Tools to help with salesforce integration

Question

Hi,

We do some tight integration between our rdbms and Salesforce.com - currently using the salesforce API, java code and an ETL tool.

Our business users are asking questions like, if it's all soap, can't we just link the two systems together in a more dynamic question?

Essentially i'm wondering whether there are tools that enable this? We'd need to map fields from a query directly into fields in salesforce, and have the tool manage the synchronisation, which ever direction that may be in?

Sounds a bit far fetched to me, but if such a tool exists, it would be of massive help!

The tool would need to support salesforce batching which is something i've noticed is sometimes lacking in some areas due to the complexity of it.

b.t.w. dbAmp wont work as we're with Oracle. Looks good though..

Thanks, Dan

Answer 1

The Force.com DataLoader sounds like what you're looking for. SalesForce provides some other similar tools here.

Answer 2

Also look at Informatica ( http://www.informatica.com/solutions/salesforce%5Fcrm/Pages/index.aspx )

Answer 3

Not sure if this answers your question, but here are two tools that might work for you.

1. Cast Iron: http://www.castiron.com/ - they have a SaaS solution, a VWare solution and an appliance you can put in your colo. It's not cheap, but does have a drag and drop interface and allows you to map and transform data between lots of different endpoints (Web Service, Salesforce, Databases, FTP, Email etc.) without code. I've used it to integrate between Salesforce and Oracle, as well as back end SQL based DBs and web services, and it's pretty slick.
2. There's also an open source tool called Jitterbit, which looks reasonable: http://www.jitterbit.com/ I've played with this in the past, but I've never done any serious integration with it.

Answer 4

Found this one on appexchange http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016cxvEAA# - looks solid

Answer 5

Informatica Data Loader, Centerprise Data Integrator, Pervasive... Type in "salesforce integration" into Appexchange search and you'll get a list of good integrators. Always try it out first before buying, if they're not free.