Einstein Activity Capture is a function to automatically capture activities from Gmail or Outlook against account, contact, lead, opportunity, contract, and quote records.
This feature is powered by Salesforce Einstein and available with Sales Cloud in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions. It’s supported only in Lightning Experience which means it won’t work with Salesforce Classic (but who’s still using classic!).
What Is Einstein Activity Capture?
Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) is part of the Sales Cloud family.
It uses the power of AI to automatically log events and emails against their respective Salesforce records and can also sync contacts from Gmail or Outlook.
It’s the successor to Lightning Sync that syncs events and contacts to Salesforce from Gmail or Outlook and hasn’t been available to new customers since Winter ’21.
Read more:
- A Guide to 50+ Salesforce Einstein AI Products and Tools
- Salesforce Einstein Activity Capture for Gmail or Outlook: Pros and Cons
Benefits and Challenges of EAC
The nature of Einstein Activity Capture is both its upside and its downfall.
Due to its AI-powered nature, it can log emails, events, and contacts automatically without the need for any manual intervention from sales reps. It supports Google and Microsoft Outlook and a number of different authentication options.
One drawback is that the data resides in AWS – as a result, it’s outside your Salesforce org. This could cause a compliance issue and also means you can’t report natively on emails as they are not stored within Salesforce.
3 Ways to Report on EAC
1. Activities Dashboard
Enter stage left, the Activities Dashboard! This is powered by CRM Analytics and brings together the streamed records stored in AWS with your Salesforce records for a fuller picture.
This is provided at no extra cost, but you need a paid license to be able to edit the default settings. In the background, this uses datasets and joins – adjusting for your own requirements isn’t for the faint-hearted!
Salesforce users can access this dashboard from within Salesforce without having to switch to another system.
Want to find out more? Take a look at this video: Unlock Insights with Einstein Activity Capture Dashboard
2. Einstein Activity Metrics
Next up we have Einstein Activity Metrics. You are required to have at least one paid license in the org to unlock this feature.
Once enabled, the system creates some special roll-up objects in the background that then allow you to see metrics such as [Last Mail Date] and [Last Call Date].
You can then use Formula Fields to expose these values in Page Layouts, Dynamic Forms, Record Highlights, Reports, Dashboards, and other tools such as Flow.
Want to find out more? Take a look at this video: Unlock the Power of Einstein Activity Metrics
BONUS: Run Flows from Activity Metrics
Using the Activity Metric Object, you can trigger automated actions when certain criteria are met.
For example, you can update the Lead Status to Contacted when an Activity is captured via a related Activity Metric.
3. Activity 360 Reports
Salesforce has had various iterations of solutions that bridge the gap with EAC reporting over the last few years.
The latest is Activity 360 Reports, which bring your Salesforce Records and Streamed Activities together in the same report or dashboard.
This requires at least one paid license in the org, but for the outlay will give you a fuller view of Sales Reps activities.
Want to find out more? Take a look at this video: Boost Productivity: Dive into Activity 360 Reports
Final Thoughts
Personally, I would opt for Activity Metrics with Activity 360 Reporting to get the insights I need.
Although this requires at least one paid license, this is a small price to pay for customizable reports and dashboards in Salesforce without having to switch over to analytics (which I am not as comfortable in).
What feature(s) would you use to unlock reporting with Einstein Activity Capture? Let us know in the comments.