It’s no exaggeration to say that the cloud has revolutionized the way people work. The ability to store, share, and collaborate on almost any type of file across multiple platforms and devices gives employees the freedom and flexibility they need to work with maximum connectivity.

Two of the most popular cloud-based tools for enterprise companies with large databases are Dropbox, one of the most widely used cloud storage services available today, and Salesforce, a robust CRM service that boasts over 2,500 native apps built upon its native ecosystem, the Salesforce Appexchange.

Salesforce: Powerful Customer Relationship Management

Widely used by many types of mid to large-sized companies, Salesforce is the number one CRM system in the US market today. It enables salespeople to access and log their clients’ information immediately because it’s mission critical to understand exactly how to adapt to each client in order to close a sale. It’s also a completely robust CRM system, wherein it enables customer service issues to be logged, tracked, and resolved. Its entire premise lies on the fact companies should be building more personal relationships with their clients at every touch point. That’s why Salesforce also created a nifty mobile app so that any mobile salesperson can have instant access to their clients’ information regardless of where they are.

Dropbox: Easy, Convenient Cloud Storage

Dropbox is an equally extremely popular service for its reliable cloud storage that many businesses use for seamless sharing, storage, and backup of important data in the cloud. It makes collaboration simple and convenient with features that allow you to send file hyperlinks to other people, and set sharing permissions to let them access certain folders. Saving and accessing documents or other types of media files in Dropbox, is as easy as selecting documents on your computer, and dragging them to your Dropbox icon on your desktop, or simply uploading them from your phone or tablet to your Dropbox app. Either process takes less than 5 seconds, so the user experience of this service is completely frictionless. As a plus of being in the cloud, all of your files get synced automatically across all of your devices that have the app installed, so you can use it on your smartphone, desktop, or tablet.

Syncing Salesforce and Dropbox

Each of these cloud-based apps is incredibly useful for business. They would be that much more powerful if they were integrated together in a way that’s completely seamless.

With cloudHQ you can easily set up a sync between your Dropbox and Salesforce accounts; which makes it simple to check up on, or to send, up-to-date Salesforce reports within Dropbox . When setting up a pair of cloud services to sync in cloudHQ, you can choose to sync the entire account, a specific folder, or even create a new folder ensuring that the correct files get synched.

Inside that Dropbox folder, you’ll automatically get 4 Salesforce folders pre-mapped for you into:

1. Accounts
2. Opportunities
3. Personal Library
4. Reports

cloudHQ’s Salesforce Integration Features Protection and Integration:

1. Protection: Backup of Salesforce in Your Dropbox

Don’t schedule backups, just always have a current copy of your Salesforce account in real-time, accessible through Dropbox. This copy is synched with Salesforce, so it’ll continuously get updated.

With a check of a box, you can also set up archive folders through cloudHQ that will appear automatically in your Dropbox account. These archive folders serve as a backup protection because it saves the last version of your Salesforce data before any changes were made (think of accidental or malicious deletions occurring… they happen all the time!).

2. Integration:

1. You can change your Salesforce client account information from Dropbox and it’ll get synched over to Salesforce, or vice-versa. Changes are reflected in both accounts simultaneously.
2. Have real-time reports always available to you in your Dropbox account. You’ll even have a mapped folder in Dropbox called “salesforce reports” that will have all your Salesforce reports in it.
3. Empower your salespeople with Salesforce’s search toolbar. Currently, all other integrations don’t let Salesforce search documents because they are “integrated” by way of a hyperlink only. Because the information lives in Dropbox, it’s not searchable in Salesforce.cloudHQ syncs the actual file to your Salesforce Files, not just a hyperlink or a preview. This means that your salespeople have everything they need right in the Salesforce App and never need to leave it to access files in other apps, like Dropbox or Box. This saves your salespeople time and lets them use the search feature in Salesforce on both desktop and mobile devices.

Here are your 3 major benefits:

1. You never have to worry about where you put that latest version of the document everyone’s been working on.
2. You’ll always have an instant backup of everything because your files live in both cloud locations; which also enables you to use the Salesforce search feature.
3. cloudHQ automatically archives all of your data in Dropbox to protect against malicious or accidental file deletions.

Addressing Security Issues

Many companies handle sensitive information that needs to be protected from unauthorized users. Dropbox has some security features, such as a two-step verification, but on its own, the cloud is not entirely safe. This is because most cloud storage services use server-side encryption. Meaning that the storage provider, in this case, Dropbox, can and does, decrypt your files. In order to truly protect your files you should use a 3rd party client-side encryption service to encrypt your files before they are uploaded to the cloud. That way if any unauthorized access to your account is made the intruder will only get access to encrypted versions of your data.

Client side encryption may sound great but cumbersome. That’s where Hitachi Solutions’ Credeon Cloud Data Protection enters the picture.

How to Secure Your Synced Data

An excellent solution to protect against unauthorized access to your data in both Dropbox and Salesforce is by using Credeon’s client-side encryption service. Brought to you by Hitachi Solutions, Credeon uses military-grade encryption technology to secure your files before you upload them to the cloud. Credeon is available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, so you can use it on virtually any device.

When you use Credeon with cloudHQ, the documents and other files you sync between Dropbox and Salesforce will automatically be encrypted. Once a file is encrypted with Credeon, you choose which users can see it by explicity granting them access.

Security and Convenience have never looked so good.

Overview of Steps to Take:

1. If you’re not already using Dropbox and Salesforce, you should be.
2. Sign up for a free trial on cloudHQ to help your employees collaborate on projects and to protect your data with a real-time copy of your entire Salesforce in Dropbox.
3. Then sign up for Hitachi Solutions Credeon Cloud Data Protection and ensure your company’s security.