The problem
At one digital agency, customer support ran in Salesforce and development work ran in Trello. Two full-time staff kept the two in step by copying updates across by hand.
It was slow, it depended on their judgement, and errors crept in.
Try off-the-shelf first
Ready-made sync tools were the first thing to try, and that was the right starting point. They're quicker and cheaper than building something, when they fit.
In this case they didn't. None of them could handle the agency's custom Salesforce fields.
The custom sync
The solution was a two-way sync service, built in Symfony, a PHP framework. It kept Salesforce tickets and Trello cards in step every 15 minutes. After testing and a few small fixes following launch, it became part of everyday operations.
The result
Errors between the two systems dropped sharply. The two people who had been copying updates moved on to more valuable work, a direct saving for the business.
Should you build or buy?
A ready-made tool is usually the better choice when your setup is fairly standard. A custom sync starts to make sense when:
- you rely on custom fields or rules that existing tools can't handle
- people are spending a large part of their working week copying data
- mistakes in that copying are affecting customers
Compare the costs properly. Weigh the build and upkeep of a custom service against the staff time and errors it would remove.
Don't assume instant is necessary. Syncing every 15 minutes was enough here. A sensible interval keeps the system simpler.
Expect some fixes after launch. Real use shows up cases that testing misses, so allow time for them.
This article draws on work by Syed Quadri, SMART5's director, while working at another organisation. It wasn't a SMART5 client project, so the organisation isn't named.