Your sales team is likely living in two different worlds. In one world, they have Salesforce. It is the heartbeat of the business, filled with lead scores, opportunity stages, and contact names. In the other world, they have SharePoint. That is where the actual “work” lives—the contracts, the detailed project proposals, and the technical specs.
The problem? These two worlds rarely talk to each other.
A sales rep might spend 10 minutes hunting for a signed PDF in a SharePoint folder while they have a client on the phone. By the time they find it, the momentum is gone. This is the classic “silo” problem. When your data is stuck in separate boxes, your team works more slowly, and your customers feel the friction. Integrating Salesforce and SharePoint isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a way to give your team back their time.
The Real Cost of Disconnected Data
We often talk about “data silos” as an abstract IT problem. In reality, it is a productivity killer. When these two platforms aren’t synced, a few things happen:
- Version Confusion: Someone updates a quote in SharePoint, but the Salesforce record still links to the old version.
- Storage Fees: Salesforce is great, but its file storage is famously expensive. Keeping every large proposal or video demo inside Salesforce can blow your budget quickly.
- The “Search” Fatigue: Your team has to remember which platform holds which piece of the puzzle.
By moving toward a unified system, you turn SharePoint into the “file engine” for Salesforce. You get the robust document management of SharePoint with the customer-centric focus of your CRM.
Why Salesforce and SharePoint Belong Together
Think about the typical lifecycle of a deal. It starts with a lead. You might gather some initial notes. Eventually, you need to send a proposal. That proposal is a document. Later, there is a contract. Then, maybe a statement of work.
SharePoint is built for this. It handles versioning, co-authoring, and permissions beautifully. Salesforce, on the other hand, is built to track the relationship.
When you bridge the gap, you can automate the boring stuff. For instance, when a new “Opportunity” reaches the “Proposal” stage in Salesforce, your system could automatically create a matching folder in SharePoint. No more manual folder creation. No more “where did I put that file?”
Expanding the View: More Than Just Files
A true 360-degree view of a customer involves more than just their last invoice. It includes their behavior and their interests.
For example, look at how modern sales teams are using social data. According to this playbook on leveraging LinkedIn engagement data, the most successful reps aren’t just cold calling. They are looking at how prospects interact with their content.
When you integrate Salesforce with your other data hubs, you can pull in these social signals alongside your SharePoint documents. Imagine a sales rep opening a Salesforce account and seeing the latest contract (from SharePoint) right next to a note that the prospect just engaged with a specific LinkedIn post. That is how you have a smart conversation instead of a generic pitch.
The Technical Bridge: How to Make it Happen
Most people hear the word “integration” and think of endless custom coding and expensive API developers. While you could build a custom connection from scratch, it’s often a recipe for a headache. APIs change, security protocols update, and custom code breaks.
This is where the right tools make a massive difference. If your organization uses SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), you already have the foundation. You just need the right “connectors” to plug into the cloud.
KingswaySoft offers a pair of toolkits that do exactly this. They act as the translator between your CRM and your document library.
- SSIS Integration Toolkit for Salesforce: This allows you to read and write data to Salesforce with ease. It handles the complex bits of the Salesforce API, like rate limits and bulk data movement, so you don’t have to.
- SSIS Integration Toolkit for SharePoint: This does the same for SharePoint. It lets you manage files, folders, and list items as if they were simple data rows.
Using these together, you can create a “sync engine.” You can tell the system: “Every time a file is uploaded to this specific Salesforce record, move it to SharePoint and leave a link behind.”
The Benefits of Using our SSIS Integration Toolkit
Why go this route instead of using a basic “out of the box” connector?
- Flexibility: You can build complex logic. Maybe you only want to sync files for “Gold” tier clients. Or maybe you want to rename files automatically based on the account’s tax ID.
- Performance: These toolkits are designed for high-volume data. If you have ten years of legacy files to migrate, a standard connector might choke. SSIS is built for the heavy lifting.
- Security: Your data stays within your control. You aren’t passing your sensitive contracts through a third-party “middleman” cloud service. You are running the integration on your own servers or your own Azure instance.
Practical Use Cases for Your Team
If you are wondering how this looks in the real world, here are three common scenarios:
1. Automatic Folder Structures
When a salesperson creates a new Account in Salesforce, the integration triggers. A corresponding folder is created in SharePoint. Within that folder, sub-folders for “Contracts,” “Technical Specs,” and “Images” are generated. The sales rep never has to leave Salesforce to see these folders.
2. Cost-Effective Archiving
Once an Opportunity is “Closed Lost,” you might not need those heavy design files cluttering up your Salesforce storage. You can set up a rule that moves those files to a SharePoint archive automatically, saving you money on Salesforce storage fees.
3. Data Consistency
Sometimes you have data in a SharePoint list—like a list of authorized partners or product SKUs—that needs to be in Salesforce. Instead of typing them in twice (and making typos), you can sync the SharePoint list directly into a Salesforce custom object.
Build Your 360-Degree View By Integrating Salesforce and SharePoint
Integrating Salesforce and SharePoint is more than just moving files. It creates an environment where your data works for you, rather than the other way around.
When your CRM knows what your document library knows, your team gains a “superpower.” They can see the full history of a customer interaction in one place. They can respond to questions faster. They can close deals with more confidence.
If you are ready to stop clicking between tabs and start seeing the whole picture, it might be time to look at your integration strategy.
Contact us today and learn how you can build a robust, professional-grade bridge between these two platforms without the “custom code” nightmares.
By KingswaySoft | www.kingswaysoft.com
The post Integrating Salesforce and SharePoint for a 360-Degree Customer View appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.
