Queues

Queues are fundamental to the Distribution Engine, so it's worth spending some time thinking about these before any setup starts. Please see the Queue Basics topic to learn or recap how Queues work in Salesforce.

Queues and Distribution Engine

Queues are used as the inputs to the Distribution Engine. Leads and Cases are placed in the queue ready for the Distribution Engine to pick them up and assign amongst the team. This queuing mechanism is useful for a number of reasons: 

  • Makes it easy to control which records are available to Distribution Engine 
  • Multiple teams can use the same queue as an input, for example teams working in different parts of the world might work from the same queue but operate at different times. 
  • If no team members are available, records can remain in the Queue 

Getting your objects into queues

If you already have Leads / Cases being assigned to Salesforce queues then the Distribution Engine can use these existing queues. Otherwise you will need to create one or more queues in Salesforce and have Leads / Cases added to the queue in one of the following ways:

  • Using Salesforce assignment rules 
  • Using Salesforce workflow rules 
  • Using a 3rd party application. Some 3rd party applications can set a queue as the record owner. E.g. Marketo can assign incoming Leads to a queue. 
  • Bulk insert e.g. using Salesforce DataLoader
  • Bulk transfer of old records e.g. using the Salesforce Mass Transfer feature

Objects which do not support queues

Some objects do not support queues, e.g. Opportunity, Account. For these, select one of your standard Salesforce users in place of a queue. The effect will be exactly the same, but it's important that you choose a user that does not normally own these records. We recommend either using a spare license to create a Distribution Engine user, or using a manager / admin who is not involved in the day-to-day ownership of records. In your Distributor rules you can use the Distribute from user option to assign out objects from the username.

How did we do?

Queue Basics

Distribution Sync

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