Meet Salesforce Einstein Activity Capture
Companies that can best leverage their data will be the top performers of tomorrow. Following in the footsteps of Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, who is fully embracing predictive analytics with the deployment of the Einstein suite, at EverReady, we are convinced that a computer is better positioned than anyone else to assist marketing and sales teams in making the right decisions.
However, there is one inevitable condition: having the right data! Indeed, for an algorithm to fulfill its functions, it must rely on complete and reliable data. Unfortunately, in most cases, CRMs are inadequately equipped due to a lack of adoption by sales representatives when it comes to entering information about their daily activities: new contacts, emails, meetings, and more.
Most of them tend to record only interactions with the most important person and leave out other meeting participants or other recipients of emails.
Simulate this lack within an organization of 50 or 500 sales reps, and you end up with a CRM that is not only incomplete but also far from reflecting the actual activity of the sales teams.
To combat this data entry problem, Salesforce has offered various solutions to facilitate the synchronization of sales data, but they have been largely unsuccessful. A clear example of this is the announcement of the removal of the Salesforce for Outlook connector in 2024.
This timing gives companies the opportunity to reassess their synchronization needs and choose the best solution to address them. Traditional solutions (sidebar, extensions, etc.) have shown their limitations in terms of adoption and effectiveness. Today, one of the top priorities for sales departments is to move towards complete automation to permanently free teams from data entry constraints and ensure they have reliable and comprehensive data in their CRM.
In this context, Salesforce suggests that all its clients switch to Einstein Activity Capture (EAC). EAC offers several advantages over the Lightning Sync connector. However, behind the promises of Einstein Activity Capture lie several limitations that must be acknowledged.
The 5 most significant limitations of Einstein Activity Capture (EAC):
1/ Data is not stored in Salesforce.
Commercial activity data (emails, meetings) collected by EAC is NOT physically stored in Salesforce. It is stored on a separate AWS server to which you do not have access.
2/ Inability to create reports.
Since the data is not stored in Salesforce, it is not considered as standard objects. You cannot access it through the Salesforce API or Standard Reporting.
If you want to create your own dashboards, the only option is to invest in CRM Analytics.
3/ No modification/deletion by users.
Users cannot modify or delete emails collected by EAC. Only the Salesforce administrator is authorized to perform these actions. Too bad if the emails are outdated or irrelevant.
4 / Unable to trigger workflows.
As the data collected by EAC is not accessible (or modifiable), you are unable to trigger workflows or update fields, etc.
5/ Data backup.
Since the data is not stored in your Salesforce instance, all activities (emails, meetings) recorded will be deleted after 24 months. Likewise, if you abandon Einstein Activity Capture, all activity data that has been captured and associated with your Salesforce instance will be deleted.
EverReady is the new synchronization solution. Say goodbye to data entry – all your sales team’s activities (contacts, emails, meetings, calls, reports) are automatically recorded in your CRM! No action required! As a better alternative to Einstein Activity Capture, EverReady is available on the Salesforce AppExchange. Discover in our comparison how we position ourselves in the face of the listed limitations.