The age of digitization calls for tools and platforms that deal with process automation, cloud-based operations, data management, and other activities that are needed for a business to thrive in the modern market. Salesforce has maintained its status as a pioneer in the CRM industry for more than two decades. The cloud-based platform allows organizations operating at all scales and belonging to all major industries to manage their data to provide personalized services to the customers they cater to.
Most (if not all) modern business processes revolve around the right management of data. Whether you are willing to sell your offerings, market your brand, or provide personalized support to your customers, you need to manage your records effectively. Platforms like Salesforce provide users with automated tools that help cater to the specific needs and preferences of their clients.
To make the most of Salesforce, it is important for an organization to use the right ETL tools to manage their datasets effectively.
What Is An ETL Tool?
ETL stands for “extract, transform, load.” As the name suggests, an ETL tool is a tool that helps users extract data from specific sources, transform the data according to their requirements, and load them into specific destinations and data warehouses. These tools are important for organizations operating at all scales for managing their records and streamlining their business processes.
Today, businesses gather data from multiple sources and process it using CRM platforms like Salesforce. When you use the right ETL solutions with Salesforce, you can reach out to your customers based on their specific preferences, integrate the CRM platform with suitable third-party applications, and understand seemingly random and complicated datasets.
Whether you are willing to migrate data from an external platform to Salesforce, move data between multiple Salesforce orgs, or migrate data from Salesforce to an external platform, ETL tools play an important role in handling your Salesforce data throughout the process. Reliable and robust ETL solutions ensure the security of your data and facilitate data management that is in sync with your business needs.
In the age of digitization, the question is never about whether you should use an ETL solution; it is about which ETL solution to use and how to use it in the best way possible.
Why Are ETL Tools Important For Your Business?
Here are some of the key reasons why ETL tools are important for organizations around the world:
Improving Business Performance
ETL tools help users have quick and real-time access to large volumes of integrated and transformed data for making informed decisions. As these tools process and transform your datasets by the time they are ready to be loaded, the data you have at your disposal after being moved to the concerned warehouse is often ready to be used. This improves the speed and efficiency of the users working with the data, leading to improved business performance.
Ideal For Non-technical Users
Most modern ETL tools and solutions are designed in a way that they can be used by both technical and non-technical users. This prevents the non-technical users from finding themselves lost while conducting data management activities and getting trained in using complicated tools.
Providing Users With Visual Data Flow
Most ETL tools today provide users with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that makes it easier for users to design the required ETL processes without the need for elaborate and technical programming. By providing users with a visual flow, modern ETL solutions prevent users from struggling with Python, Bash scripts, stored procedures, and other technologies. Instead, they facilitate the mapping of data flows with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Enhancing Your Development Framework
ETL tools and solutions are designed for undertaking complicated data integration tasks such as populating a data warehouse, moving data between platforms, integrating data from multiple source systems, and more. The tools also provide users with metadata about the data handled by them and help in seamless data governance. This allows you to enhance your existing development framework, leading to better productivity.
Performing Impact Analysis
The best advanced ETL tools provide users with deep and valuable insights about the data catalog managed by them. This allows your team members to drill down into customizable reports to ascertain how specific results were obtained, where the data was stored, which source systems the data came from, and how the data was transformed.
Handling Big Data Effectively
As more and more business processes get digitized, the need for handling big data increases. Modern ETL solutions are capable of handling and processing large volumes of structured and unstructured data extracted from multiple sources. Implementing the right ETL tools also allows you to prepare large volumes of data that don’t need to be stored in data warehouses.
Configuring An ETL Solution In Salesforce The Right Way
While using Salesforce, a reliable ETL solution helps you migrate, access, edit, and share your Salesforce data as per your specific business needs.
Here are some of the most important ways in which you can configure an ETL solution in Salesforce the right way:
Select The Right Salesforce ETL Solution
The first tip to keep in mind before configuring an ETL solution right way is to choose the right ETL solution. A simple Google search would provide you with a plethora of options for Salesforce ETL tools. It is important to assess the tools at your disposal and implement the one that is in sync with your business needs.
Select The Right Salesforce Data To Be Extracted
One way of using a Salesforce ETL tool is to simply extract everything and work on the datasets later. A Salesforce org may have a range of different datasets, not all of which need to be extracted. While some organizations prefer extracting all their datasets at once, others prefer extracting only a few. Based on the objectives you are willing to achieve with the concerned ETL solution, make sure you select the right Salesforce data that needs to be extracted and worked upon.
Choose The Right Frequency For Data Extraction
When you have successfully selected the datasets that need to be extracted using an ETL solution, it is advisable to select the right frequency for the same. Here, there is no right or wrong frequency at which you need to extract your data. It all depends on the manner in which you plan on using your data, the users working on the datasets, and the customers you are willing to cater to.
If the situation demands so, you can resort to using two databases in your data warehouse for handling different datasets and frequencies. Before you make this decision, it is advisable to have a cross-departmental discussion to make sure that everyone within your company has access to the right data at the right time.
Follow The Right Data Migration Practices
Salesforce data migration plays an important role in most ETL processes. Always make sure that you follow the right data migration practices and pursue the following steps for moving your Salesforce data:
- Charting out a data governance plan
- Maintaining an organized set of data
- Getting started with a pilot project
- Monitoring the integration processes
- Considering third-party implementation tools to be implemented
Build The Right Data Pipeline
Building a data pipeline for your project can be a complicated process. It goes without saying that complicated projects require complicated data pipelines. In order to configure an ETL solution in Salesforce, make sure that you build a modern data pipeline with a user-friendly data pipeline builder. Always prefer building a data pipeline that can be used by non-technical users and contains no-code features. When you choose the right ETL solution, it makes it easy for users to create connectivity between your Salesforce org and your data warehouse.
Focusing On Change Control
Change control plays an important role in data governance. As it doesn’t take much effort in adding data fields and properties in Salesforce, it is not difficult to create a chaotic situation when there is no control mechanism in place. Always make sure that your review process includes a step for determining if the concerned user needs a new property before making any changes in the data warehouse.
When you have selected the datasets that need to be extracted, the frequency for the same, and how to be in sync with the changes occurring between the source database and the destination data warehouse, you can carry on with the implementation of the right ETL solution for your Salesforce org.
The Final Word
These were some important ways in which you can configure an ETL solution in Salesforce the right way. Data plays the central role as you operate on Salesforce and it is important to use the right ETL tools to manage your Salesforce records effectively. Always make sure you are precise, careful, and in sync with the latest tech trends before you look for the right ETL tools for your organization.
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