I have updated this article to include a new way of connecting the Apps you use with GoldMine CRM.
After reading this article – please see this related article for more information.

How Zapier Works

Zapier is a web automation app. With Zapier you can build connections between hundreds of different apps. These connections or workflows are called Zaps, and they can be used to automate parts of your business or life.

A Zap is the link between your apps and Zapier.  A Zap is a noun, not a verb.  For example, Add New Salesforce Contacts to MailChimp Subscriber List would be an example of a Zap. If you wanted to move those same Salesforce contacts to an additional MailChimp account or an additional MailChimp list, that would be a second Zap. You can see all your Zaps from your Zapier Dashboard. A Zap can only have one Trigger, but multiple Actions. A Zap is a blueprint for a task you want to do over and over. In other words, a Zap looks like this:

When something happens in app A, do this other thing in app B.” The first part is the Trigger. A Trigger is the event that starts a Zap. For example, if you want to automate sending a text message each time you receive an email, the “receiving a new email in your inbox” is the Trigger and the second part is the Action. An Action is an event a Zap performs.

Zapier supports hundreds of apps. You can mix and match triggers and actions to automate just about anything.

An example might be “When I get a new entry from a Wufoo form on my website, add that contact as a new subscriber in Constant Contact.”

Zaps are very lightweight and very easy to setup. Most Zaps require no programming or coding knowledge.

With Zapier, you get as much granularity as you need. You can pick what fields from the trigger service should go to the action service and you can use static text and custom fields too. For instance, you might say that the phone number from your Wufoo form should be the work phone of your new CRM lead.

The following video demonstrates how to setup a muti-step Zap between a Wufoo web form, Google Calendar and SLACK. If you’re not sure what SLACK is I suggest checking out this post.

Every few minutes, Zapier regularly checks your trigger for new data (some Zaps get triggered immediately!). When your Zap triggers, Zapier automatically performs the actions you’ve setup.

Without any more effort from you, data flows from one app or service to the other!

How to Make Zapier Work with GoldMine

Zapier does not have an App connect option for GoldMine, so you wont find GoldMine CRM listed as an App in their APP directory. This is because GoldMine is a premise based CRM system and not an App hosted on the Web.

However, GoldMine does have a Web Import feature that allows you to create/update records in GoldMine from data captured from the web. You could also create an App that runs on your network, that captures data from the web and writes directly to the GoldMine SQL database or takes advantage of the GoldMine API. We’ll be discussing the first option, using GoldMine Web Import, because its already a part of the GoldMine you own.

GoldMine Web Import uses an .ini or xml style email that is received in GoldMine’s email center and once that email is recieved it can create or update existing contact records. I recommend using a unique email account for your web import emails something such as webimport@yourdomain.com, this helps keep your regular emails separate from the web import emails. Once the Web Import email is retrieved in GoldMine, the web import feature of GoldMine extracts the information contained in the email and processes any instructions that you have defined. For example, you can duplicate check based on email address to ensure you’re not creating duplicate records, you can also send GoldMine emails to other GoldMine users to notify/alert them that a new contact record was created or an existing contact was updated. You can also trigger a GoldMine Automated Process, which can be used to automate other tasks and trigger other workflows within GoldMine.

So how do we get our Zapier Zap to connect to GoldMine? Well, Zapier has a built in App called Webhooks by Zapier. Webhooks simply POST data (or JSON) to a specific URL every time something new happens. This URL is something you will enter in your Zapier  Webhooks Zap and Zapier will send data from your Web Apps to your URL when ever something happens in those Apps. Webhooks by Zapier can also accept data (or JSON) to kick off a workflow in Zapier. So we can send data from GoldMine to Zapier Webhooks to automate workflow in the other Apps we use. Such as adding a GoldMine Contact to Constant Contact as a new Subscriber, plus so much more.

In order to provide your own URL, you’re going to need your own web server or website hosting account. If you are using one of the many website apps such as Weebly or Wix that allow you to build/design your website using a drag a drop interface those won’t work. You’d need to have your own self hosted website, with support for PHP. First Direct Corp. can then work with you to create the web scripts that will capture the data from your Zapier Webhooks  and generate the necessary Web Import emails to create/update your GoldMine records.

I know this all sounds pretty confusing, and I don’t want to dig too deep into any of the technical stuff.  You basically need the following:

1. A Zapier account, and they do offer free accounts limited to 100 data pushes a month and a total of 5 active Zaps.
2. An App or Mulitple Apps you want to integrate with GoldMine or vise versa. There are hundreds to choose from. What Apps does your organization use?
3. A website hosting account with PHP support. If you have your own website most likely you have a hosting account.  It must be your own website hosting account not a website hosted with Wix or Weebly, because they don’t allow you to create/upload your own web scripts.
4. GoldMine CRM

With those 4 criteria First Direct Corp. can then work to create the different web scripts for you to host on your website hosting account. These scripts will allow you to capture data from your Apps and create Web Import emails that will create or update contact records in your GoldMine CRM.

If you have any questions or are interested in automating your workflow please contact us at (800) 935-4386.