Table of Contents
Make the most of your CRM by displaying your Salesforce dashboards on your workplace screens
Salesforce is a huge name in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space. It offers so many solutions and integrations for all of your departments that it can easily make your head spin! However, that complexity makes it one of the biggest and most widely-used business analytics solutions on the market, being used by companies like Aston Martin, Ulster Bank, and Virgin Media.
With such advanced capability at your hands, it only makes sense that you’d want to make the most of that. You can create a dashboard to monitor your business performance and visualize how you’re doing — and how you could be doing better. When you integrate your Salesforce Dashboard with Fugo CMS, you can empower your teams and key players to make critical decisions based on the data that you’ve put in front of them.
Fugo & your Salesforce dashboard
With the TV Dashboards feature inside Fugo CMS, you can easily and securely connect your digital signage with your Salesforce dashboard. You can quickly display your dashboards on the screens around your workplace without even having to leave your desk.
And you can do it all without having to risk any of your sensitive business data by keeping your Salesforce credentials on an external device that can be lost, remotely accessed, or stolen, and without having to create a URL that just about anybody can come along and view.
Fugo handles the integration with third-party dashboards in a pretty unique way; recording the steps you take during the login process, encrypting them, and keeping them on a private Cloud server. Then, when Fugo fetches your most recent dashboard, the Cloud server runs through those steps, encrypts a screenshot of the dashboard, and sends it back to your CMS. This means your access credentials and business analytics are kept safe and sound from anybody trying to snoop on them.
Best practices for using Salesforce with Fugo
We’ll get to the walkthrough in just a second - but first, let’s go over a couple of best practices that we recommend following whenever you’re connecting any third-party dashboard service with your Fugo CMS account:
1. Create a service account:
To ensure the utmost security for your sensitive data, we recommend setting up a 'least privileged' service account in your Salesforce account. This typically means using an account with read-only permissions for the dashboards you want to display.
Using a service account not only enhances security but also prevents potential interruptions in your account like unexpected logouts or excessive security notifications. Additionally, full-access user accounts often come with associated phone numbers, which gets in the way of Fugo's authorization process.
You can read more about how to set up a service account with Google here.
2. Have your dashboard URL(s) handy
Because Fugo is going to record & repeat the steps you take to access your dashboard, we want to eliminate any unnecessary steps in the process that will slow Fugo down when accessing your dashboard, such as starting from the homepage of your platform and navigating to your chosen dashboard.
You'll need the URL of your specific dashboard that you want to display on screen ready when you start the process of capturing it with Fugo. Copy that URL and have it ready to paste into Fugo's dashboards step recorder.
3. Set your Salesforce password expiration policy to "Never expires"
You may notice that your dashboard fails to capture when you are prompted by Salesforce to change your password - this is because Fugo can not bypass this prompt.
If frequently expiring passwords are an issue blocking the stability of your TV dashboards in Fugo, you may want to update your password expiration policy so that your password never expires - this way you can avoid having to recapture your dashboards in Fugo after each time you've changed your password. You can find Salesforce's instructions for that in this guide.
TV Dashboard set up instructions
Get a Secret Key from your SSO or 2FA login provider
For Fugo to access your Salesforce dashboard in a secure, stable way, you'll require a Secret Key from your login service provider to input during your dashboard configuration.
This Secret Key is an alphanumeric code that essentially allows Fugo to act as a trusted user to access your dashboard.
The Secret Key that you generate from following the appropriate 2FA instructions from the options below will be used later in the dashboard setup process (for the sake of this guide, step 15).
How you'll get your secret key depends on how you log into Salesforce:
I log in with SSO
If you use SSO to log into Salesforce, you'll get your secret key from your provider.
Below are the currently supported providers with links to our instructions for getting the Secret Key from them:
I don't log in with SSO
If you don't use an SSO service like Google or Microsoft to log into Salesforce, then you'll get your Secret Key by setting up a Time-based One Time Password (TOTP) authenticator app for your Salesforce service account.
Here's how to do that:
1. Go to Advanced User Details under My Personal Information in the settings panel of your Salesforce service account.
2. Go to App Registration: One-Time Password Authenticator and click Connect.
3. Now you need to verify your identity in order to connect a one-time password generator: At this stage you should receive a verification code in your email. Enter the code and click Verify.
4. Follow the instructions on the next page to complete the authenticator app setup. Click on the I can't Scan the QR Code link in order to get the Secret Key.
5. On the final page you will see the Secret Key. First, copy and securely save the key somewhere. This is very important because you'll need it later to finish configuring your dashboard in Fugo.
6. Now, you'll need to enter the Secret Key into an authenticator app in order to get the Verification code for the next step.
We've used Step Two for the purpose of this guide, but any authenticator app should work. You'll need to set up your Salesforce account manually, since you won't be scanning a QR code.
7. Paste your Secret Key into your authenticator app and save your account.
8. This will generate a verification code.
Enter the code generated by your newly set up authenticator app into the corresponding field in the Salesforce pop up.
This should complete the authentication app connection setup! Now, you're ready to configure your dashboard in Fugo.
🔑 Paste the secret key in Fugo later
Now that you have the Secret Key from your Salesforce account, you'll be prompted to enter it later as shown in step 15 of the next section so that Fugo can securely authenticate with your Salesforce account.
Configure your Salesforce dashboard in Fugo
With your secret key saved, you're ready to connect your dashboard in Fugo!
💡 Note: If you want to see your dashboard on screen at the end of configuration, make sure it's connected to Fugo CMS. If you haven’t connected your screen(s) yet, you can find the instructions for your preferred device in our hardware collection.
1. Log into your Fugo Account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can start your 14-day free trial here.
2. Click Dashboards in the top navigation bar to go to your Dashboard library. If you have not created any dashboards yet, this page will be empty.
Click Create Dashboard to get started.
3. This will launch a New Dashboard window.
4. First, you’ll need to enter the URL of your dashboard in the URL field and click Open Dashboard.
5. If you're creating a TV Dashboard for the first time, you'll be prompted to configure your Chrome browser to allow our recorder extension to run in incognito mode.
If you’ve done this before, you can skip to step 12.
6. First, you'll need to install the Fugo Dashboard Recorder Chrome Extension.
7. This will open the Chrome Web Store in a separate tab. Click Add to Chrome to install the extension.
8. Go back to your tab with Fugo CMS. You will see a little blue checkmark on this step once you complete it.
9. Now you'll need to enable the extension to run in Incognito mode. Click Enable Allow In Incognito.
💡 Note that skipping this step will likely cause the TV Dashboards feature to break, so we don't recommend opting to skip it.
If you do have to skip it, make sure to logout from your dashboard before starting the recording process.
10. This will open the Extensions manager. Toggle on the Allow in Incognito option.
11. Back in your tab with Fugo CMS, you'll see both blue checkmarks now completed. Click Continue.
12. A pop-up window with our recorder will appear and prompt you to log into your dashboard. Enter your login credentials as you normally would.
13. If you use Single Sign On (SSO) to log into your account, the recorder will work automatically without any additional login configuration at this step.
However, if you use 2FA to log into your account, then you'll need to input your 2FA verification code in the recorder now and sign in.
14. Once you’re signed in to your service, your dashboard will load in the recorder window. It's at this point that you'll instruct Fugo how to take the screenshot of your data.
You have three options:
Option 1: Capture Dashboard
Clicking Capture Dashboard will take a full screenshot of everything in your dashboard.
Option 2: Element Eraser
Use the Eraser tool to get rid of certain elements on your dashboard that you don't want crowding your screenshot.
💡 Make sure to hit Finish Erasing when you're done.
Option 3: Element Screenshot
Use the Element Screenshot tool to take a screenshot of isolated elements, such as particular charts or graphs, that you want to display.
💡 You have to be a bit careful when selecting an element of the page with this tool: it might not always be intuitive. We are still working on a better way to implement capturing dashboard elements in the future. If this is a priority for you, please get in touch with us at support@fugo.ai.
If the element capture feature isn't working with your dashboard, don't worry - you can always use the cropping tool in the Design Studio to achieve the same isolation of the element. Check out how here.
15. The recorder will now close & take you back to the Dashboard page.
It's at this point that you'll need to enter the Secret Key (discussed in the previous 2FA section) into Fugo.
Depending on your login method, you'll either be prompted to input the secret key into a pop up window:
Or, you'll see the red prompt Enter secret key under the Pass 2-Factor Authorization step in the Recorded Steps panel.
Click this and enter the secret key that you generated from your login provider.
15. You’ll see a “loading” screen while Fugo runs through your steps (logged in the right-hand panel) and captures a preview of your dashboard.
It can take some time depending on how many steps were involved - so don’t sweat it if it takes a minute or two!
16. Voila! Your dashboard should appear in the preview area.
💡 Note: If you see an error message you can read the reason for the error and see the screenshot of the last step where the recording process failed.
Reach out to support@fugo.ai or write to us in the chat box if you need help.
💡 Note: If you see a “loading” screen inside the preview area instead, we recommend you navigate over to the Advanced Settings tab and use increase the number in the “PAUSE” box before coming back to the Home tab and selecting Retry on the right-hand side. This tells the Fugo recorder to wait before taking a screenshot, giving your dashboard plenty of time to load in!
You can find more helpful tricks in the Advanced Settings section here.
17. If it all looks good, you can go ahead and publish it, or save it for later using the Publish or Save buttons in the bottom right corner.
You can publish it directly by choosing a screen, screen group, channel, or playlist to publish to.
Check out our collection on Playlists to learn more about how publishing works.
If you're not happy with how the dashboard rendered, read on to discover how you can customize the look of your dashboard with Fugo's design tools or troubleshoot some common issues.
Customizing your dashboard display In the Design Studio
💡 Note: In our example images below, we use a Tableau dashboard, but the cropping & customizing features can be used with your Salesforce dashboard, or any other dashboard you save to your Fugo account.
Cropping your dashboard
Not all dashboards are necessarily screen ready or "screen friendly" as we say at Fugo. Some may be quite long, have several small elements that aren't visible from a distance, or overwhelm the viewer with too much data at once.
You can use the cropping tool in Fugo's Design Studio to crop dashboards into more digestible pieces or otherwise satisfy your requirement for displaying it nicely on screen.
Here's how:
1. Add your dashboard to the canvas on your slide from the Dashboards library in the left hand panel.
2. We suggest zooming out a bit to give you more space to work with when cropping. There is a zoom setting in the top navigation bar, and you can also use the trackpad on your laptop to zoom in & out.
3. Select the crop icon from the top tool bar.
This will reveal two crop box outlines around your dashboard that enable different cropping functions.
The blue crop box can be used to crop out elements of your dashboard & set the frame for the image:
The purple crop box can be used to stretch and shrink your dashboard image and move it around to set its position within the frame:
Cropping is a great way to make your dashboards more digestible on screen without reconfiguring them or saving new dashboard views inside your data platform!
Check out the slideshow we created, showcasing each cropped chart individually 👇
Customizing your dashboard display
You can use any content source or setting available inside the Design Studio to further customize your dashboard display!
Just a few ideas are:
Add your company logo to your dashboard slides:
💡 Hint: You can easily upload your company logo to Fugo from right inside the Design Studio! Just drag and drop it onto your canvas or into Uploads in the left hand settings panel.
Incorporate other apps & integrations into the display, such as the World Clock app or CNN app to grab attention with live updating headlines:
💡 Hint: Each app can be configured in the settings panel that appears when you select the app. In our example above ☝️ we've cropped the World Clock app and given it a transparent background to better fit into the display. We've also added the CNN app at the bottom of the canvas and set its colors to match our brand.
Add QR codes to your display to create calls to action for your colleagues pertaining to your dashboards or workflows:
Add text boxes with important messages, reminders, or requests pertaining to your dashboards or data initiatives:
💡 Hint: You can easily create scrolling ticker texts using the animation settings in the left hand panel. Just make sure set the width of your text box to match the dimensions of the screen you'd like it to crawl (in our example above ☝️ we fit our text box to the width of our screen.)
Advanced dashboard settings & troubleshooting
In order to help your dashboards connect & display correctly, you'll find a few helpful settings in your dashboard's Advanced Settings tab:
Pause: Tell Fugo how many seconds to wait before taking the screenshot of your capture. This is helpful if your dashboards is slow to load & you frequently see loaders in your screenshots.
Scroll: Tell Fugo what Pixel length to scroll to on screen. This is helpful if you have particularly long dashboards that get cut off at the bottom of the screen.
Memory: Some memory intensive dashboards will need to be captured on a higher memory server in order to run & display successfully. If you're noticing that the system is failing to capture your dashboard, try setting this option to High.
Re-use cookies: Because some platforms flag multiple authentication requests as suspicious, you may start to notice that your dashboard is not being accessed & captured. To help make sure this doesn't happen, we recommend toggling on the Re-use cookies setting so Fugo can re-use the cookies from the first authentication request.
Help! My dashboard screenshot isn't updating
If your dashboard screenshot doesn't appear to be updating, first double check that it's published to an active screen.
A dashboard screenshot won't be updated unless it's published to a screen that's currently active. In essence, we don't capture dashboards that aren't being viewed - this helps us keep our service efficient.
Here's how to check:
1. Click on the Playlists tab of your dashboard
2. If it's published to a playlist, it will be listed here.
3. Click on the playlist to open it in the playlist builder. Double check that the screen it's published to is listed as Active.
If your dashboard is published to an active screen but still isn't updating, reach out to us at support@fugo.ai or via our chat box.
Salesforce dashboard design tips
When it comes to business intelligence dashboards, especially ones that can potentially get as complex and in-depth as Salesforce dashboards, there are a few important things to consider that can help elevate your dashboard and make it really helpful. On top of that, there are extra things to think about when displaying a lot of information on a screen that’s far away from your intended viewer, or isn’t directly within their control.
So, here are a few things to bear in mind when building your dashboard:
Clarity is crucial. The people viewing your dashboard are most likely going to be across the room from the screen - which means they’re going to need to squint if you’re cramming information in. Nobody can use all of the data you’ve worked to compile if they can’t read it, so it’s best to round your numbers to the fewest number of decimal points possible, keep plenty of space in your layout, make sure your fonts are big enough to be read without causing headaches or eye strain, and try to use colors that don’t clash.
Only use your key metrics. Before building out a dashboard, sit down with the team or the people that will be viewing it and using it to understand how they’re performing and figure out exactly what information they need to see. This can help to give them some control over what they’re viewing, something that’s important if they don’t have direct access to filter or update the dashboard themselves. It also means that your dashboard is always useful - it’s easy to go back and update a Salesforce dashboard, and have those updates show through Fugo, so don’t worry about re-evaluating what metrics you’re using after a week or so!
Guide the eye. When you’re creating your layout, see if you can figure out what information is the most important and have that display bigger than the other information. For instance, if you’re creating a sales dashboard, you might want to display a figure like “Profit compared to last month” in a prominent place on the screen, and in a bigger font. This gives a neat summary of what the dashboard is showing and implies a hierarchy of the information which can help your team make sense of what they need to take a look at. Use colors, font sizes, and positioning to help your team understand quickly where they need to look.
Salesforce has amazing and comprehensive documentation for its platform. We think a good place to hop in to their Dashboard documentation is their “Build a Dashboard” guide, which you can click here to view.
Need more help?
Did this guide answer all of your questions? If not, or if you have any feedback for us, feel free to drop our support team an email at support@fugo.ai - we're always happy to help out.
You can also book in a dashboard support call with our engineering team here if you need some help getting this feature set up.
Happy publishing!