How to Integrate Online Forms with Salesforce.com?
Posted by Tal Frankfurt on Nov 14, 2011 in Blog | 17 comments
Do you ask people to register for your newsletter on the website? Do you have an online application form? Do clients inquire about your services online?
Online forms are a great tool for collecting information from your constituents, however, when they are not integrated with your CRM the process of manually entering the information into the database can be overwhelming.
There are number of ways to integrate your online website forms with Salesforce. How do they compare? We did the leg work for you and below you can find some integrations that have worked for our clients and might work for you as well.
1. Web to Lead - Native Salesforce functionality that allows generating up to 500 new leads a day.
Pros:
- Easy to create (clicks no code)
- No additional cost
- Only creates leads (cannot update other objects)
- Only creates leads (cannot update other objects)
- You will need a web developer in order to create validations and design of the form (Javascript)
- No de-duplication
- Does not include CAPTCHA
- Unable to accept attacments
- Easy to create (clicks no code)
- No additional cost
- Includes limited de-duplication
- Cannot update other objects
- Cannot update other objects
- You will need a web developer in order to create validations and design of the form (Javascript)
- Limited de-duplication
- Does not include CAPTCHA
- Unable to accept attacments
- Powerful forms (Sites are much more than just forms!) that can include any business logic and de-duplication processes.
- Can have the same look and feel of your website
- Require a force.com developer to create and maintain
- Redirect the user to an external website
4. FormAssembly - Create powerful web forms to collect and send data to your Salesforce account. Capture new leads, update contacts, attach files or open cases with an easy to use Web Form Builder and Salesforce Connector.
- Create forms for standard and custom Salesforce objects
- Allows to update information in Salesforce and upload files
- Ongoing cost
- Not as flexible as Salesforce Sites
- Burns through API calls (not recommended for large forms)
5. FormStacks - Formstack’s integration with Salesforce.com allows to create online forms for Web-to-lead, Web-to-case, and Web-to-Anything with just a few simple clicks.
- Create forms for standard and custom Salesforce objects
- Allows to update information in Salesforce and upload files
- Ongoing cost
- Not on the AppExchnage
- Not as flexible as Salesforce Sites
6. Wufoo - Wufoo allows to automatically generate leads and contacts in Salesforce.
- Easy to create and map the fields
- The forms include all validations and design therefore, there is no need in a web developer
- Very limited integration, can only create leads and contacts and does not support custom fields in Salesforce
- Not on the AppExchnage
7. API - Salesforce has an open API which means that it can interact with other platforms. You can use the API to integrate with your website and create or update any information in Salesforce.
- Use the API to update or insert to any object in Salesforce
- Need a developer that is familiar with both your website and Salesforce
Choosing the Right Tool
Start by thinking about your needs. If you’re just looking to collect newsletter registration or simple inquiries Web to Lead forms might work for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for updating multiple objects in Salesforce and searching for duplicates Salesforce Sites or third party applications are more likely to have the features you need.
Ready to move to the next step? Contact use to receive a quote today.
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We have used Adobe COLD forms and Wufoo…and for about 80% of client needs Wufoo works just great…and the 3 users for $30/month covers a lot of ground.
Thanks for the comment Jordan. Can you share more information about the Adove COLD forms? Pros? Cons?
Thanks for this great write-up, Tal! Very helpful.
Another Tool I’ve looked at is SurveyGizmo. One nice feature they have is the ability to share forms between accounts – useful if an org needs to manage forms by sharing/editing them between users.
Also, it looks like some of your bullet points for “Cons” are copied into the “Pros” section – was that intentional?
Thanks again – this is a very helpful post for orgs trying to decide which form building tool to use!
Sure thing Ken! Thanks for sharing the information about SurveyGizmo. Also, nice catch on the bullet points. I will fix it now.
This is a great resource Tal!
Thanks Ashima!
Hey Tal – great writeup. Two other considerations for using Web-to-Lead/Case: they don’t easily provide for a CAPTCHA, and as far as I’m aware, are unable to accept attachments.
On FormAssembly, a couple things to note as well: it burns through API calls, which for small forms isn’t probably much of a consideration, but if you’ve got other API processes happening and/or large forms (or large numbers of people filling in your forms), there’s always the risk you could hit your API limits using it (or, it could be the straw that broke the camel’s back for hitting API limits). Also, FormAssembly is designed for non-programmers, so if your organization has little resources to pay for ongoing programming needs for Web form integration, or you simply don’t have the technical expertise in house for Sites, it’s a decent (even if less flexible, as you’ve already pointed out) alternative.
Excellent points Tracy!
Hi Tracy & Tal, I just wanted to comment on the number of API calls issue.
FormAssembly uses one api call per object created and two per object updated. A form can create or update many different objects or just one, depending on your needs. So, while you may hit your daily API limit if you get a lot of submissions, it’s not an issue specific to FormAssembly. You’ll run into the same issue with the other services mentioned here.
Also, FormAssembly queues your data if there’s any problem with the Salesforce integration, so you can always resend it the next day when your quota is reset.
That’s it, and thanks for the mention!
Cedric / FormAssembly.com
Just wanted to say I’ve used FormAssembly in a variety of contexts and it’s really great. The biggest pro is the “regular user” friendliness of the package. If you’re a small organization who doesn’t have technical resources available, using FA is pretty straightforward. Also, the field mapping is drop-dead simple, and the support team is good. I’m just a very satisfied customer.
Hey Cedric – just getting back to this after the holidays. Thanks for the technical clarification re: the number of API calls FA uses.
Didn’t mean to appear to single FA out re: “burns API calls” – it’s definitely an issue with any API-based system, as you correctly pointed out.
Tal,
Clicktools is used extensively for forms as well as surveys and call scripts. Point and Click integration with the ability to create/update any Salesforce records, rich branding and it’s used extensively by Salesforce!
Dave J
Thanks Dave, I actually left Click Tools out because I am planing a separate blog post about survey tools. Now I just need to find the time to write it
Hey Tal,
Are there any basic free tools for a non-profit organisations?
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan, what type of information do you need to capture? Web-to-lead is very basic and free.
Hi Tal,
What have you heard about Formsite? We are looking for a form builder mainly for surveys and application usage. I am looking for a product that both has Salesforce integration with the capability to update custom fields/objects as well as payment integration (google checkout, paypal, ect.)
Thanks!
Hi Kelly,
I heard about FormSite and their Salesforce integration, however, I have not used it. It looks like their integration can do everything you need and they have a 30 day money back guarantee so it might be worthwile to install it in a sandbox environment to test it before you make any decision. Please come back to this post and share your feedback.
Tal