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Data Synchronization Patterns balancing simplicity with performance - Copenhagen Salesforce Architect Group
Last week, I gave a talk at the Copenhagen Salesforce Architect Group Monthly virtual meetup on Data Synchronization Patterns: balancing performance and simplicity. In case you missed it here is the r...
On The Peiroll with Pei Mun Lim & David Masri
Last week I had a great time talking with Pei Mun Lim for her "On The Pei Roll" podcast available on Spotify. We talked about my journey (career path) to the eventual founding of Gluon Di...
Planning a Salesforce-to-Salesforce Data Migration (Or Salesforce Org Merging)
I've been in the CRM space for nearly 15 years, when I started most of my projects where from clients looking to implement a divisional or enterprise-wide CRM system for the first time. Often, they ha...
Announcing our partnership with VFG Consulting
Gluon Digital is partnering with VFG Consulting! I'm proud to announce that I have joined VFG Consulting as Partner/Strategic advisor to help them build out there our Azure, Data and Analytics Practic...
Anablock Podcast: Interview with David Masri, Data Architect, Author, and Founder of Gluon Digital
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Vuk Dukic of Anablock for his podcast. We spoke about the work I'm doing at Gluon Digital, why I started the firm, my book, some data best practices, s...
Salesforce Q& A with David Masri, Founder @ Gluon Digital
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Caitlin Edwards for a Q&A as part of #Salesforce Republics Q&A blog Series. We discussed a wide range of topics: benefits of getting involve...
Salesforce Republic Talk (10/7/2020): Winning the War against bad CRM Data
A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at the UK Salesforce Republic meetup titled "Winning the War against bad CRM Data". I covered exactly that, first a discussion on the root causes of bad CRM...
Xforce session: Salesforce Data Migrations and Attribute Driven Design
If you missed my Xforce session talk last week (9/24/2020) the recording is now available online! Salesforce Data Migrations and Attribute Driven Design. ...
SalesforceWay.com Podcast: 75. Data migration and integration | David Masri
I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on Xi Xiao's podcast "Salesforce Way". We discussed a variety of topics related to Salesforce and data architecture. A very interesting talk...
Why I Started Gluon Digital
From the moment I decided to change my major to computer information systems (away from finance) I knew I wanted to work with data. A big part of it was the data processing course I took. I found a be...
6 Steps to Integrating Google BigQuery with Salesforce Einstein Analytics
Performing analytics on data warehouse data is a core use case for many of our (Plative's) clients who look to purchase Salesforce Einstein Analytics, so it's no wonder that Salesforce decided to intr...
Integrating FAT (locally installed apps) with Salesforce using a Custom Protocol
Ever need to integrate Salesforce with a local FAT application? This article will explain exactly how to do that with no backend code! That's right! You can a launch locally installed FAT apps directl...
Introducing r/SFBlogs! (Aggregating the best Salesforce Blogs!)
Introducing r/SFBlogs! I wrote a bot that monitors the RSS feeds of the best Salesforce blogs and automatically posts them to Reddit on the r/SFBlogs subreddit. This article explains exactly how and w...
![Developing Salesforce Data Migrations and Integrations [Book Review]](https://salesforcedatablog.com/rss/img/SFB_title_Developing-Salesforce-Data-Migrations-and-Integrations-Book-Review.png)
Developing Salesforce Data Migrations and Integrations [Book Review]
Here's my review of "Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce", a book I recommend to any Salesforce Architect (functional or technical) - or, in fact, for anyone planning...
Visualize NetSuite Data in Salesforce with Einstein Analytics
When Plative entered the ERP space, NetSuite was an obvious choice, it's a top tier ERP, its cloud-based, and from a user base perspective, it has significant overlap with Salesforce. As you can imagi...
Highlights: MarTech Panel 4/30/2020
Last week I had the honor of moderating a forum on #MarTech (Marketing Technology) as part of our very first virtual #SalesforceRepublic meetup - it was a lot of fun and a huge success, we had nearly ...
![Push Salesforce to its Limit Without Code [New Book Review]](https://salesforcedatablog.com/rss/img/SFB_title_Push-Salesforce-to-its-Limit-Without-Code.png)
Push Salesforce to its Limit Without Code [New Book Review]
Some six months ago, I was thrilled when I heard that Phil Weinmeister was releasing a second updated edition of his book Practical Salesforce Development Without Code: Building Declarative Solutions...
Bidirectional Data Synchronizations in Salesforce | Ask An Expert
Like most multi-user systems, Salesforce does not block users from viewing a record via the UI while an update is in progress. This can cause an issue where two users are updating the same record at t...
Migrating Email Messages to Salesforce with Attachments - A Complete How to Guide.
Historically when migrating email messages to Salesforce we have been asked to load them as tasks, but with the release of the Enhanced Email functionality a while back, it's becoming increasingly com...
Data Migrations and The Importance of Centralizing Your Transformation Code
When discussing data migrations, I often talk about the importance of "repairability", the ability to fix data caused by an error in your data migration, weeks or even months post go live. I...
Why I absolutely HATE the Apex Data Loader.
I really hate the Salesforce's Apex Data Loader, I really do. Not because it's a bad app, it's quite a good one (at least as far as utilities go), the reason I hate it is simply because it exists. Let...
Choosing the Right ETL Tool or Middleware for Your Salesforce Data Migration or Integration
Often, when talking with people who have been put in charge of building a data migration or integration with Salesforce, the first question they ask is "What tool should we use?". My respons...
Winning the War against bad CRM data
A few month ago I authored an article titled "Why are CRM systems so susceptible to bad data?", and in that article I laid out what I felt (and still do feel) are the root causes of bad CRM ...
Understanding Salesforce record locking, and preventing them from killing our load performance (or causing errors)
Just like most relational database systems, Salesforce locks records when they are being modified, to prevent two people from updating the same record simultaneously, which would result in a conflict....
Book review : Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Patterns and Best Practice (RadixBay)
Experienced Salesforce techs know that a well-planned data migration is a key component of all successful implementations. But data migration action items are often overlooked during the planning phas...
FAQ: What is a Pk Chunk?
PK Chunking is a feature that was added to the bulk API back in 2015, that when used, is supposed to improve the performance of large data downloads from Salesforce. Most native objects and all custo...
Book review on: Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Patterns and Best Practices (Christopher Hopper)
Quality of data being in the right place, for the right person, at the right time so it's actionable is critical to the success of a CRM project. While a nice user interface, fancy reports and work...
Heroes of Data History #1 - John Snow (and the London well)
This is the first installment of a new blog series "Heroes of Data History", this series will focus on commemorating some our great heroes as Data people. I'll take some creative freedom wit...
The Ultimate Salesforce Data Reference/Reading List
Salesforce, and the Salesforce Ohana, do a great job providing lots of wonderful content and resources (specifically with the Trailhead and Developer sites) for self-training and learning. When I deci...
Tigh Loughhead on my talk about Salesforce Data Migrations and Attribute Driven Design
Last night I visited Third Republic's new NYC headquarters, to visit a series of SFDC-focused events they're kicking off in 2019. There were a few friends I already know, but I was fascinated by the f...
What's that System? (A guide to the confusing world of enterprise systems!)
As good Salesforce consultants we tend to live in the world of CRM, and we tend to focus on the big 3 components of CRM: Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. But as you move towards more Client-side...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice 35: QA and UAT is for Testing Processes Too (Not Just Code).
When I look at how Salesforce integrationmigration specialists (dev) tend to go about migrating data to Salesforce code, I often see a process that looks something like this: 1) Data Is delivered 2) ...
FAQ: Why are CRM systems so susceptible to bad data?
It's no secret that CRM systems are often plagued with bad data. Recently I asked myself "Are CRM systems more susceptible to bad data then other Systems, and if so, why?". I think the answe...
FAQ: What is the difference between a Data Migration and a Data Integration?
It's a surprisingly common question, I get asked it at least once a month: What is the difference between a Data Migration and a Data Integration? From a strictly definitional perspective, a data mig...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice #16: Best Practice 16: Don't Bury the Bodies; Expose Them.
This is a lesson I learned early on in my career the hard way. Although I have no proof that people are doing this, I'm know it's incredibly common. Consider the following situation and think about ho...
The two things you need to get to the top of your field: Warmth and Competence.
I know I usually write about Salesforce and Data, so this is somewhat off topic for me, but it is such an importantinteresting subject that I feel can help a lot of people. It's also around that time ...
FAQ: What do I need to know about Salesforce Users & Licensing before coding my integration or migration?
In this article I outline everything you need to (at least) be aware of about setting up users prior to coding your data migration or integration with Salesforce. Let's get started! The Salesforce U...
Introducing The Salesforce Data Blog (A Distributed Blog) OR Choosing a Blogging Platform.
Not many people know this, but I have been a on and off again blogger for almost 20 years, I have had at least four blogs on various sites, as well as participated as part of a team of bloggers on a v...
FAQ: One bad record is causing a batch of records to fail! How can I prevent triggers from impacting my ETL code?
Salesforce triggers need to be coded in such a way as to be able to process batches of data. This process is referred to as "bulkifying" the trigger. If a Salesforce trigger is not properly ...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce: Thank You!
It has now been about 3 weeks since the official release of my book "Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce: Patterns and Best Practices" (The response from the Salesfor...
reddit AMA: Best Questions!
Earlier this week I did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on reddits's rsalesforce subreddit, this article is a paraphrased recap of the best questions. You can find the full AMA here. I'm curious about MuleS...
How to Plan for any Salesforce Data Migration that Wins Every time
I spend a great deal of time dwelling on what makes a good Data Migration. I identified the six attributes of a good data migration, which form the foundation of my book "Developing Data Migrati...
PUBLISHED: Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce!!
I'm proud to announce that my book "Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce: Patterns and Best Practices" has been officially released and is available for sale just abou...
FAQ: I have a field that got migrated incorrectly. It wasn't discovered until a after go-live, and users updated some records. How do I fix it?
When you are migrating your data to Salesforce it's not uncommon to be migrating dozens of objects and hundreds of fields. Regardless of how thorough your testing is, defects may be found weeks, even ...
"inNote - Keep Notes on your LinkedIn Contacts!" or "Building Chrome Extensions for App Integrations"
This article will walk you through my experience codeing a simple Chrome extension (inNote) as a learning exercise. It allows you to enter notes against LinkedIn Contacts and Companies. You can downlo...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice #31: Every Record You Insert or Update Should Have a Job ID.
Most Salesforce integration specialists know to always mark data loaded to Salesforce with an external Id even if they are performing an Insert or Update as opposed to an Upsert. This makes perfectly ...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice #19: Limit the Number of Intermediaries (Layers of Abstraction)
Anytime you move data from one system to another or from one format to another, you run the risk that something will be lost or modified in the translation. This situation is a classic case of leaky a...
FAQ: What is the biggest mistake you can make when migrating data to Salesforce?
This is a question I get asked a lot, and my answer is always the same: "By far, the biggest mistake you can make when migrating data to Salesforce, is thinking of your data migration as a one-ti...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce Best Practice #10: Don't Hard-code Salesforce IDs; They Change with Environments
When coding data migrations or integrations with Salesforce it's not uncommon to have a need to specify specific record Ids in your code......
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice #4: Start Early.
The nature of data migrations is such that it's often not on the critical path, except as a dependency to start of QAUAT. Because of this, early in the project, data tasks are often looked at as lower...
Developing Data Migrations and Integrations with Salesforce - Best Practice #24: Fix code not data.
When coding your migrations or integrations you'll come across bad data. It's better to alter your transformation code to fix that data rather than fix the data itself......
