When it comes to Salesforce integration with any other external application, it kind of scares us to get into it. Well, integrations are awesome as they help us connect external applications and facilitate information synchronization between Salesforce and the external apps. Following the same pattern of integration, we’ll see what a Salesforce and LMS integration is and how it helps users.
An LMS contains a wide range of data that an organization would like to import into Salesforce. Basically, all the training and L&D data a company deals with would seamlessly flow to and from Salesforce through such an integration. This would help an organization monitor, track and enhance their employee training seamlessly.
How is the integration done?
Salesforce and any cloud-based or SaaS LMS can be integrated using application programming interfaces (APIs). These APIs help connect the relevant objects in Salesforce with fields in the external LMS and then fetch the required information into Salesforce. Here are some examples that would help you understand how integration works.
- A Salesforce end-user (such as an employee or a community member) can learn in the connected (integrated) learning management system and view their learning records on the LMS or in Salesforce.
- They can also log in to the LMS using Salesforce, as the integration also enables Single Sign-On (SSO).
- Suppose your company wants to assign courses or learning paths to every new hire, they can do so though Salesforce integration. As soon as the employees are onboarded, they are auto-assigned courses based on their roles and profiles. For example, a Salesforce developer will have a Salesforce development path assigned, while a UX designer might have another one assigned to them.
Key information that flows between Salesforce and an LMS as the outcome of an integration
The Salesforce data that synchronizes with the LMS system includes:
- Accounts
- Contacts
- Employees / Members (Experience Cloud users)
On the other hand, the following LMS information flows into the Salesforce system:
- Learning Data
- Courses
- Credits
- Analytics
Key Takeaways of Salesforce and LMS Integration
- Synchronized data is readily available both in Salesforce and LMS. This helps L&D teams consolidate the learning data of employees or trainees without juggling between two systems.
- They can easily get all the training and learning reports, visualize dashboards, and get analytics right within Salesforce.
- When employees or community members complete a course in the LMS or earn credentials like badges or certifications, these get reflected automatically in their Salesforce user profile. This helps leadership and department heads have a glance of their learning performance on Salesforce without logging into the LMS.
- Plus, external learning credits can be added to their Salesforce profile for a unified view.
What should you know as a Salesforce BA about Salesforce LMS integration?
Well, as a Salesforce Business Analyst, you must have a thorough idea about a couple of crucial points mentioned below.
- The know-how of all the Salesforce objects getting impacted.
- All the Salesforce Clouds to be used and their purposes. Such as Sales Cloud to train Sales staff, Service Cloud to help the customer support staff, Experience Cloud to take care of Community or Non-profit members, so on and so forth..
- What data will be coming to Salesforce from the LMS, and which object will it get associated with?
- What objects and fields between Salesforce and the LMS are to be mapped?
- How to understand and define the user requirements through User Stories so that developers and architects can seamlessly build the solution upon it.
- Effective process flows, prototyping, and process mapping to help all the stakeholders involved.
- Last but not least, demo the solution to help end-users use it at its best.
For more information on Salesforce integrations, stay tuned to Apex Hours. Happy Learning!!
