Using the multiple organizations feature in the Salesforce integration

Zendesk and Salesforce have fundamental differences in the way they store users. In Zendesk, each user must have a unique email address. This is not required for Salesforce contacts or leads.


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Summary: ◀▼
You can sync multiple Salesforce contacts sharing an email to a single user by enabling multiple organizations. This lets users belong to several organizations, syncing primary and secondary account relationships. Organization memberships are added but not deleted, and mapped fields sync only if the primary Salesforce account matches the user's default organization. This feature requires specific sync settings and support permission.





Location: Admin Center > Apps and integrations > Integrations >
Integrations

Zendesk and Salesforce have fundamental differences in the way they store
users. In Zendesk, each user must have a unique email address. This is not required for
Salesforce contacts or leads.
In order for multiple Salesforce contacts that share an
email address to sync to Zendesk, the integration uses a Support feature that allows users to belong to multiple
organizations.
This article explains the syncing behavior for the Salesforce integration when
multiple organizations is turned on. You can request permission to turn on multiple
organization sync by contacting Zendesk Customer Support. Permission is granted on a
per-account basis.
This article contains the following sections:
Understanding the multiple organization syncing process
Account relationship syncing
Syncing behavior when multiple organizations is turned on or off


Related information:


Enabling multiple organizations for
users


Salesforce integration resources




Understanding the multiple organization syncing process

When the multiple organizations feature is turned on, multiple Salesforce
contacts or leads with the same email address in different Salesforce accounts can
be connected in Zendesk Support to a single user. Zendesk users can be members of
multiple organizations.
In Salesforce, when multiple contacts or leads share an email address, the
first contact or lead linked to an account is considered the syncing record. The
syncing record is the primary Salesforce record and is identified by a user account
during syncing.
The syncing record updates its corresponding user entry in Zendesk during a
sync when changes have been made to the user fields in Salesforce.
The following rules govern the syncing behavior between Salesforce and
Zendesk:
If an organization doesn’t exist in Zendesk, organization
memberships aren't created.
Organization memberships are only added, not deleted.
Mapped fields are synced if the Salesforce primary account-contact
relationship matches the user’s default organization in Zendesk.
An organization membership in Zendesk is created only if a
Salesforce contact is linked to a Salesforce account.
The integration respects existing default memberships, which are
manually assigned.
The following features must all be turned on to sync secondary
relationships:
Accounts to Organizations sync
Contacts/Leads to Users sync
Primary relationship syncing

Allow users to belong to multiple
organizations in Support
Secondary relationships in Salesforce.







Account relationship syncing

There are two types of account relationship syncs: primary and secondary. The primary
account relationship refers to the main (primary) account that a Salesforce contact
belongs to. A secondary account relationship refers to all other accounts that a
Salesforce contact may belong to. Performing a primary account relationship sync can
change the Zendesk user's primary organization.

To turn on account relationship syncing
In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations >
Integrations.
On the Integrations page, click Salesforce.
Click the Data sync tab.
In Accounts to Organizations sync, click Configure.
Select Enable syncing and click Save.
Back on the Salesforce integrations page, click the Data sync
tab.
Under Contacts/Leads to Users sync, click Configure.
Select Enable syncing, and under Sync type, select
Contacts.
Select Sync primary relationship and, optionally, Sync secondary
relationships. Secondary relationship sync is currently a Beta
feature. Contact Zendesk customer support to
give you access.


Note: When
performing the initial sync of Salesforce contacts to Zendesk users,
secondary account relationship sync must be disabled. Because a
Salesforce contact may have a large number of secondary relationships,
this could exceed Zendesk rate limits. After the initial primary
relationship sync is performed, the secondary account relationship sync
can be turned on.

Click Save.





Syncing behavior when multiple organizations is turned on or off

To understand what happens during syncing, the following examples describe
some scenarios and the actions and results when you turn on the multiple
organizations feature in Support and configure different account relationship
syncing.
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Scenario 4
Scenario 5
Scenario 6
Scenario 7




Scenario 1


Salesforce contact without a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
Salesforce contact is matched with an existing user in
Zendesk.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


N/A
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations


N/A
N/A
Yes




Primary account relationship


No
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
No
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
No
Yes






Scenario 2


Salesforce contact without a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
Salesforce contact is not matched with an existing user in
Zendesk.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


N/A
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations


N/A
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Primary account relationship


No
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
No
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
No
Yes (new user created)






Scenario 3


Salesforce contact with a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
The contact is matched to an existing user in Zendesk.
The account is linked to an existing organization in Zendesk.
The organization is the matched user’s default organization.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


N/A
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations


N/A
N/A
Yes




Primary account relationship


Yes
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
Yes
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
Yes
Yes






Scenario 4


Salesforce contact with a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
The contact is matched to an existing user in Zendesk.
The account is linked to an existing organization.
The organization is not the matched user’s default
organization.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


No
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations


No
N/A
Yes




Primary account relationship


Yes
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
Yes
No (default org doesn't match)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
Yes
No (default org doesn't match)






Scenario 5


Salesforce contact with a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
The contact is matched with an existing user in Zendesk.
The account is not linked to any organization.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


No
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations


No
No
Yes




Primary account relationship


No
N/A
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
No
Yes




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
No
Yes






Scenario 6


Salesforce contact with a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
The contact is not matched with any user.
The account is linked to an existing organization in Zendesk.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


No
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations


No
No
Yes (new user created)




Primary account relationship


Yes
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


Yes
No
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


Yes
No
Yes (new user created)






Scenario 7


Salesforce contact with a linked account is synced to
Zendesk.
The contact is not matched with any user in Zendesk.
The account is not linked to any organization.








Settings enabled
Sets the user's organization in Zendesk (normal contact
sync)
Creates organization memberships (primary/secondary)
Syncs contact's mapped fields






None


No
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations


No
No
Yes (new user created)




Primary account relationship


No
N/A
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship


No
No
Yes (new user created)




Allow multiple organizations
Primary account relationship
Secondary account relationships


No
No
Yes (new user created)






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