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SimpleImport turns 10 years old! 🎈🎈🎈 

Our data import solution for Salesforce, SimpleImport, is a decade old and we’re getting emotional…

Just watch our 10 years of SimpleImport video:

We’re celebrating a special birthday… 🎂

This autumn we’re celebrating 10 years of SimpleImport. Yep, it’s been a whole decade since we released our exclusive-to-Salesforce, 5-star data importing solution.

But why does an import solution need a birthday? Because it’s not really about the solution. 

As ever, people are at the heart of everything we do. 

We’re celebrating 10 years of fantastic SimpleImport customers as well as the system integrators and Salesforce team we’ve met along the way. Not to mention the 10 years in which our own team has grown, building importing expertise on the Salesforce platform. 

So, we’re marking this milestone by having a little party. Don’t worry – we’re not leaving you out, you can get involved too. Keep your eyes on your inbox and LinkedIn for some 2012 nostalgia! 

Talking of 2012, let’s take a look back to see where ProvenWorks was 10 years ago…  

Where were we in 2012? 

ProvenWorks was created in 2008 at the kitchen table of our Managing Director, Joel Mansford in Reading, UK. Fully bootstrapped and independent, we built a native-to-Salesforce solution for cleaning up address data and became a Salesforce partner in 2009. 

Then, in 2012, we had an idea.

We noticed the need for a better, simpler data importing tool for Salesforce users. So, we wrote the app ourselves and SimpleImport was born.

As for Salesforce in 2012… Forbes selected Salesforce as the world’s most innovative company for the second consecutive year, a year in which Salesforce was celebrating its 100,000-strong customer base and establishing offices around the world. 

Now 10 years on, where are we and how far have we come? 

Where are we now? 

ProvenWorks hosts drinks at Salesforce Tower alongside GTM Guides, September 2022

SimpleImport has transformed, as Salesforce and the digital world have grown and changed. It now features a unique-on-the-market ManagedImport Lightning component for empowering users to import via a pre-configured drag and drop interface, as well as a new, more intuitive UI. And our development team never stops, with more features and updates being added to the roadmap constantly. 

More widely, we’ve come a long way as a company since we released SimpleImport in 2012. From hitting the $1 million dollar mark, to winning a Salesforce Partner Innovation Award and, most recently, to being accepted onto the Salesforce Grow Accelerate Programme. 

Nevertheless, some things have remained constant – we’re still completely bootstrapped and independent for a start. We still operate exclusively in the Salesforce ecosystem, and that’s where our expertise and passion is. And most importantly, we’re still committed to delivering gold standard customer success alongside each of our products. 

What’s left to say? 

10 years is a significant milestone in a fast-moving industry like software. We want to say thank you to everyone who we’ve worked with and alongside over the last 10 years for making SimpleImport and ProvenWorks what they are today. 

Happy Birthday SimpleImport! 

We look forward to celebrating with you all.  

🥳 Join the birthday party on LinkedIn #10yearsSimpleImport

Updating your solutions for Legacy API Retirement in Summer ‘22

What Legacy APIs are Salesforce retiring?

As part of their Summer ‘22 Release, Salesforce has announced the retirement of a number of legacy APIs.

Versions 7.0 through 20.0 of the Salesforce Platform SOAP, REST, and Bulk APIs will be deprecated and no longer supported as of the Summer ’22 release.

This means that these legacy APIs, and third-party integrations that rely on them, will cease to function after the release.

When are the Legacy APIs being retired?

Salesforce announced that June 10 and 11 2022 is the final release weekend when all remaining Salesforce instances are upgraded if they haven’t been already.

Legacy API Retirements and ProvenWorks solutions

To ensure that you do not encounter any issues with AddressTools, SimpleImport, IndustryComplete or PhoneTools, we recommend ensuring that your current version is or is later than the versions listed in this post. If you need advice on how to upgrade an AppExchange managed package, please see the resources linked at the end.

We have listed the version of each tool, including a link to its latest AppExchange listing, that you must be on in order to be using supported APIs.

AddressTools Premium:

7.75+

AddressTools Free:

6.20+

Address Verification Flow Component:

1.72+

SimpleImport Free:

2.47+

SimpleImport Premium:

2.57+

ManagedImport:

1.15+

PhoneTools:

2.0+

IndustryComplete:

2.16+

Resources

Prepare for Legacy API Retirement in Summer ’22 – Salesforce Developers’ Blog

Salesforce Platform API Versions 21.0 through 30.0 Retirement – Salesforce Help

Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release — Here’s What to Expect – Salesforce News

Salesforce Summer ’22 Release Notes

Don’t Miss These Key Dates: Summer ’22 Sandbox Preview

How to upgrade your ProvenWorks solution

We wrote a handy four-step guide to walk you through how to upgrade your AppExchange solutions.

Contact us

If you’re worried about how the API retirements might affect you and your ProvenWorks solution, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Interview: Farm Credit Illinois transition to new software seamlessly with SimpleImport

“SimpleImport is used by our whole credit underwriting team multiple times a day.”

Jon Cook, Vice President – Credit Services Division at Farm Credit Illinois

Farm Credit Illinois is a farmer owned and directed agricultural lending cooperative serving 10,000 farm families, agribusinesses, and rural landowners in the southern 60 counties of Illinois with competitive and flexible financing and crop insurance expertise. Their deep understanding of agriculture enables them to provide knowledgeable and effective service. 

An interview with Jon Cook, Vice President – Credit Services Division at Farm Credit Illinois

Jon Cook shares the challenges that Farm Credit Illinois faced when they moved to new loan origination software and how SimpleImport was able to give them the seamless process they were looking for.

What specific challenges were you trying to solve that made you look for a solution?

Farm Credit Illinois (FCI) recently implemented the nCino suite for our loan origination platform. During our design and discovery phase, we realized we were going to have a gap in our credit underwriting process because our previous configuration for uploading financial data sets was not going to be compatible with nCino.

We needed to upload data sets from Excel to the loan origination system for risk rating and other company objectives. Along with our technology provider, Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI), we began the search to find a solution to fit our needs.

What were you (or weren’t you!) looking for in a solution?

  • A cost effective, secure, and efficient tool to import data from Excel into our nCino platform.
  • A solution that could be easily used by our Credit Department and fit seamlessly within the process without adding additional navigation or clicks.
  • We could not afford to sacrifice our member experience by negatively impacting turnaround time in our loan decisions or employee engagement with a complex or cumbersome solution.
  • We did not want a complex solution that would require more regular monitoring or resource demand for support, or leave us vulnerable to data errors in transition.

After a process of vetting different solutions, from internally built custom code to outside solutions, we found ProvenWorks. The tool SimpleImport fit our need to efficiently and effectively upload data from Excel to nCino.

How easy is it to use SimpleImport?

Very easy! Once we created and saved the import mapping, the end user experience was seamless! We have one saved mapping that is used by many users multiple times a day. It’s a key cog within our underwriting process of uploading data.

How long did it take to train your users?

We were able to coincide the implementation of SimpleImport with the go-live of our nCino platform. As a result, we incorporated the training for SimpleImport in our new guides which made for a seamless transition to SimpleImport. This tool was labelled a “win” in multiple training locations during training courses.

How does SimpleImport solve the challenges you had with your process?

At the drag and drop of an Excel file, we’re able to import data from our Excel model into the nCino loan product package in a seamless transition.

The efficiency gained from SimpleImport saves end users from manually entering these data points from point A to point B, reduces data integrity concerns at an effective cost and demands minimal resources to implement and maintain.

How has SimpleImport helped your business and customers?

The saved data mapping is used by our whole credit underwriting team multiple times a day. At FCI, we view SimpleImport as our end solution and feel it best fits into the process as we underwrite credit today. The results through two months are very valuable, as this tool in part helped our credit department underwrite a large Q4 loan demand. Without SimpleImport, this would have negatively impacted loan decision turnaround time with our members and our employee engagement.

Why SimpleImport?

We’ve had no reason to contact Support thus far – which is a good sign as we haven’t had any issues! I’ve started mentioning ProvenWorks and specifically the SimpleImport tool as a solution for anyone who needs to transfer data from Excel to nCino.

We thought our previous system coding in our previous loan origination system was efficient, but the SimpleImport tool was just as efficient if not better as now we can also drag and drop files.

In short, it’s an efficient, cost effective tool that requires marginal training demand and can be used by an individual or a team of users on a frequent or infrequent basis.


SimpleImport

Importing files is so vital for so many organizations. It’s good news that Simplelmport makes this job as effortless as possible. Learn more and book a demo.

Got questions? Chat to us!

Do you want to learn more about how SimpleImport could be a great addition to your Salesforce org? We’d love to chat! Use the scheduler to book a free call with our team and start your journey to faster, simpler imports

Can’t find a time that works for you or would rather email first? Fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Speed up your importing with SimpleImport Spring ’22 (20220118)

We know that when it comes to tasks like importing, every second counts.

That’s why we’ve released a service update for SimpleImport (20220118). Based on our customers’ usage, we found that loading speeds during the import workflow could be improved, so we’ve improved them.

Small changes influenced by your real-world usage mean big improvements. So let’s take a look at what’s changed.

A faster SimpleImport

What have we updated and what does this mean?

Scenario 1:

  • Loading object metadata can be costly. We may only be talking seconds, but seconds add up. That’s why we only want to load the object metadata you want to work with when it’s needed.

The solution:

  • SimpleImport usage revealed that users rarely wanted to import to the first object in the picklist.
  • As a result we removed the auto-selection of the first object displayed during object selection.

The result:

  • Users no longer have to wait for the first object’s metadata to load before selecting the object they actually want to import into!
  • Just have one object available? Don’t worry, we’ll auto-select this one for you – it’s the only option after all!

Scenario 2:

  • Auto-mapping fields took too long. Having to wait for this process to finish before being able to interact was just inconvenient. We strive to remove as much waiting time as possible because that’s just not productive.

The solution:

  • We’ve significantly optimized the auto-field mapping process to minimise the loading time on the mapping page.

The result:

  • The waiting time scales depending on how many fields are in the file.
  • We know this waiting is as a result of SimpleImport offering a helping hand, but now the hand is much, much faster!

How do I access SimpleImport Spring ’22?

Great question! This is a service update so you will automatically have access to the new workflow if you are already using SimpleImport.

If you get stuck or have any questions, feel free to contact our Support team who are more than happy to help you: support@provenworks.com.

SimpleImport

Importing files is so vital for so many organizations. It’s good news that Simplelmport makes this job as effortless as possible. Learn more and book a demo.

SimpleImport: File states and actions

Understanding the file states

To keep everything in one place, SimpleImport uses the home screen to display all uploaded files and their states. Each file state offers actions which are accessible by clicking the three vertical dots.

‘Next best action’ states

In some file states, SimpleImport will use the tile space to suggest the next best action to ensure quick navigation through common processes.

Choose a sheet – the file you uploaded contains multiple sheets. You must now choose the sheet you want to work with.

Available actions: Choose a sheet, Download original file, Delete this file.

Import to Salesforce – the uploaded file contains a single sheet or you have selected a sheet from a multi-sheet file. You must choose one of the available actions to move forward with the file.

Available actions: Import to Salesforce, Remove records*, Download original file, Delete this file.

*Only visible if Delete records preference is enabled.

‘Summary’ states

When there is information related to the file that needs to be presented to the user, it will be shown in the following states.

Import results – when your file has finished an importing job, a matrix will appear. Depending on the import job, a count for the number of records inserted, updated and any errors will be displayed.

Available actions: Download success file (inserts)*, Download success file (updates)**, Download error file, Undo***, Download original file, Delete this file.

*Only visible if the job has successful inserts.

**Only visible if the job has successful updates.

***Only visible if the job has success inserts or updates. Is available for 7 days after the import.

Undo results – after an undo job has processed, the matrix will update confirming the amount of records that have been undone. An error count will accumulate if there were any records that could not be reverted.

Available actions: Download success file, Download error file, Download original file, Delete this file.

Delete results – shows the quantity of records that have been successfully deleted and a quantity or rows that failed to be removed.

Available actions: Download success file, Download error file, Download original file, Delete this file.

File error – on some occasions a file may throw an error in the application. For example if the file is password protected or corrupt. The tile will present the error and turn red. If the message is truncated, you can hover the mouse over the tile to reveal the full message. If you continue to see red tiles after investigating the errors you can contact support@provenworks.com for assistance.

Available actions: Delete this file.

‘Processing’ states

A processing state is indicated when you see the spinner on a tile. A note of the process that is happening at that moment in time is displayed and for some instances, i.e. record import, a progress bar is shown at the bottom of the tile.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

SimpleImport: Object selection and import settings (single object)

This article will cover:

  • Choosing an object to import into.
  • Loading an existing mapping.
  • Configuring import settings (Campaigns and Assignment Rules).

After uploading a file into SimpleImport use the Import to Salesforce action to navigate to the object selection and import settings page.

Choosing an object to import data into

You have the option to import into a single object or two related objects. This article will cover importing to a single object so we’ll be choosing an object from the Master select list.

Note: the master object selection is mandatory however the detail is not and should only be used when doing a related import, i.e. Accounts and Contacts.

  • Use the Master select list to choose the object you want to import data to.

Loading an existing mapping

Before reading further, what is a “mapping” in SimpleImport?

Mappings contain a predefined configuration to complete a repeat import task. They are designed by users in your organization and specific to your usage.

It is important to note that you may not have any saved mappings if this is your first time using SimpleImport in which case you can skip this step however we will cover how to save a mapping later in this guide if you are looking to repeat your import task, or configure ManagedImport. Your system administrator may advise you on a mapping to select.

If you are aware of an existing mapping to load:

  • Ensure the Object selection contains the object that has the mapping associated with it.
  • Use the Load mapping select list to search for the mapping name.
  • Select the mapping.

When the mapping has successfully loaded, the path will update at the top of the screen. You can now review the configuration and navigate straight to the import summary to start the job.

Import settings

SimpleImport comes bundled with some helpful import settings that are specific to certain objects in Salesforce. These settings are not mandatory and can be left disabled if you do not wish to use them.

Import to Campaign

If your object selection contains Contacts or Leads, you can associate them with an active Campaign by using the Import to Campaign setting. A Campain Member record will be created for each Contact or Lead. Each Campaign Member will require a status value that can be defined in the import settings.

Note: This setting will be disabled if object selection doesn’t contain a supported object.

To use Import to Campaign:

  • Select Import to Campaign.
  • Search and select an existing active Campaign from the select list.
  • If you choose Specific status, use the select list and choose a pre-existing status value. This sets the same status value for each of the file’s rows.
  • If you choose Status from spreadsheet column, ensure there is a column in your spreadsheet and select its header. This option allows for a different status value for each of the file’s rows.
Use assignment rules

If your object section contains Cases or Leads, you can assign the owner by following the configured Assignment Rules in Salesforce.

To use assignment rules with your import:

  • Select Use assignment rules.
  • If you wish to follow the active assignment rule from Salesforce, select Use active rule.
  • If you wish to use an alternative assignment rule, select its label.

Summary

You should now be able to choose which objects you’d like to import to, load an existing mapping if one exists, and understand how to use Import to Campaign and Assignment Rules.

To continue on to choosing the import type (insert, update, upsert), select Next and move on to the next article in the guide.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

SimpleImport: Single object insert, update or upsert

This article will cover:

  • What is the difference between insert, update and upsert.
  • Choosing an import type.
  • Using matching conditions with updates and upserts.

What is the difference between insert, update and upsert?

When importing data into Salesforce it is important to understand the difference between the three import types.

  • Insert – Only create new records in your Salesforce Org. 
  • Update – Only update existing records in your Salesforce Org. This is only possible where a single match to an existing Salesforce record is achieved.
  • Upsert – Where a match can be found (see Update above) perform an update, if no match then create a new record.

For update and upsert, SimpleImport introduces matching conditions to define logic for matching existing records. This will become available for use when using update or upsert and is covered in more detail later in this article.

Choosing an import type (single object)

You’ve chosen your object, you’re now ready to define what type of import you want to complete.

  • Select insert, update or upsert under Import Type.
  • If you have selected insert, press Next to continue.
  • If you have chosen update or upsert, continue reading Using matching conditions.

Using matching conditions

Updating and upserting into Salesforce couldn’t be easier with the quick-to-adopt matching conditions functionality in SimpleImport. For each object that has the import type set to update or upsert, use the matching conditions tool to define criteria to find existing records in your org. This can range from simply matching existing records by their Salesforce Record ID, or a combination of fields such as Last Name, Phone Number and Email Address.

When update or upsert is chosen, the matching conditions section will automatically create one row ready to complete. Let’s get started.

  • Under File Column, choose a column header from the file that contains the data you want to use for matching.
  • Under Salesforce Field, choose the field label that contains the data you want to match with.
  • To add more matching conditions, select Add Row and repeat the two steps above for each added row.

Note: the matching conditions query builder will create an AND query to find existing records. It must result in finding a single record.

Summary

With the import type chosen and matching conditions set, it’s time to move on to the field mapping. Continue to the next article.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

SimpleImport: Object selection and import settings (master-detail)

This article will cover:

  • Choosing related objects to import into.
  • Loading an existing mapping.
  • Import settings (Campaigns and Assignment Rules).

After uploading a file into SimpleImport use the Import to Salesforce action to navigate to the object selection and import settings page.

You have the option to import into a single object or two related objects. This article will cover importing in to two related objects (i.e. Account and Contacts) so we’ll be choosing an object from the Master and then the Detail select list.

  • Use the Master select list to choose the object you want to import data to.
  • Choose a related Detail object.

Loading an existing mapping

Before reading further, what is a “mapping” in SimpleImport?

Mappings contain a predefined configuration to complete a repeat import task. They are designed by users in your organization and specific to your usage.

It is important to note that you may not have any saved mappings if this is your first time using SimpleImport in which case you can skip this step however we will cover how to save a mapping later in this guide if you are looking to repeat your import task, or configure ManagedImport. Your system administrator may advise you on a mapping to select.

If you are aware of an existing mapping to load:

  • Ensure the Object selection contains the objects that have a mapping associated with them.
  • Use the Load mapping select list to search for the mapping name.
  • Select the mapping.

When the mapping has successfully loaded, the path will update at the top of the screen. You can now review the configuration and navigate straight to the import summary to start the job.

Import settings

SimpleImport comes bundled with some helpful import settings that are specific to certain objects in Salesforce. These settings are not mandatory and can be left disabled if you do not wish to use them.

Import to Campaign

If your object selection contains Contacts or Leads in either the master or detail selection, you can associate them with an active Campaign by using the Import to Campaign setting. A Campaign Member record will be created for each Contact or Lead imported. Each Campaign Member will require a status value that can be defined in the import settings.

Note: This setting will be disabled if object selection doesn’t contain a supported object.

To use Import to Campaign:

  • Select Import to Campaign.
  • Search and select an existing active Campaign from the select list.
  • If you choose Specific status, use the select list and choose a pre-existing status value. This sets the same status value for each of the file’s rows.
  • If you choose Status from spreadsheet column, ensure there is a column in your spreadsheet and select its header. This option allows for a different status value for each of the file’s rows.
Use assignment rules

If your object section contains Cases or Leads in either the master or detail selection, you can assign the owner by following the configured Assignment Rules in Salesforce.

To use assignment rules with your import:

  • Select Use assignment rules.
  • If you wish to follow the active assignment rule from Salesforce, select Use active rule.
  • If you wish to use an alternative assignment rule, select its label.

Note: if the master and detail object selection both support assignment rules, two assignment rule options will be available labelled Master and Detail.

Summary

You should now be able to choose which objects you’d like to import to, load an existing mapping if one exists, and understand how to use Import to Campaign and Assignment Rules.

To continue on to choosing the import type (insert, update, upsert), select Next and move on to the next article in the guide.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

SimpleImport: Master-detail insert, update or upsert

This article will cover:

  • What is the difference between insert, update and upsert.
  • Choosing an import type.
  • Using matching conditions with updates and upserts.

What is the difference between insert, update and upsert?

When importing data into Salesforce it is important to understand the difference between the three import types.

  • Insert – Only create new records in your Salesforce Org. 
  • Update – Only update existing records in your Salesforce Org. This is only possible where a single match to an existing Salesforce record is achieved.
  • Upsert – Where a match can be found (see Update above) perform an update, if no match then create a new record.

For update and upsert, SimpleImport introduces matching conditions to define logic for matching existing records. This will become available for use when using update or upsert and is covered in more detail later in this article.

Choosing an import type (master-detail)

You’ve chosen your two related objects, it’s now time to choose the import types for each object.

Note: using update or upsert on a detail object import is considered an advanced import and should only be used if you’re confident in understanding the outcome.

When working with two objects, Step 1 and Step 2 will be presented in the UI.

  • Under Step 1, select insert, update or upsert under Import Type.
  • Select Step 2.
  • Select insert, update or upsert under Import Type.
  • If you have selected insert for both objects, press Next to continue.
  • If you have chosen update or upsert for either object, continue reading Using matching conditions.

Using matching conditions

Updating and upserting into Salesforce couldn’t be easier with the quick-to-adopt matching conditions functionality in SimpleImport. For each object that has the import type set to update or upsert, use the matching conditions tool to define criteria to find existing records in your org. This can range from simply matching existing records by their Salesforce Record ID, or a combination of fields such as Last Name, Phone Number and Email Address.

When update or upsert is chosen, the matching conditions section will automatically create one row ready to complete. Let’s get started.

  • Under File Column, choose a column header from the file that contains the data you want to use for matching.
  • Under Salesforce Field, choose the field label that contains the data you want to match with.
  • To add more matching conditions, select Add Row and repeat the two steps above for each added row.
  • Repeat these steps for both objects until all objects configured for an update or upsert have valid matching conditions.

Note: the matching conditions query builder will create an AND query to find existing records. It must result in finding a single record.

Summary

With the import type chosen and matching conditions set, it’s time to move on to the field mapping. Continue to the next article.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

SimpleImport: Accessing the solution

How to access SimpleImport in Salesforce CRM

With SimpleImport now installed in your organization, the first thing you’ll want to do is access the application.

  • Go to App Launcher and type SimpleImport.
  • Under Items, select SimpleImport.

Once SimpleImport has been selected, the application will begin to load.

Note: If you do not see SimpleImport under items, ensure your administrator has provided you with a license for the product and given your profile access to the SimpleImport tab. If you continue to face issues, speak with your system administrator.


Back to the SimpleImport User Guide