Yet another successful integration by Computan - this time, it is Active integrated with HubSpot. Active is the leading event registration platform where sports and fitness events are registered. The users can register events such as running races, marathons, cycling events, softball leagues, mountain biking, swimming among others. Events are for people of all ages and Active also organizes training camps for different sports activities such as Baseball, Basketball, Football, Golf, Soccer, Martial Arts, Tennis, and Volleyball among others.

Our Client Avid4 already had integrated Active with HubSpot but it was old and doesn’t support their business process now. The old integration was of contact level and recorded only the basic information. Now, as their business expanded, they want to record the transactional data as HubSpot deals and contacts.

What Data Gets Put in Active and HubSpot?

As Active is an event registration website, the data fields usually include the names of the organizers, event details, event names, event attendees data, attendees’ registration confirmation.

The data needs to be translated as contacts and deals in HubSpot in a segmented manner for further activities.

  • New data from Active APIs is fetched to create deals in HubSpot.
  • Deals created in HubSpot are associated with contacts in HubSpot.
  • Revenue and attribution data fetched from Active and saved in HubSpot with contacts and deals through HubSpot API.
  • Specific camp data and attendees data from Active is saved in custom objects in HubSpot and related with their families and camp registration that are saved in HubSpot as contacts.
  • Import registration field data from Active is fetched using APIs and mapped in HubSpot.

Typical Data Sharing Scenarios

Active.com deals with data points such as

  • Event Name
  • Event Organizers’ names
  • Booking Confirmation
  • Attendees’ names, choice of sports, and other details
  • Payments

Any event organizer using HubSpot for lead nurturing and delighting and also using Active.com to list its events would want the following data points to be shared from Active to HubSpot.

  • Attendees
  • New Registrations
  • Events

Sync this data and other related properties to HubSpot as contacts, deals, and contact properties. Organizers can further nurture these contacts for their next events. Also, it is easy to track which people like which running or sporting event.

By knowing total registrations and the total events organized, companies can know revenue generated per event and per year.

How long does the integration take and how is it done?

An integration task of this scale usually takes a week and a day or two more. Here’s a quick look at the steps involved in accomplishing HubSpot Active integration.

  • Understanding and creating the dataflow and creating middleware for it
  • Updating APIs at both ends for correct data transfer
  • Formatting the required data in Active and preparing it for sharing
  • Create custom objects in HubSpot to store specific data from Active.
  • Create field mappings for Active and HubSpot for new integrations
  • Data Importing

What is the effort involved or potential pitfalls?

As data flow was new for the existing integration that was already in place, we updated the contact API functionalities for the new data. Also, for successful mapping, registration data fields need to be created in HubSpot matching the data fields in Active.

The Potential Pitfalls in Active HubSpot Integration

Data Formatting

Before beginning the integration task, the developers need to make sure that the data in Active is well-formatted. You can’t and shouldn’t build an API bridge for the scattered data. Scattered data is not actionable.

Avoid Duplicates

Duplicate entries or contacts originate when team members are not using one CRM for contact or not updating it correctly. After successful integration, the duplicate will travel between the two tools. Have a business data management process in place and train the employees to follow that process throughout the cycle. Make your teams use one solution for contact management.

Mapping

Data mapping is the procedure of matching the data fields in the databases of two different tools for integration to be successful. Data can come from any source and each data entry must define a similar data point. The nomenclature may be different in the tools, but the purposes should be definite.

Sync Rules

This was a one-way sync integration i.e. data was flowing from Active to HubSpot. If you want to use the data back in Active from HubSpot, then two-way rules are applied. The HubSpot Xero integration we did was two-way sync.

Readable Data

Data sent to HubSpot from Active must be readable and understandable by the team using HubSpot. If the team fails to understand what the contacts, deals, and contact properties represent with respect to Active, then they won’t know what actions to take on that data set.