Let’s face it, when it comes to Salesforce data management, it isn’t just a backend task, it’s the backbone. However, managing data in Salesforce isn’t just about having enough storage. It’s about keeping things clean, secure, and easily accessible as your org grows and business needs evolve.
Now, if you’re working with Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or any of the Salesforce Industry Clouds, things get even more real. On top of everyday operations, you’ve got compliance rules like GDPR and CCPA breathing down your neck. These aren’t just Salesforce data management best practices, they’re legal must-haves.
That’s why businesses need a solid game plan and a smart, well-rounded Salesforce data management strategy that checks all the boxes: data quality, governance, and compliance. The good news? You don’t have to do it all manually. With the help of purpose-built tools and third-party apps from the Salesforce AppExchange, you can ease a lot of the heavy lifting.
In this article, we’re diving into the nitty-gritty of Salesforce data management, what makes it tricky, and how to tackle it like a pro.
Why Salesforce Data Backups Deserve Your Attention
Good data quality isn’t just about avoiding errors or duplicate records. It impacts everything, from how your sales team targets leads to how your service reps handle support tickets. Clean, well-managed Salesforce data means better reporting, smarter automation, and more confident decision-making across the board.
And let’s not forget compliance. With regulations like GDPR and CCPA, you can’t afford to overlook data hygiene. It could lead to Salesforce data challenges, not just operationally, but legally too.
Data Management Challenges in Salesforce
While many companies excel at collecting data, they often encounter a myriad of Salesforce data challenges when it comes to managing it effectively and making sense of it. Among the prominent challenges organizations face are:
Multitude of Data
One major issue is the bulk amounts of Salesforce data being generated from an increasing number and variety of sources, like integrated 3rd party apps. This includes sales events, marketing campaigns, customer interactions, and many more. This makes it difficult to keep track of all the data and manage what data it is, where it is stored, and how to ultimately use it.
Constantly Changing Compliance Requirements
Compliance regulations are complex and multi-jurisdictional, and also change constantly. Enterprises need to be updated about new changes and be able to easily review their data and identify anything that falls under the modified requirements.
Repurposing Legacy Data
Most of the time, organizations are unsure about repurposing their data and putting it to use. Collecting and identifying data loses its value if it isn’t processed quickly. If it takes a lot of time and effort to convert the data into usable material, then the analysis will not lead to profitable results
Data Storage Issues
Organizations have to keep up with frequent changes in data storage techniques. The data that is stored across multiple systems, like internal storage, data warehouses, and third-party systems, needs to be quickly and easily transformed from its original format into the format or model needed for analyzing it. This becomes a daunting task for enterprises when the limitations of Salesforce data storage also come into play.
Data Quality and Integrity
Maintaining accurate, complete, and consistent data in Salesforce poses a significant challenge, particularly with diverse data sources and varied user inputs. Ensuring that all data entered aligns with business standards and remains reliable is crucial for effective decision-making and operational efficiency.
Integration Complexity
Integrating Salesforce easily with other systems requires meticulous planning and management. Ensuring smooth data flow across platforms while maintaining data integrity and functionality can be complex, requiring robust integration strategies and tools.
Scalability
As data volume within Salesforce expands, managing performance and scalability becomes paramount. Ensuring the system can handle increased data loads while maintaining responsiveness and user satisfaction is essential for sustained business growth and operational efficiency.
Customization & Configuration
Balancing the customization of Salesforce to meet specific business processes while maintaining system stability and ease of maintenance can be challenging. That’s exactly why custom-built applications for Salesforce often fail to align, as Salesforce updates are quite frequent, and it can be challenging to redo on a scalable basis.
Tech-Expensive Procedures
Salesforce data management often demands expert interventions for jobs like data backups, archives, and seeding, which are critical for data integrity, compliance, and long-term scalability.
Solutions to Combat the Challenges in Data Management
An enterprise stands to drastically improve the way its Salesforce data is managed by taking care of some important factors. Firstly, the data available in the system should be reliable for it to be used for carrying out analytics. This data should be documented end-to-end to help identify and resolve issues easily. Lastly, the organization should have a competent Salesforce backup and archiving strategy in place to cut back on the risks involved in data management.
Salesforce Data Loader
Several built-in tools, like the Salesforce Data Loader, designed to facilitate bulk import or export of data into and out of the Salesforce CRM platform, are available to the organization. This application allows users to insert, update, export, or delete up to 5 million Salesforce records according to their specific needs and requirements.
Salesforce Accelerators
Salesforce also offers several ‘accelerators’ that simplify the data management process without having to leave the internal platform. Some of the most prominent accelerators include the Customer Master Data Harmonization Accelerator, the Data.com Data Quality Assessment Accelerator, and the Prevent Duplicate Records Accelerator.
AppExchange Solutions
In recent times, more and more third-party do-it-yourself Salesforce data solutions are also cropping up that can be explored through the AppExchange marketplace. These solutions can be used to perform every possible function, from project management to data visualization, and are valuable when there are budget constraints.
According to a recent survey, over 91% of customers invest in third-party applications from Salesforce AppExchange to transform their CRM journeys. And, in this mission, DataArchiva has transformed over 100+ Salesforce customers’ data management journeys in Salesforce.
DataArchiva provides enterprise-focused data management solutions to retain, migrate, protect, regulate & restore Salesforce data with its archive, backup & seeding capabilities as AppExchange applications.
DataArchiva for Data Management in Salesforce
DataArchiva offers three core solutions specifically designed for Salesforce users: automation, archiving, and backup & seeding, each playing a critical role in optimizing data management within Salesforce environments.
The automation functionality simplifies repetitive administrative tasks, such as scheduling backups and archiving jobs, managing storage, and monitoring data activity, enabling Salesforce administrators to focus more on high-value, strategic initiatives.
DataArchiva’s archiving solution facilitates the efficient offloading of historical data into Salesforce’s Big Objects infrastructure and external cloud of your choice. This approach strengthens data accessibility and compliance and delivers substantial cost benefits, reducing storage expenses by more than 85%.
In addition, the backup and seeding capabilities safeguard data integrity and ensure business continuity by mitigating the risks associated with data loss or unplanned outages. Together, these solutions empower Salesforce administrators to enhance operational efficiency, maintain robust data governance, and support faster, data-driven decision-making.
Discover how DataArchiva can transform your data management strategy by setting up a demo.
Read the success stories of how a bunch of industries like yours have achieved data governance with data management applications of DataArchiva.
