Brad’s October Cumulative Update

As it turns out… everybody needs a CU, not just the ole SharePoint! 🙂

While I may not have posted on my personal blog in a little while, I have been a busy beaver putting out some thought provoking content in other places. So, feel free to peruse the links below to those items (ranging from how-to’s to an analyst webinar on using workflow to improve customer experiences (CX) and even thoughts on the explosion of the cloud scene).

 

Migrating Lotus Notes Databases to SharePoint [Video]

Still using Lotus Notes? Interested in Migrating to SharePoint? Watch (Dean Virag) interview Brad Orluk to learn more about why companies are wanting to migrate away from Lotus Notes, obstacles in migrating form Lotus Notes, tools to help migrate, and so much more..

 

Linkin’ Tasks or How to Get That Pesky Task Item URL [Blog Post]

In this post I cover how to grab task details and surface them on an item level form during the execution of a Nintex workflow. It’s a handy trick that opens myriad possibilities around task management.

 

Cloud Computing: Past, Present and Future [Blog Post]

In this post I briefly cover the history of the #cloud, why it is so important and, interestingly, where’s it going.

 

Process Automation Tools Fuel Your Digital Transformation [Webinar]

Enterprises today have a common problem: a platform that slows down processes and disconnects line-of-business operators from IT. “It’s a platform that will eventually burn up around you,” Brad Orluk, technical evangelist at Nintex. Orluk made his comments during a recent CMSWire webinar sponsored by Nintex, “How Intelligent Workflows Power…

 

Omni-Channel Customer Experience: How to Drive Best-in-Class Results [Webinar]

Customer experience is rapidly becoming the primary source of differentiation in today’s economy. Businesses that truly understand their buyers and address their needs across multiple channels outpace competitors by a significant margin.

 

Final thoughts…

I’m planning on writing up a post in a few weeks on my thoughts around Microsoft Ignite and where I can see workflow, SharePoint, Office 365 and collaboration going, through the Microsoft lens, over the next year or so. Stay tuned!

 

Getting Started with Nintex’s Salesforce.com Connector!

As I had mentioned in my last post, Nintex unveiled a slew of new Nintex Live actions (DocuSign, SalesForce.com, Dynamics

Nintex bridges the gap!

CRM) for Nintex Workflow last month. Whether you’re new to SalesForce.com (which I will refer to as SFDC going forward so that my fingers don’t go numb and / or bleed due to typing out SalesForce.com a gazillion times), like me, or it’s old hat to you, you may be interested in how you can now integrate your SharePoint content and other LOB data with SFDC easily with Nintex Workflow. The new SFDC Connector consists of 11 new actions and, coming later (Q3 ’14) this year, bidirectional mechanism for starting Nintex workflows from activities inside of SFDC!

In this post I’ll cover:

• The SFDC actions

• How you can get them

In my next post, I will point out some helpful resources in your journey toward SFDC & Nintex bliss as well as how the actions are actually configured and used in your workflows.

The SFDC Actions

Here is the complete list of the new actions in the SFDC Connector pack:

Action	Description
	Create a record (standard or custom object). This could be used to add a new account to your SFDC instance.
	Delete a record (standard or custom object).
	Query a record (standard or custom object).
	Retrieve a record (standard or custom object). This would allow for all of an accounts details (e.g. name, account number, address, phone, etc.) to be pulled in one fell swoop to a dictionary.
	Update a record (standard or custom object). Could be used to update specific fields (a new phone number perhaps) for an account.
	Attach a file to a post on Salesforce Chatter.
	Post a link to Salesforce Chatter.
	Post a message to Salesforce Chatter.
	Use this action to post a polls to Salesforce Chatter to conduct a survey. The poll appears in a feed posts, and allows people to cast a vote on a specific question.
	Search for feeds in the Authorizing user’s Salesforce Chatter network.
	Send an invitation to users who do not have a Salesforce license to join the Authorizing user’s Salesforce Chatter network. Invitations are limited to users that have an email address within your allowed domains, and “Allow Co-worker Invitations” must be enabled for your organization.

How can I get them?

You will need to add the SFDC Connector via the Nintex Live Store. You can trial the SFDC Connector (and all of the above actions) for 30 days via your Nintex Workflow for O365 designer right now. My counterpart, the amazing and handsome Vadim Tabakman, was kind enough to put together a quick video on how to add them. Check it out!

That’s all for now, but stay tuned!  The step by step SFDC action walk-through will be posted shortly!