Account / User / Collection binding for CRM

This article focuses on the binding mechanism between Totango and your CRM.  As of this writing these are these native connectors: SFDC, MS Dynamics and HubSpot CRMs additional ones will become available, and this article would apply as the methodology behind the connection is the same.

These videos are a helpful resource as you review the content within this document.

What is Binding and How to choose a Binding ID

When we speak about binding we are discussing the need for a field in CRM with a value that matches a field in Totango.  So that we can say this record in the CRM is this record in Totango.  To accomplish this we need the value of the field to be unique in CRM (per record) and unique in Totango.  Most customers use the CRM ID for Totango Accounts, and email address for Totango users.  A common question is why can't we just use the name of the customer.  There is no technical reason that you cannot, however, from a best practice perspective this is highly susceptible to human error, as names of customers are entered in manually someone will key in Incorporated within one tool, and Inc within another. 

Note of consideration: Do not use an ID that is case sensitive, Totango will not work with a case sensitive ID.  This is especially important for SFDC.  If you plan on using the SFDC ID, ensure you use the 18 character identifier, the 15 character ID is case sensitive.

To properly setup your Totango - CRM Data Connection, you need to identify the fields which will be used for binding purposes.  For each data Type (Account, User, and Collection) there are different requirements.  Linked are the videos that further describe the requirements of each type.

Accounts - AccountID - A totango Account 
Users - AccountID, UserID - The combination of these two identifiers must be unique across all users.
Collections - AccountID, CollectionID - The combination of these two identifiers must be unique across all collections line items.

Totango Account bindings

We want to match a Totango Account with a CRM Object record counterpart. Any Object in your CRM can be used to represent an Account in Totango.

As described within the first section, we need a binding field in CRM that corresponds to a Totango Account ID.  A common alternative is a tenantID , ultimately it is up to you to choose an ID (Totango does not create IDs), best practice is to use the one that is most prevalent throughout the systems you want to integrate, or the one that is easiest to insert in to all of those systems.

During the configuration you will need to identify the CRM object field in which Totango will look for a match for the Account ID.

User Binding (Optional)

User bindings establishes a connection between a user or contact in Totango and the relevant object within CRM (usually a Contact).  This is useful for Totango Campaigns. 

We recommend you use the user's email address for the unique user-id in Totango. 

During the configuration you will need to identify the CRM object field in which Totango will look for a match for the User ID. On that same object in CRM you will need to identify the field which houses the Account ID that the user belongs to.

Collection Binding (Optional)

Collection bindings establishes a connection between a collection line item in Totango and the relevant object within CRM.  

During the configuration you will need to identify the CRM object field in which Totango will look for a match for the Collection ID. On that same object in CRM you will need to identify the field which houses the Account ID that the collection belongs to.