Anyone aware of a Salesforce integration with Canvas? Any info gratefully received!

[jgage]

Has anyone been involved with a SF / Canvas integration - if so what were the key drivers & benefits?

[Stef_retired]

 @jgage ​, since your prompt elicits an open-ended discussion, with no single correct answer likely to ensue, I've flipped the format accordingly. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the Canvas Support Ticketing System is powered by Salesforce.

[nr2522]

The Executive Education (non-degree) program at Columbia Business School is also interested in integrating with Salesforce to feed in courses, sections, users, and enrollments. We currently have integration working for our degree programs, which use a separate Canvas instance and a business-school specific SIS (Registrar from Darden Solutions/University of Virginia Darden School of Business).

Given the lack of responses to this thread, I take it few users in the Community use Salesforce as a SIS.

[rich2]

I agree Nelson - the lack of responses leads me to think the same thing.

Anyone else thinking about integrating with Salesforce?

Thanks

[jschaffer]

We are also interested in this.  My gut tells me that it would likely be possible (either via API or LTI) but I would love to hear from anyone who has done this already. 

[nr2522]

New related discussion: Use a CRM like SalesForce as a Student Information System ( SIS ) ?

[kunal_ashar]

Has anyone heard of, or encountered a possible solution to this problem? We've Salesforce as our CRM, and I have been looking for a SSO solution that allows students to log into Salesforce and Canvas using the same credentials, and view a student's comprehensive information from both sources - Salesforce and Canvas.
Thanks in advance.

[KarenMatson]

Hello,

We too are looking at using Sales Force as the SIS that feeds Canvas information about enrollments. I see the dates on these posts are years old so I am wondering if any progress was made on this front and if anyone can share how they did it or what they considered or any information on the topic.

Thank you,

Karen Matson

Instructional Designer

Evidence in Motion

[cstrikwerda · Accepted solution]

Thanks for posting to the Community,

It looks like this has been asked before. Checking a good conversation in the community here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/CRM-Integrations/m-p/226651

That answer was " C‌anvas has a robust API (Canvas LMS REST API Documentation), so it can integrate with many applications. We did some integrations here with Salesforce. There's nothing out of the box on either end, so you'll have to program the integrations in-house or hire a service provider to build them for you."

Your Customer Success Manager can help setup these integrations as well if you reach out to them. If you are needing help with setting up such an integration, I would suggest reaching out to the Customer Success Manager to help start that conversation.

[ThomasDrieam]

Hi all,

We have built a SIS & eCommerce platform that integrates Canvas with, among other things, CRM systems like Salesforce. No need to build your custom integrations anymore! 

I've included a link to our partner listing in this community, but feel free to reach out if you have additional questions. Hope this helps.

Thomas

[jlubkinchavez]

Yes! More info on this post: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/Salesforce/m-p/170014. 

The key driver was that our programs had moved to rolling enrollments and our participant numbers had gotten so large that if I continued to do manual SIS imports, I wouldn't have done anything else but manage Canvas enrollments. There's still plenty of finetuning we could do, but now changes in Salesforce trigger the creation, enrollment, and removal of users. There was a learning curve and a pretty big initial load figuring out flows, but now it is saving hours and hours of formatting csv files. Guessing there may have been other ways to approach this, but our org was already deeply invested in Salesforce and had essentially built out a robust SIS there, so building the integration made sense for us.

[RoshanChoudhary]

Hey jgage,

Absolutely! Salesforce does offer Canvas, a framework that enables you to integrate external web applications directly into your Salesforce user interface. This allows you to leverage existing functionality from those applications within Salesforce, streamlining workflows and enhancing user experience.

Here's a quick rundown of what Canvas integration can do:

• Embed External Apps: Integrate web applications (hosted in the cloud or on-premises) directly into Salesforce pages using Canvas.
• Seamless User Experience: Users can interact with the integrated application within Salesforce without needing to log in separately.
• Leverage Existing Tools: Bring the functionalities of external tools you already use into Salesforce for a more unified experience.

Here are some resources to get you started with Canvas and Salesforce integration:

• Salesforce Canvas Developer Guide: 
• Canvas and Salesforce Integration Patterns (Video): 

Important Note: While Canvas offers powerful integration capabilities, it requires some development effort.

• If you're not familiar with coding, consider exploring pre-built integrations available on the Salesforce AppExchange.
• You can also find Salesforce partners or development teams specializing in Canvas app creation.

If you have further questions about specific functionalities or need help finding the right integration approach for your needs, feel free to ask!