This post will look at five Salesforce to Google Workspace integrations and how they benefit users.
All these integrations work with both Lightning Professional and Lightning Enterprise. The first integration also works with Salesforce Essentials.
1. Salesforce Gmail Integration
Known as Lightning for Gmail, this is a client-side integration (on the Gmail side) between a Google Workspace user’s Gmail account and their Salesforce account.
Once the integration is enabled by a Salesforce admin, any user who wants to connect Gmail to Salesforce simply needs to install a Chrome extension.
Users can log inbound and outbound emails to Salesforce records. A collapsable side panel contains virtually the same Lightning Experience as a mobile phone.
Since this integration is client-side, it works with both consumer Gmail and Google Workspace.
Benefits of The Salesforce Gmail Integration
1. Results in higher Salesforce adoption by users who “live in Gmail.”
2. Ensures that important prospect and customer email communications are shared among team members.
2. Salesforce Contacts to Google Contacts Sync
One of two components of Lightning Sync, this is a server-side integration. The integration needs to be configured by a Salesforce administrator and a Google Workspace administrator.
Salesforce Contacts that are owned by a Salesforce user and that match a filter criteria can be synchronized down to a label in Google Contacts called Salesforce Sync.
Contacts can also be synchronized from Google Contacts to Salesforce, but this direction is not commonly configured.
One or more Google Configurations can be set up in Salesforce. A configuration specifies synchronization direction and Salesforce Contact filters. Each Configuration can be assigned to one or more users.
Benefits of The Salesforce to Google Contacts Sync
1. More complete information in Google Contact records compared to using the Gmail “Add to Contacts” function.
2. This message becomes less frequent during email composition: “Make sure this is someone you trust. name@company.com does not belong to your organization and is not in your contacts.”
3. Salesforce Events to Google Calendar Sync
Calendar sync is the other component of Lightning Sync. A common configuration is to synchronize today and future Google Calendar events to Salesforce Events.
This is managed through the same Google Configurations as Contact sync.
Benefits of The Google to Salesforce Calendar Sync
1. Users will have an additional reminder of “Today’s Events” in the Salesforce Home tab.
2. If a user links a Google Calendar event to a Salesforce record, the event will display in the Salesforce record’s Activity Lightning Page component.
4. Google Drive Integration With Salesforce Files
In Salesforce’s Lightning Experience, Files has replaced the legacy Attachments functionality.
A server-side integration allows Google Drive files to be displayed within the Files component of Lightning Pages, the Files tab, and even a custom Google Drive tab.
Benefits of The Salesforce to Google Drive Integration
1. Since Salesforce has limited storage and Google Workspace Business has unlimited storage, organizations that need to associate large files and/or a large number of files with Salesforce Accounts, Contacts, Cases, etc. can avoid purchasing expensive additional Salesforce storage.
2. Google Docs, Sheets, Presentations, etc. do not need to be first downloaded into a PDF or Microsoft format and then uploaded into Salesforce Files. This saves time for users.
3. Google Drive files can be previewed with one click and edited after an ‘Open in Google Drive’ click. Also a time saver.
Here are setup instructions for connecting Salesforce Files to Google Drive.
5. Google Sheets Integration With Salesforce Data
Salesforce is now one of a number of data sources for Google Sheets.
Data connector for Salesforce, a free add-on for Sheets, creates an interactive connection between a Sheets file and a Salesforce org.
Benefits of Connecting Google Sheets to Salesforce
1. Develop additional analytics and visualizations that aren’t available in Salesforce reporting.
2. Embed Sheets visualizations of Salesforce data in Google Slides for executive and board presentations.
3. Automatically refresh Salesforce data, so you are always seeing the most recent information.