RevDB Overview

 

What is Clari’s RevDB (Revenue Data Platform)?

RevDB is Clari's Revenue Data Platform that combines:

 

• CRM data (Salesforce)

• Activity data (Gmail or Exchange)

• Ingested data (from Snowflake, Postgres, MongoDB, BigQuery)

 

This combination creates a single source of truth for your revenue operations, consolidating multiple revenue-critical signals and providing a connected, collaborative experience across your entire revenue process.

What are the benefits of migrating to RevDB?

• Historical Snapshotting: Automatic, continuous capture of revenue data every 15 minutes.

• AI/ML Revenue-Oriented Intelligence: Leverage AI/ML customer-centric models across the entire platform, improving revenue predictability with features like CRM Score and AI Projection.

• Single Source of Truth: Combine all revenue-critical data for a unified view of your revenue operations.

• Improved Performance: Eliminate dependency on real-time SFDC querying, providing a more stable and responsive experience.

 

Additional Clari Features: 

1. Time-machine in Pulse, Waterfall, and Opportunity Drill Downs in Analyze modules.

2. Notifications for Opportunity in-app and on Slack.

3. Consumption revenue data model, using ingested usage data.

4. Activity/Co-pilot based filtering in Opportunities module.

5. Sort/Filter CRM score in the Opportunities module.

Salesforce Integration

Integration User Configuration

 

To ensure seamless data flow between Salesforce and RevDB, Clari Admin should:

 

1. Create a dedicated Salesforce user for Clari integration.

2. Grant this user full access to all records and fields leveraged by Clari.

3. Ensure the integration user has the necessary permissions to read and write data in Salesforce.

 

Required Salesforce Entities

Grant the integration user access to:

• Account

• Opportunity

• OpportunityLineItem

• OpportunitySplit (new!)

• User

• Any other standard object useful for your revenue process

• Any custom objects relevant to your revenue process

More objects for permission model:

• OpportunityTeamMember

• AccountTeamMember

• OpportunityShare

• ObjectTerritory2Association

• ObjectTerritory2AssignmentRule

• ObjectTerritory2AssignmentRuleItem

• AccountShare

• Any CustomObject__Share type objects created using Apex-managed sharing

Supported Salesforce Field Types

RevDB supports various Salesforce field types, including:

• Standard fields (Text, Picklist, Numerical, Currency, Reference, etc.)

• Formula fields (see section below)

• Rollup summary fields

Supported Salesforce Sharing Model Features

RevDB supports various Salesforce sharing model features:

• Supported:

  • Role hierarchies

  • Opportunity/Account Teams

  • Territory hierarchies (ETM)

  • Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD)

• Coming Soon:

  • Sharing Rules

  • Manual sharing

  • Public Groups

  • Permission Sets

• Not supported

  • Apex managed sharing - i.e. custom object-based sharing rules.

  • Restriction Rules

 

Note on Sharing Rules: Sharing rules can significantly impact data visibility in RevDB. They determine which users can see which records based on criteria such as record ownership, field values, or user roles. They can also slow down performance compared to other types of permissions, we recommend not using them extensively.

 

Best Performance Tip: For optimal performance, set the Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD) for Opportunities and Accounts to "Public Read/Write" or "Public Read-Only".

 

Global-View Feature: Clari administrators can grant access to all opportunities in Clari using the "global view features", allowing for more flexible access control within Clari.

Data Lifecycle in RevDB

1. Data Extraction: RevDB extracts data from Salesforce every 15 minutes using the integration user's credentials.

2. Data Processing: Extracted data is processed and transformed to fit RevDB's data model.

3. Data Storage: Processed data is stored in RevDB's native database.

4. Data Serving: When users access Clari, data is served from RevDB instead of querying Salesforce in real time. The following modules use RevDB as of now:

 

CRM Write-back and Data Refresh

• Fast Write-back: Writing data from Clari to Salesforce happens within 30-90 seconds, making it the fastest way to refresh data in your CRM.

• Coming Soon: A "CRM sync" button that allows users to refresh data as soon as possible, providing near real-time updates when needed.

Pipeline Stalls

Pipeline stalls can occasionally occur in the data synchronization process between Salesforce and RevDB. Clari has robust systems in place to monitor and address these issues, but there are also scenarios where customer action may be required.

What Clari Does

1. Continuous Monitoring: Clari continuously monitors all data pipelines for stalls lasting more than 6 hours.

2. Automatic Ticket Creation: If a stall is detected, our system automatically creates a ticket for our internal teams to investigate and resolve the issue.

3. Investigation and Resolution: Our teams investigate the cause of the stall and work to resolve it as quickly as possible.

 

Formula Fields Support

RevDB provides robust support for Salesforce Formula Fields, aiming to improve data consistency and reduce discrepancies between Salesforce and Clari.

How Formula Fields Work in RevDB

1. Runtime Calculations: RevDB supports many Salesforce formula fields by performing runtime calculations when a user views the data in Clari.

2. Supported vs. Unsupported Formulas:

   • Supported formulas are calculated in real-time within Clari.

   • Unsupported formulas rely on the last synced value from Salesforce.

Types of Formula Fields

1. Simple Formula Fields: (e.g., Opp.field_A + Opp.field_B)

2. Mutable Formula Fields: (e.g., using TODAY(), NOW(), TIMENOW())

3. Cross-Entity Formula Fields: (e.g., referencing both Opportunity and Account)

4. Cross-Entity Mutable Formula Fields: Combine characteristics of mutable and cross-entity formulas.

Supported and Unsupported Functions

RevDB supports all four types and a wide range of Salesforce formula functions for runtime calculations. Please refer to our detailed Formula Fields documentation for a complete list of supported and unsupported functions.

 

 

 

 

Troubleshooting 

 

1. Data isn't updated in Clari (and therefore, in RevDB):

• Check integration user permissions in Salesforce.
• Verify field accessibility for the integration user.
• Review recent changes in Salesforce that might affect integration specially unsupported features such as restriction rules, etc.
• Contact Clari support if issues persist.

 

2. Integration User Token Expiration and/or there is a sudden stop in data synchronization

Check if the Salesforce token for the Clari integration user has expired. If so, please renew the token.

 

3. Inaccessible Fields or specific data is not updating in Clari:

Verify that the Clari integration user still has access to all necessary fields in Salesforce. If permissions have changed, please restore access to these fields.

 

FAQs

Q: How often does RevDB sync with Salesforce?
A: RevDB syncs with Salesforce every 15 minutes. And you will now see a timestamp on the top right corner of every module in Clari.

 

Q: How quickly are changes from Clari reflected in Salesforce?
A: Changes made in Clari are written back to Salesforce within 30-90 seconds.

 

Q: What happens if a formula field in Salesforce uses an unsupported function?
A: The field will be treated as a non-formula field, and the calculated value will be pulled from Salesforce during the regular sync.

 

Q: Can I control user access to data within Clari?
A: Yes, Clari administrators can use the "global view features" to grant access to all opportunities, providing flexible access control within Clari, as well as change SFDC permissions and RevDB will pick up the new permissions.

 

Q: How does RevDB impact different Clari modules?
A: The impact may vary depending on your configuration. Most customers already use RevDB across many modules such as Analyze, Capture, Inspect: Accounts, all the data science work, etc. We are in the process of migrating Opportunity and Forecast Modules to RevDB.

When to Contact Clari Support 

Pipeline stalls

While Clari's systems are designed to catch and address most pipeline stalls, we recommend contacting our support team if:

1. You notice a significant delay (>24-48 hours) in data synchronization that hasn't been communicated by Clari.

2. You've addressed potential issues with the integration user token or field accessibility, but synchronization issues persist.

3. You're planning significant changes to your Salesforce org that might impact data synchronization (e.g., large data imports, and major schema changes).

Field Not Loading

While Clari’s systems can propagate schema changes automatically made by Clari admins, we recommend contacting us:

1. You notice a field is not made available and is in Loading state for over 48 hours.

2. You notice the newly changed schema is not reflected in Clari over 24 hours.

Formula Field Discrepancies

1. You notice minor differences in Clari’s value of a formula field vs the SFDC value of a formula field over 3-4 days.

2. You see NULL / 0s for the formula field which otherwise has data in SFDC.

Incorrect Permissions in Clari

1. If a user is not seeing the same number of opportunities and accounts in Clari vs SFDC.
2. If a user is seeing more number of opportunities and accounts in Clari vs SFDC.