Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM systems in the world, but it rarely works in isolation. Companies using Salesforce need data to flow to and from ERP systems, e-commerce platforms, marketing tools, helpdesk and many other applications. Manual data synchronization is costly and error-prone. Skyvia offers automated, customizable synchronizations that keep data consistent between Salesforce and the entire application ecosystem.
Key findings
- Skyvia enables automatic data synchronization between Salesforce and other systems without writing code
- Supports bidirectional synchronization with conflict resolution
- Platform transforms data during synchronization – matching formats and values between systems
- Scheduling allows synchronization in real time or at a preset frequency
- Skyvia supports Salesforce as both a synchronization source and target
Table of contents
- Why is it challenging to synchronize Salesforce with other systems?
- How does Skyvia connect to Salesforce?
- Salesforce synchronization ↔ HubSpot – popular application
- Salesforce synchronization ↔ ERP (SAP, NetSuite).
- Salesforce synchronization ↔ databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL)
- Handling conflicts in bidirectional synchronization
- Data transformations during synchronization
- FAQ
- Summary
Why is it challenging to synchronize Salesforce with other systems?
Salesforce has a rich data structure – standard objects (Account, Contact, Opportunity, Lead) and custom objects defined by each organization. This flexibility is an advantage for Salesforce, but at the same time makes it difficult to integrate with external systems that have their own different data structure.
An additional challenge is the Salesforce API – while well documented, it requires knowledge of SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) and the REST API. Building a custom integration requires developer involvement and regular maintenance. Any change to the Salesforce framework can break existing integrations.
How does Skyvia connect to Salesforce?
Skyvia offers a dedicated connector for Salesforce that supports authorization via OAuth 2.0 (the standard Salesforce authentication mechanism) without the need for the end user to know the API. Once authorized, Skyvia automatically detects all available objects – both standard and custom – and makes them available for integration configuration.
Connector supports full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on all Salesforce objects from which the user has permissions. It also supports Salesforce Bulk API for operations on large volumes of data, which is crucial for initial data loading or historical synchronization.
Salesforce synchronization ↔ HubSpot – popular application
One of the most common scenarios is synchronization between Salesforce (sales system) and HubSpot (marketing automation). Leads generated by marketing campaigns in HubSpot should automatically go to Salesforce as sales opportunities. Updated deal status in Salesforce should update the contact in HubSpot for nurturing purposes.
Skyvia configures this synchronization by mapping fields between HubSpot objects (Contact, Deal) and Salesforce objects (Lead, Contact, Opportunity). Conditional rules define which records to synchronize (e.g., only Leads with a certain status) and how to handle records that exist in both systems.
Salesforce synchronization ↔ ERP (SAP, NetSuite).
CRM integration with ERP is one of the most important data flows in an organization: orders placed by customers in Salesforce must go to ERP as sales documents, and inventory and invoice updates from ERP must be visible to salespeople in Salesforce.
Skyvia supports connectors to popular ERP systems, including NetSuite, SAP Business One and others. Mapping between Salesforce objects and ERP documents requires configuration of data transformations (e.g., mapping of product codes, currencies, addresses).
Salesforce synchronization ↔ databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL)
Many organizations maintain their own databases containing customer, transaction or product data. Skyvia enables data synchronization between Salesforce and relational databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle and others) through native SQL connectors.
This is especially useful when feeding the data warehouse with data from Salesforce for analytics or when synchronizing Salesforce with legacy systems that don’t have a REST API.
Handling conflicts in bidirectional synchronization
Two-way synchronization poses the risk of conflicts – what happens when the same record is modified in both systems at the same time? Skyvia offers configurable conflict resolution strategies: always win data from a specific system (e.g., Salesforce is the source of truth), win a newer modification, or mark conflicts for manual resolution.
The conflict resolution strategy can be different for different fields – for example, for the “Email” field, Salesforce always wins, and for the “Status” field, the newer value wins.
Data transformations during synchronization
Salesforce stores the phone number in E.164 format, the other system uses local format. Salesforce has a dropdown with “Hot/Warm/Cold” values, HubSpot has its own statuses. Skyvia supports data transformations on the fly: format conversions, value mappings, calculations, merging and splitting fields, and conditional rule-based mappings.
This makes it possible to synchronize systems that look quite different at the level of data structure.
FAQ
Does Skyvia support custom Salesforce objects? Yes – when connected to Salesforce Skyvia automatically detects all objects, including custom ones, and makes them available for integration configuration.
How often can you synchronize data? Skyvia offers scheduling from every 5 minutes to once a day. Triggered synchronization via webhooks is available for critical flows.
Does Skyvia support migration of historical data from another CRM to Salesforce? Yes – Skyvia Replication can perform one-time or recurring replication of data, including historical records.
What happens when the Salesforce API is unavailable? Skyvia queues failed synchronizations and repeats them when API availability is restored. All errors are logged and available for analysis.
Summary
Integrating Salesforce with other systems doesn’t have to be an expensive software project. Skyvia offers customizable, automatic synchronization with full support for data transformation, bidirectional synchronization and conflict resolution – for HubSpot, ERP systems, databases and dozens of other platforms. It’s a tool that eliminates data silos and maintains information consistency across the business application ecosystem.
