How to Build a Long-Term Data Archival Strategy for Salesforce

Salesforce data archiving is no longer just a compliance task—it’s a strategic advantage.  As businesses navigate the complexities of modern data management, a well-structured long-term archival strategy based on the principles of data retention best practices is pivotal. With advancements like Einstein labs, Agentforce, and more copilots, how your Salesforce will behave depends on how you upkeep your data. 

In this context, where Salesforce enables sales & service agents to become proactive and productive with data and AI, it’s the stakeholder’s responsibility to be more meticulous about data health that fuels Gen-AI engines to support strategic business shifts. 

This blog clearly states the whys, whats, and hows of developing a long-term Salesforce archival strategy. It will walk you through essential steps and considerations to help you optimize your data management and implement data retention best practices. By the end, you’ll be well-positioned to decide if a dedicated data archiving application, like DataArchiva, is the right investment to enhance performance and maximize ROI.

The Importance of a Strategic Archival Plan

Salesforce data archiving isn’t just about retaining records; it’s about leveraging historical data to drive insights and performance.  By implementing a long-term archival plan, businesses have reported a 30% improvement in Salesforce performance and a 50% reduction in data storage costs, achieving over 80% ROI. Adhering to Salesforce data retention best practices ensures that you are not only compliant but also able to extract valuable insights and maintain optimal Salesforce performance.

Why does this matter?

Today, Salesforce archives are reserves that capture data throughout your customer lifecycle. Key records—such as email conversations, pardot forms, campaigns, email-to-case, task-to-case, and even opportunity records—can exhibit trails to trace historical customer behavior patterns Y-O-Y. Therefore, having a long-term archival strategy for Salesforce not only ensures data integrity but also provides valuable insights for trend analysis, customer relationship management, and strategic decision-making.

Planning Your Salesforce Data Archival Strategy

Creating a long-term archival strategy for Salesforce involves several key steps, including assessing your data needs and setting clear objectives. Following Salesforce data retention best practices during this planning phase will help you structure an effective and compliant archival approach.

#Step 1: Assess Your Data Needs: Start by understanding the types of data your Salesforce org generates and how it is used. Identify which data is critical for ongoing operations and which can be archived.

#Step 2: Set Clear Objectives: Define what you aim to achieve with your archival strategy. Whether it’s improving Salesforce performance, reducing storage costs, or enhancing data governance, having clear objectives will guide your approach.

#Step 3: Determine Archival Criteria: Establish criteria for archiving data. This may include data age, relevance, or frequency of access. Different industries may have unique requirements based on their data usage patterns and regulatory obligations.

#Step 4: Choose an Archiving Solution: Evaluate archiving solutions that integrate seamlessly with Salesforce. Consider factors such as ease of use, security, and compliance with industry standards.

Overcoming Common Challenges

While building a long-term archival strategy, you might encounter several challenges. Addressing these challenges in line with Salesforce data retention best practices can help ensure data integrity, compliance, and effective user behavior management.

• Data Integrity and Accessibility: Ensuring that archived data remains intact and accessible when needed can be challenging. Implementing a solution that guarantees data integrity is crucial.
• Compliance Requirements: Different industries have varying compliance requirements. For instance, healthcare organizations must comply with HIPAA, while financial institutions adhere to FINRA regulations. Your archival strategy should address these specific needs.
• User Behavior Variability: User behavior can impact archival needs. For example, high data churn in sales departments might necessitate more frequent archiving compared to other departments.

Industry-Specific Considerations

Archival needs can vary significantly based on industry, and following Salesforce data retention best practices is essential for meeting specific regulatory requirements and optimizing data management in sectors like healthcare, finance, and retail.

• Healthcare: Patient records must be archived in compliance with HIPAA regulations. Historical data can be valuable for patient care analytics and regulatory reporting.
• Finance: Financial institutions must archive transaction data for regulatory purposes. An effective archival strategy helps in managing large volumes of transaction records.

Retail: Retailers use Salesforce to track customer interactions and sales data. Archiving customer interactions can provide insights into purchasing patterns and customer behavior.

The Role of DataArchiva in Your Strategy

DataArchiva simplifies the process of building and managing a long-term archival strategy. It helps you implement Salesforce data retention best practices by providing a seamless solution for managing and archiving your data, ensuring compliance, and improving system performance. As a leading data archiving application for Salesforce, DataArchiva provides smooth, intuitive, and deployable features that assure you are 100% process-driven with minimal effort. 

Here are the top benefits that make DataArchiva best fit for Salesforce data archival needs – 

Flexibility & Control: DataArchiva allows customers to choose their own archive location, whether within Salesforce (Archiving in Salesforce Big Objects storage), external cloud systems, or on-premises solutions.

Added Data Visibility: DataArchiva improves visibility into archived records, making it easier to monitor trends and access historical information.

Easy Archive Retrieval: Retrieving archived data is quick and simple with DataArchiva, addressing the need to access archived records.

Global Search: Powerful global search allows you to find and access archived data across your Salesforce environment.

Compliance-Readiness: DataArchiva ensures your archived data meets industry regulations and standards, helping you stay compliant with ease.

Analytics on Archives: DataArchiva provides analytics tools for archived data, helping you uncover insights and trends for better decision-making.

Ease of Use: DataArchiva offers a user-friendly interface and a robust backend, making it easy for users to manage their archives without needing extensive technical expertise.

Having explored the crucial elements of developing a long-term Salesforce archival strategy, it’s time to turn our focus to execution. Understanding the strategic importance of data archiving is the first step, but implementing an effective solution is where the real value lies. In the next subsection, we’ll dive into how DataArchiva can be your key partner in turning your Salesforce data archival strategy into a seamless, manageable process. 

Guide to Create A Long-Term Salesforce Archival Strategy with DataArchiva

As organizations scale and their Salesforce environments evolve, managing the increasing volume of data becomes a pressing challenge. DataArchiva offers a robust solution for streamlining this process, allowing you to effectively manage your data without waiting for a periodic “spring clean” of your Salesforce org. Here’s how DataArchiva helps you implement a long-term archival strategy seamlessly, leveraging Salesforce’s data structure and ensuring that your data remains organized, accessible, and compliant.

NB: Salesforce organizes data through a series of objects, each capturing specific aspects of the customer journey. These objects include standard entities like Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, and Cases, as well as custom objects tailored to unique business needs. Data flows into these objects from various interactions and transactions, creating a rich tapestry of information over time. However, as data accumulates, it can impact system performance, increase storage costs, and complicate data management.

Steps to Implementing Your Archival Strategy with DataArchiva :

Step 1: Assess Your Salesforce Data Landscape

Begin by analyzing the different objects and records within your Salesforce org. Understand how each object contributes to your data storage and which records are critical for ongoing operations versus those that can be archived and configure those with DataArchiva. 

Step 2: Set Clear Archival Objectives

Define specific goals for your archival strategy. Are you aiming to reduce storage costs, improve system performance, or ensure compliance with data retention policies? DataArchiva’s flexible archiving options align with these objectives, allowing you to tailor your approach based on your organizational needs and retain multiple archives of Salesforce data based on internal/external retention policies. 

Step 3: Establish Archival Criteria: Determine the criteria for archiving data. This could include data age, relevance, or frequency of access. DataArchiva enables you to set these criteria, ensuring that only the data meeting your specified conditions is archived, that further resolves Salesforce data storage optimization and improves system performance.

Step 4: Choose Your Archiving Option: DataArchiva offers both native and external archiving options. You can leverage Salesforce’s Big Objects for native archiving, which integrates directly within your Salesforce environment or opt for external storage solutions on platforms like AWS, Azure, or on-premises systems. This flexibility allows you to select the best solution for your data needs.

Step 5: Automate the Archiving Process: Implement automated schedules with DataArchiva to archive data at regular intervals—daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. This automation minimizes manual effort and ensures that your data is consistently managed without requiring constant oversight.

Step 6: Monitor and Review: Use DataArchiva’s comprehensive reporting tools to track the status of your archival processes. Review the reports regularly to ensure that the archival strategy is meeting your goals and make adjustments as needed. This ongoing monitoring helps you maintain data integrity and system performance.

Step 7: Ensure Data Security and Compliance: DataArchiva enhances your data security through encryption and permission-based access controls. This ensures that archived data is protected and compliant with relevant regulations, safeguarding your organization against potential data breaches and legal issues.

In 2024, developing a long-term Salesforce archival strategy is more critical than ever. By planning carefully and choosing the right tools, you can enhance performance, reduce costs, and turn your archived data into a valuable asset. DataArchiva stands out as a leading solution, providing a robust and user-friendly approach to data archiving.

Get Started with DataArchiva Today!

Implementing a long-term Salesforce archival strategy doesn’t have to be complex. With DataArchiva, you can manage your Salesforce data efficiently, keeping your system optimized and your data secure. Ready to transform your data management process? Contact us today for a consultation or request a demo to see DataArchiva in action.