Exporting Salesforce Reports with RPA

Exporting Salesforce Reports with RPA

The Houston User Group meeting offered our team a chance to demonstrate the out-of-the-box capabilities of Salesforce and Robotic Process Automation, our expertise in these platforms, and the benefits of combining these two technologies. We showcased these benefits through two use cases – scraping LinkedIn to leads in Salesforce, and exporting Salesforce reports with RPA.

Captured at the Houston User Group Salesforce Event

For many of the members, it was their first time witnessing the capabilities of RPA technology, and how its functionalities could streamline business processes. Since Salesforce natively has the ability to automate business processes, RPA’s true value in this use case was getting data into and out of Salesforce. The integration of these two technologies and their respective automation capabilities can have a significant impact on lead generation and report exporting.

Use Case #1 – Scraping LinkedIn to Leads in Salesforce

This bot searches LinkedIn with specific criteria, and parses the search results to create new leads in Salesforce. It uses the user interface of LinkedIn and Salesforce to automate the process of lead creation.

The process of scraping the web where an API is not plug-and-play (or available) can be applied to multiple industries/use cases. From start to finish, this entire process was achieved by using LinkedIn, UiPath and Salesforce. Below is a diagram of the lead extraction process.

Lead Extraction Process for LinkedIn Data Scrapping

Use Case #2 – Export Reports from Salesforce

In many larger organizations, not every user has access to Salesforce. However, there are many cases where those types of users still need access to the reports compiled there. Using UiPath, these reports can be exported, configured and distributed to external parties that cannot be distributed within the Salesforce platform. The diagram below shows the process executed in Salesforce.

Salesforce Extraction Process Using RPA

UiPath – Salesforce API

The automations above can also be done using the REST API from Salesforce. UiPath has native components to access this API and they are easy to use. Using the API is more reliable compared to using the user interface. However, it will tap into the API limits that an organization is subscribed. Below shows the process as it exists in the UiPath studio.

By combining the capabilities of Salesforce and automation (RPA specifically), organizations can streamline the process of lead creation through the automation capabilities offered in each platform. The report export process in Salesforce can also be streamlined and accessible to organizational users and third parties alike.

Keep Reading: Declarative Programming in Salesforce – The Power of “Clicks Not Code”