Salesforce-Alfresco Integration for Effective Document Management

Summary

An IT consultancy commissioned INNERLUXES, as a subcontractor, to integrate Salesforce CRM with the Alfresco Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system for its end client. INNERLUXES built a Java/Spring bridge application that synchronizes documents on the fly, letting sales teams access, view, edit, and share Alfresco-based content directly in Salesforce Sales Cloud and vice versa — improving collaboration between sales teams and other specialists.

About the Client

The Client is an IT consultancy operating in the sphere of cloud and mobile solutions for construction and commercial real estate companies, providing consulting services on Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Office 365, and more.

The Challenge

The Client commissioned INNERLUXES as a subcontractor to integrate Salesforce CRM with the Alfresco ECM system for its end client. The end client used Salesforce Sales Cloud to manage sales and Alfresco to store, manage, and share corporate content such as contracts, invoices, proposals, quotes, presentations, and technical documentation. Having this information in two different systems made cooperation between the sales teams and other specialists (technical, marketing, and business analysis) ineffective, so the end client wanted to make all the documents stored in Alfresco available to its sales teams directly within its Salesforce solution.

The Solution

To align Salesforce Sales Cloud and Alfresco, INNERLUXES's Salesforce developers built a bridge web application and incorporated it into the end client's Salesforce solution. The application enabled on-the-fly synchronization, allowing users to access, view, edit, and share documents from Alfresco right in Salesforce Sales Cloud and vice versa. The integration process comprised the following steps:

• The bridge application received data from Alfresco ECM.
• The application transformed the data according to the integration rules and sent it to the Salesforce solution in an acceptable format.
• The opposite transformation took place when certain customer-related information needed to be shared from Salesforce with an Alfresco user.

To link Alfresco-based content with a Salesforce record, Alfresco user credentials are entered in a pop-up window from the Alfresco Repository tab located within a Salesforce user record.

The Results

• The end client got its Salesforce Sales Cloud and Alfresco ECM system integrated via a bridge application.
• The integration enabled quick access for sales teams to Alfresco-based documents right in Salesforce.
• It enhanced cross-departmental collaboration between sales teams and specialists from other departments.

Technologies and Tools

Salesforce Sales Cloud, Java, Spring Framework.