Assigning A Salesforce License To An Integration User

What is a Salesforce integration user, why setting one up will help you out when things go wrong, and why this is one Salesforce user you will not need to invite to the office party.

Imagine this scenario: you have one shared login which your team uses to access all your Salesforce integrations. One day, something goes wrong. Now, because everything coming through on the Salesforce side shows the same user's name next to all of the changes across all the integrations, it's nearly impossible to figure out which integration is acting up. There’s no accountability or easy way to fix the issue. This is the reason why you need a dedicated integration user.

What is an Integration User?

An integration user is an assigned license with its own custom profile and permission sets dedicated to the integration of any 3rd party integrations. For clarity, an integration user is NOT a human. Utilizing an integration user for tools like marketing automation, CTIs, or even your own custom API work is especially important because these types of tools usually update thousands of records per day. Having an integration user gives you more visibility and protection over the data you are moving in and out of Salesforce without consuming an existing user’s license.

Let’s break down the advantages of setting up integration users a little more.

ROI of Assigning a License to a Dedicated Integration User:

• Security - You can assign very granular permissions to the integration user; reducing the likelihood of security flaws being exploited. Remember, not all 3rd party integrations are downloaded through the AppExchange, and so, have not gone through the standard Salesforce rigorous security review.
• Tracking Updates - If you have an integration user, you can more readily tell which data is being impacted by that user, distinct from any other users. Figuring out how and why a record was created can be a time suck and a major headache. Having an integration user allows you to filter out activities so you can clearly see changes that external systems have made.
• User Management - In the event that a user needs to be frozen while investigating an issue, having a separate license means you won’t affect any other existing users. Conversely, if a standard user whose current license is being used for an integration leaves the company or changes their password, this can break an integration attached to that license.

Don’t put it off any longer.

While the upfront cost and set up time for an additional integration user license may seem unnecessary, it will save your company time and money in the long run. Giving your Salesforce Admin some of their time back will make them one very happy individual, and this is something you should never underestimate. If you are looking for help setting up a dedicated integration user, we can help you do that. And if you have any other Salesforce roadblocks to overcome, drop us a line! We’d love to work with you!