Salesforce + Heroku: The Dual Engine Architecture for Digital Transformation

The last year has been a tipping point for many companies. The need to remain relevant and continue providing value for customers amidst a pandemic has pushed many organizations towards digital channels and to optimize their existing technology stack.

When an organization is investing in digital excellence or implementing a digital transformation, they are typically doing so by leveraging two types of digital technology:

1. Off-the-shelf software, which is typically internal-facing
2. Proprietary software, which is typically customer-facing

In this modern digital era, it is table stakes for a company to utilize both of these software types and use them to create functional and enjoyable user experiences for both their customers and team members. For example, a company needs to be able to offer engaging customer experiences (e.g. websites, apps, portals, etc.) while empowering its internal teams to manage customers and the business with off-the-shelf technology like CRM, Service, and Marketing Automation.

Synchronization Challenges

For many organizations, keeping off-the-shelf software in-sync with proprietary software is a dream state. For example, as customers interact with a proprietary mobile app, the data should flow through to a CRM so that the customer service agent can see a full picture of the customer.

This is usually a “dream state” because data integrations are notoriously difficult and often require too much budget to justify the development.

Dual Engines

Salesforce has created a platform where both off-the-shelf needs and proprietary development needs are met with best-in-class solutions. Since Salesforce owns both technologies, it created a bi-directional, real-time syncing engine called Heroku Connect that allows data from the proprietary database to be connected to data in Salesforce (and vise versa). This means that when a customer changes their name or phone number in a custom mobile app, that data flows back through to the customer’s record in Salesforce.

Salesforce.com: The Off-the-shelf Technology Powerhouse

Salesforce is one of the most robust off-the-shelf software platforms in the world. The “No Code” philosophy enables administrators to create software in a point-and-click environment. This means that anyone in the organization — not just engineers — can create software for internal teammates.

The Salesforce ecosystem is enormous. Its core products include everything from CRM, Ticketing, and Chat to Marketing Automation, to eCommerce, and Artificial Intelligence. The AppExchange ecosystem includes thousands of additional products ready to solve an unthinkable number of business challenges.

This powerhouse of off-the-shelf technology is truly a one-stop-shop for solving almost any internal-facing business challenge.

Heroku: The Best Platform for Proprietary Software Development

For organizations striving to improve their digital customer experience, Heroku is the platform of choice. Built on top of AWS, Heroku enables developers to bring web and mobile apps to market 2x faster.

By abstracting infrastructure management, developers no longer need to spend countless hours tinkering with server setups and can instead focus on what actually matters: building and iterating on critical web and mobile experiences.

Further, the huge ecosystem of Heroku Add Ons makes spinning up a complex environment simple. This powers innovation and experimentation that otherwise would not be possible in organizations cemented in infrastructure management.

Heroku Connect

The bi-directional, real-time syncing provided by Heroku Connect makes it easy and simple to move data between Salesforce and Heroku. As customers interact with the proprietary mobile or web app, data flows seamlessly into Salesforce where employees can develop powerful internal applications on the same dataset. Further, employees can manage the data administratively in Salesforce, with customers receiving these updates in near real-time in the proprietary web or mobile app.

Outcomes
This “Dual Engine” architecture created by the use of Salesforce products and Heroku drives the following business outcomes:

• Faster time-to-market and subsequent iteration of proprietary software
• Improved customer experience, which can drive both retention and revenue
• Increased employee productivity as manual work is automated
• Fewer data discrepancies/errors with real-time data sync
• Better customer support as agents have a 360-degree view of the customer
• Robust security across both internal and customer-facing technologies
• Better reporting and insights as business-driven and customer-driven data can be combined into a single Data Warehouse

If you’re interested in taking the next step towards digital transformation, LaunchPad Lab can help. Our team can evaluate your existing technology, infrastructure, and customer experience, and provide suggestions for success. Fill out our contact form to get started!