Definitely a good idea. Actually we're doing something similar ourselves using the API, but it could definitely be shrink-wrapped and packaged.

I just wanted to chime in and second the request for a pre-made SalesForce.com integration sample.  I'd like to see an example where Zendesk tickets automatically update Salesforce cases... actually, this might be accomplished using Salesforce's "Email-to-Case" feature, with little custom programming on the Zendesk side, maybe just some custom triggers.

I'm getting tired of explaining to some of our managers why we don't use Salesforce for our support ticket system; how lame / over-blown / totally non-ITIL / un-elegant / over-priced a helpdesk system Salesforce makes.  If I could show some integration (i.e.: auto cases to tickets, easy knowledge-base access, etc), I could shut them up and go on enjoying Zendesk in peace.  :-)

IMHP, I didn't think it had been long enough in the industry for a SaaS company to be considered legacy, but, I think Salesforce, with its cluttered UI, qualifies.

David.

Graham and David, sorry about not being more responsive on this subject.

Thanks for suggestion about Email-to-Case, David. Can I ask you both, do you have the EmailToCase Agent installed? 

Acutally, EmailToCase is two things; it's a built-in feature that you enable under your Saleforce account to automatically accept emails and turn them into cases. Then, via Salesforce's App Exchange, there is a free download (Java source code) that is called the EmailToCase Agent... it is simply a program that sits and polls any mailbox on any SMTP server that you point it at (via IMAP) and forwards all emails it sees to Salesforce.  It requires that the EmailToCase feature already be enabled and configured under your Salesforce account.

I can forward the agent download to you.  I believe it is freely available (kinda bare bones too).

David.

I read it as being a prerequisite?

Before beginning to use Email-to-Case: 

1. Determine the email routing addresses that your customers can use to submit cases to your support department. Emails are automatically converted to cases based on the settings specified for each routing address.
   
2. Configure your email routing addresses and enable Email-to-Case. See Setting Up Email-to-Case Routing Addresses.
   
3. Download the Email-to-Case agent from http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Email_To_C...>
   
4. Install the agent behind your network's firewall.
   
5. Test your email routing addresses by manually sending emails to the addresses and verifying that the emails are converted to cases based on the settings specified for each routing address.

Excellent - glad to learn of some activity on this topic - thanks David for supporting this and for suggesting a way to achieve it.

As you are aware, making support case information available to Sales on their systems is very CRM.

I can see how this can work for raising the ticket, but what about updating the status. For this to work, Salesforce cases would need to be automatically updated, otherwise you'll end up having to update and close in two systems.

I can upload it to the Support desk if you like.  I still think you can optionally stop at step 2) above... the EmailToCase agent just allows you to use non-salesforce.com domain addresses of your choice; but maybe not.  Either way, the code might be a good example of using SMTP to interface with Salesforce rather than using their Web Services API (just a different method).

David.

Just another idea for SF (or other) integration here.  It might be nice to have a customizable short hand symbol(s) for referring to case numbers in external systems like Salesforce.  In the same way that #102 gets auto resolved into a Zendesk ticket URL, maybe something like ##_some_number could get auto resolved into a configurable external URL.  This would need to go through some custom processing though to integrate with Salesforce case numbers (my current desire) because I can't make heads or tails out of Salesforce's URL format (they just couldn't keep it simple, could they? :-(  ).

David.

I'd like to loudly register my support for this idea. :-)  We currently use Salesforce, and while it's great for our Sales team, the support area is really lackluster.  Laughable, really.

If we could pull end-users (and their respective organizations) from Salesforce (dynamically, or in a batch once a day or something), and also push cases back into Salesforce, I'd make a strong push to consider switching to Zendesk.

Thanks!

-John

Any news on integrating Salesforce - this is one of the highest eyeballed topic!

In addition to the intergration of tickets, I'd like something similar to the recent widget for Highrise CRM so that we can access the master record of customer details. In particular products purchased and support & maintenace contracts.

Stay tuned.

please, please add salesforce.com support, our lives will become even zenner (if that's a word!) :)

Everybody, it's now live: Look up Zendesk Tickets from Salesforce

This is great! Just yesterday our support team was bemoaning how clunky salesforce is...  I remembered looking at Zendesk previously (and posting the comment above in June) and browsed over to see if any thing had changed.  Lo and behold, salesforce integration released on the very same day!

Nice work, ZenTeam. :-)

This is great for our sales team to see active tickets for accounts/customers. BUT... it's not quite a slam dunk for us yet, as it doesn't let our support team pull customer data from salesforce (like your Highrise CRM widget does).  Or am I misreading it?  

If you can duplicate the Highrise CRM widget for salesforce, I'll be over the moon. :-) I'd love to hear your thoughts.

-John