox.

Bi-Directional Sync

With features like bi-directional syncing, you can ensure that any changes made in one platform reflect automatically in the other.

Folder Structure

It gives you the flexibility to either use the default folder structure or customize the folder paths to suit your specific requirements, making it easier to stay organized.

Access Control

Robust security measures protect your sensitive documents, access control features allow you to manage who can view or edit documents, ensuring that your information remains secure and accessible only to the right people.

Tagging

XfilesPro has leveraged the capabilities of SharePoint to the fullest. The tagging feature of SharePoint helps users access files faster, while the multisite feature allows for seamless management of interconnected sites, making it easier to collaborate across different teams and departments.

Steps to Integrate Salesforce with Sharepoint Using XfilesPro

Download XfilesPro Document Management for Salesforce: Integrate, Store, Collaborate from AppExchange.
Login to your Salesforce account and search for installed packages, install the app in your org.
Click on the app launcher and search for XfilesPro, a new screen will appear.
For Storage Setup, go to Cloud Storage, and select SharePoint (Azure).
Go to object setup and set the object you need to migrate files.
To make it easier for users, we have added a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the entire process.
Click here to explore how to configure the XfilesPro component and unlock its full potential.

Best Practices for Sharepoint and Salesforce Integration

Define use case and goals

Determine what you want to achieve with the integration.

Prioritize Security Measures

Use strong authentication and routinely review and update access permissions and controls.

Data Accuracy

Clean and remove duplicate data before integrating, apply validation rules to keep data quality high.

Provide Regular User Training

Hold training sessions for users on an ongoing basis.

Adhere to Compliance Standards

Ensure your integration meets data privacy regulations. Following these practices will help create a seamless integration that secures data, enhances system functionality, and provides a smooth user experience.

Key Takeaways

Salesforce SharePoint Integration is a smart, strategic move for companies to stay ahead of the curve. As a business grows, the volume of customer-related files increases, potentially maxing out Salesforce’s primary storage. For companies already using SharePoint for secure document storage and collaboration, integrating the two platforms makes practical sense.

SharePoint serves as a single source for all documents, eliminating the need to navigate multiple systems or email chains to find a file. By offloading file storage to SharePoint, companies can save on Salesforce storage costs while gaining plenty of room for their files.

The XfilesPro app on Salesforce AppExchange offers a seamless way to connect Salesforce and SharePoint. Companies can easily move and manage files, reduce storage costs, and benefit from a more organized system. A unified system where customer data and documents are all managed seamlessly sounds like a perfect match, doesn’t it?

Book a demo with our experts today and see for yourself what this perfect match can do for your business.

FAQs

Can I create a folder in SharePoint from Salesforce?

Yes, XfilesPro allows you to create as many folders as you want on either platform, and they will automatically sync with the other using the bi-directional syncing feature.

Does Salesforce integrate with Microsoft?

Salesforce seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products, including Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Outlook, and Teams.

Is Salesforce file Connect free?

Salesforce Files Connect is not free. Instead, you can opt for integration apps such as XfilesPro to connect Salesforce with external cloud storage platforms such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Amazon S3, Google Drive, & Dropbox.

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