Timeline Activity notes sync to Cockpit Tasks

Related products: CS Cockpit & Playbooks

I think it would be a great benefit to our company if the Timeline Activity notes would sync to the CTA in cockpit and vice versa. This way, when notes are updated, there is transparency in both records. Currently, as is, CSMs would have to duplicate notes in the CTA and Timeline which is not ideal as these extra steps take up too much time. This would greatly benefit our CSMs and speed up their workflow.
Hi Manmeet! Have you tried out the Timeline feature within the CTA view. Please reference the following link and let me know if this helps with your use case.





https://support.gainsight.com/Product_Documentation/CTAS_Tasks_and_Playbooks/User_Guides/06_Using_Ca...
Hi Easton, I have looked that documentation over previously. However, it's not quite what we need. It does work great if the CSM is in the Cockpit and logs an Activity/task, which does sync with the c360 timeline for transparency. 





The issue is if they are in the C360 timeline view for a client and want to log an activity, it doesn't sync with a CTA. Instead they haveto go back over to Cockpit and search for the appropriate CTA and then log the activity there. 





If there was a way to select the appropriate CTA when logging the activity in c360 timeline, that would be awesome!





Another issue is that the task defaults to log as 'Type' = "Email" in SFDC. So, for example, if the activity is 'log a call'  and you add a task to that saying 'call joe', in SF it logs as an Email. Is there any way to map this correctly? Where, the 'Type' field in SFDC would match the Activity type you are logging in Cockpit. 





Also, how do we get the 'External Attendee' from the timeline CTA to sync with the correct contact in SFDC? Which would be the "Name" field in SF. Currently, it doesn't sync and leaves that field blank in salesforce. 
Thanks for posting, Manmeet!  I'll try to address all your questions/comments:




  • You are right in that the only way to connect an activity to a CTA is to find the CTA first and log from there. So makes sense to provide an option to pick the CTA directly from Timeline. We are already discussing this internally; will surely provide an update as soon we have a concrete path forward.

  • It's possible to map Gainsight 'Activity Type' to Salesforce Task 'Type' from under Administration -> Activities -> Activity Sync. Would this work for you?
          









  • We are enhancing our sync process in the next release (production release on 9/5) to push external attendee information to the 'Name' field in Salesforce. It would just be the first Contact in the list, unless you have enabled associating multiple Contacts to a Salesforce Task. Also note that both internal and external attendee information is appended to the synced comments for full context.
         


That's great news about the sync update to push external attendee information to the 'Name' field! Looking forward to that feature. 





Please do let me know if there is an any update regarding the option to pick the CTA directly from Timeline. That would be a feature our CSMs (and probably most CSMs) would love to have. 





So, I tried to map the 'Activity Type' to the 'Type' field in SFDC as shown in your screenshot. However, all my tests still logged in the SFDC 'Open Activities' section as 'Type' = "Email". I tried adding the activity in the detailed view of a CTA in Cockpit and adding the activity in the Timeline view in C360. Neither is syncing correctly. My attempts were with "Log a Call" option for an Activity in Gainsight. 





What I think is happening is that the "Task" portion of the 'Activity' in GS is what actually logs in SFDC and that GS is not linking that Task to the Activity it was a part of and it defaults to 'Email' in SFDC. Not sure if that is what is causing the disconnect or not, just a thought. Any ideas on how to correct this or if this is even possible? Think it would be very worthwhile to be able to match the correct kind of activity in GS to SFDC. 
To add on:





What exactly is the mapping of the 'Activity Type' from GS to the 'Type' in SFDC do? What would be the result from this sort of mapping. 
Hey Manmeet,





My understanding of how the mapping works is that if we find the same 'Type' value in Salesforce (first grouping in the screenshot below), we pick that when creating activities in Salesforce. If not, a new 'inactive' value is added and assigned (second grouping).





      




      







You are right about the inline to-dos: These leverage the 'Task' sync process we have in place under Administration -> Tasks. So the mapping you put in place for Timeline Activities won't apply here.





That said, if you are seeing a different behavior, please log a ticket so we can quickly get it working for you.





Thanks,


Manu
Hi Manu,





Thanks for the response. Just to be clear, are you saying that under Administration - Tasks, that I should be able to map the "Type" from Gainsight (Call, Email, etc) to the 'Type' field in SFDC? Instead of it just defaulting to 'Type = Email' in SF.





Or, is that not a possibility currently? Does that not get pulled in since the Type is technically at the Activity level? So, when 'Logging a Call' in SFDC, that is adding an Activity, but it is actually the Task underneath that Activity that syncs and logs into SF.





When I map the Gainsight 'Type' to SFDC 'Type' under the Administration - Tasks, the system updates the field in SFDC to what looks like an ID. Is there a way to map the GS Task Type name? 
Hi Manmeet,





Currently, Timeline Activities and Tasks/To-Dos are two separate constructs in Gainsight. We do plan to bring the latter into the Activities fold, but this for the time being is limited to being able to add Tasks/To-Dos inline when logging an Activity. Because of this, we also have to deal with two separate sync processes:




  1. Admin -> Activities -> Activity Sync

  2. Admin -> Tasks
The 'type' mapping we've discussed is available under #1, not #2. The 'type' field that you are seeing under #2 is actually a lookup, and that's why you are seeing the Ids in Salesforce instead of actual names.
Oh, I see. Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense now! Any ETA on when Task type will map to SFDC? If there is any update on this status, I would love to be kept in the loop! Thanks for the help.