2023 brings new owners to Micro Focus Content Manager. Previously TRIM, the EDRMS is now OpenText Content Manager (CM). This article looks at how to improve the quality of record management by creating a relationship between a document in CM and its owner record in Salesforce.
Disconnected documents are a huge challenge for those who look after important records. Record managers are well aware that every document has a context and is connected to people, places, times, other documents, and more. An orphaned document on a user's computer is missing its context and provides only half a story.
The very act of adding a document to an EDRMS risks losing context information. For example, passing an attachment on an inbound email to CM requires the attachment to be separated from the referencing email, and an often ambivalent decision is made about where it should be located in CM.
In an ideal world, every CM document would hold a reference to related records outside the system that contain supplementary information. Inversely, those external objects would also hold a reference to the document in CM.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a common "landing place" for documents that have associations with organizations, people, products, and problems. Salesforce does not, however, have the document handling features of CM so important documents need to be moved into that system. This creates a dilemma because the contextual information remains in Salesforce. Furthermore, the links between the document in CM and its parent record in Salesforce (and vice versa) need to be created.
Integration
Integrating provides the answers! The T4S integration from FuseIT enables Salesforce documents to be moved or copied to configurable locations in CM. A number of features ensure contextual information is never lost:
- A link in Salesforce is created to the document location in CM
- A link is created in CM that references the Salesforce parent record
- Salesforce record fields are mapped to CM metadata fields
- Can be configured to map Salesforce documents to complex taxonomies in CM including the ability to dynamically create and name hierarchies
- Saves the Salesforce record associated with any attached Content Document (attachment) to CM (as an HTML file)
An integrated system automates the transfer of Salesforce documents to CM, along with the key metadata, and the associated Salesforce record that held the document. In CM, the documents are auto-located and a meta-data field provides the URL of the reference record in Salesforce. A T4S option enables the document to be kept or deleted from Salesforce. In both cases, a reference to the CM document is created in Salesforce. T4S also allows a record in CM to be copied back to Salesforce on demand if there is a need to do so.
Integration has many other benefits, including saving costs by automating document handling, reducing the document footprint in Salesforce, improving document access and processing efficiencies, and more.
Salesforce Integration
For many companies, being unable to access their data is crippling. However, this can be mitigated. Integrating Salesforce with OpenText Content Manager enables companies to access Salesforce records and documents during periods of Salesforce unavailability. Beyond being a Salesforce backup system, CM has other benefits that include information governance, identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production, and presentation. CM is essentially a cradle-to-grave document management system.
T4S
The leading Salesforce to CM integration is T4S from FuseIT. T4S transparently syncs Salesforce records (leads, contacts, cases, accounts. etc.) and documents to configurable locations in CM. To ensure CM documents have the required context metadata, Salesforce documents and the associated Salesforce record, with field values, relationships, and references, are all pushed to CM. CM users are also provided a link in the metadata to the Salesforce record. T4S has a number of other features:
- Auto-file: When a document is manually uploaded and attached to a Salesforce record, T4S transparently pushes the document to the mapped container in CM and adds a link to the document in the Salesforce record. The Salesforce document can then be auto-deleted (optionally)
- Auto-file email attachments: Inbound emails can be processed using Salesforce Email-To-Case. The email message and attachments are created in a new Salesforce case. T4S detects the new case and converts the case record to an HTML file. It then auto-creates a container in CM and copies the HTML file and associated documents to the container. T4S then adds a link in Salesforce to each document location in CM. Finally, T4S adds a link to the Salesforce case record in the CM metadata
- File documents to complex structures: T4S can auto-create containers and title them according to a rule set. This includes using Salesforce metadata to formulate new container titles or updating existing titles. The container taxonomy is exposed in Salesforce so users can override the default and choose an alternate filing location
- Document Search in Salesforce: A user can initiate a document search from Salesforce by entering the document name, or other metadata texts. The required document is returned to Salesforce for viewing by the user
- Save Salesforce records in CM: A Salesforce user can click the "Save Record to Content Manager" button to save any record to CM as an HTML file. Alternatively, when a Salesforce record reaches a designated status, the record can be automatically archived into CM
- Show CM documents in Salesforce: CM users can add documents to a designated location exposed to Salesforce. The location appears in Salesforce as a list of documents in the designated location and documents located elsewhere that are linked to the container with the “Alternatively Contains” feature
- Reduce document volumes in Salesforce: Salesforce users can sync large attachments to CM and expose a link in Salesforce to the document so it can be viewed on-demand
T4S eliminates the double or even triple handling of documents by automating document management and making CM transparent to Salesforce users. Other benefits:
- Users can access, process, and archive CM documents from within Salesforce
- Users can access CM documents from anywhere, at any time, and from any device
- T4S can potentially lower CM licensing costs if generic document access is provided through Salesforce
- Data storage costs are reduced for companies that regularly exceed Salesforce storages caps
- CM to be extended without significant cost e.g. Salesforce Einstein for cognitive computing
- CM can become a single source of data to eliminate duplicates and improve data integrity
- Improved efficiencies as documents and metadata are only entered once, in either system. CM uses Salesforce fields as the source of important metadata, provenance, and version detail
- Compliance increases as users add documents to CM via Salesforce
Conclusion
Salesforce is the default environment for millions of users. Many spend their day in Salesforce entering, uploading, viewing, and processing data and documents. Documents that arrive in Salesforce, e.g. by manual upload or via automated email-to-case, are typically referenced to a Salesforce record. The reference record and associated field data provide document context and are, therefore, important metadata required in CM.
Integration is a simple way to encapsulate and move or copy the Salesforce documents and their associated records and metadata to Content Manager.
FuseIT specializes in integrating Salesforce with Content Manager. If you want to learn more you can contact us about our Information Governance Solutions.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive our articles directly in your mailbox.
Website integration with dual-mode personalization
The ultimate way to support your sales team.
About the author
Terry Humphris