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Automating provisioning via Salesforce

Orb's sales automation integration brings the full power of Orb's APIs natively into Salesforce. This integration allows your sales operation team to build customizable, automated provisioning workflows via Salesforce Flow while leveraging the flexibility the Orb API provides. With this integration, you can automate provisioning an Orb subscription upon opportunity close, enabling your sales reps to stay within Salesforce and reducing manual work needed post-contract.

Installation​

Orb's Salesforce application is distributed as a Salesforce Managed Package. Reach out to the Orb team for a direct installation link.

Installation of the package should be done by a Salesforce Admin.

  1. Navigate to the installation link provided, click continue, and install the package for admins only. install_salesforce.png
  2. Once the package is installed, navigate to the App Launcher and search for the Orb app. configuration_salesforce.png

Configuration​

On the configuration page for the Orb application, you'll be asked to provide two fields:

  1. API Key: This is an Orb API Key that is used to fetch resources from the Orb API. While any valid API Key for your account can be used, we recommend provisioning a specific Salesforce API key for this purpose and idenitifying it appropriately. To provision an Orb API key, visit the API Keys tab in the Settings page of the Orb dashboard.
  2. External Customer ID field: Orb's sync ties together a Customer in Orb with an Account in Salesforce. If you already have a custom field on your Salesforce Account object that corresponds to the external_customer_id in Orb (which is often the internal workspace ID of the account), you can select it in this dropdown. This will allow the sync process to automatically map the Account, so no additional work is needed to associate each account to an Orb customer. By default, you will still be able to fill in the Orb External Customer ID or the Orb Customer ID field on any Account to create the associaiton.

sfdc-configuration.png

Components​

As part of the package, we include invocable actions (Apex) for

  1. Creating Orb customers
  2. Creating Orb subscriptions

We also include Apex classes for all associated data models. Combined, these can be used to build a Salesforce Flow to automatically provision Orb customers and subscriptions. Salesforce Flow requires no-code to create.

The integration is flexible enough to fit into your existing Salesforce process. Whether you use native Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Opportunities with custom fields, or something in between, this integration can fit in and automate provisioning Orb customers and subscriptions for you.

Examples​

Below are videos that show how you might set up a Salesforce Flow with this integration. We also include a Github repo that has an example Flow fully set up, which you can import separately into your project as a starting point.

  1. Create an Orb subscription and customer from an Opportunity
  2. Create an Orb customer with a billing address
  3. Create an Orb subscription with custom pricing

High-level, the steps to automate creating a subscription and customer from an Opportunity are:

  1. Create a new record triggered Flow. Make sure to select the Include a Run Asynchronously path... checkbox at the bottom when creating the Flow. This allows you to use the Orb actions.
  2. Configure the flow to run when an Opportunity object is transitioned to the Closed/Won stage.
  3. Under the Run Asynchronously path, add an Action and search for the Create Orb Customer action

create_customer_action_salesforce.png

  1. Fill in appropriate fields from the opportunity, account, and other built in or custom fields.
    • You can also create an Orb object by assigning a variable, to pass in more complex fields. For example, to create an Address variable, create an Assignment with a data type of Apex-Defined. Search for the withorb__OrbAddressInput Apex class, and fill in fields as needed.
    • You can use this variable as input to the Create Orb Customer action.
  2. Next, add the Create Orb Subscription action. Similar to customer, fill in the appropriate fields.
    • To support custom pricing per customer, assign a variable of type withorb__OrbPriceOverride and fill in appropriate fields. This data is normally stored on the Opportunity Line Item.
  3. Save and activate the Flow. To test it, transition an opportunity to Closed/Won.

flow_salesforce.png

For a detailed walkthrough, we recommend watching the video.