Staging Module Overview

Overview

The Staging Module in Clari Studio gives Sales Ops Managers (or admins) the ability to create and manage staging environments, empowering them to test and facilitate changes for critical revenue processes across Clari without impacting their production environment.

With this module, Clari Amins can:

• create a new staging environment that is a full copy of the source environment (excluding analytics and activity data)

• sync a staging environment to contain the latest metadata of the source environment

• reconnect a staging environment back to their SFDC sandbox (after an SFDC refresh)

• delete a staging environment

Use Cases

• As a revenue architect, you can make a copy of my production setup and implement changes in your staging environment so that you can refine our revenue processes for FY24.

• As an enterprise sales ops mgr, you can insert Clari as a part of our SDLC (software development lifecycle) process and conduct UAT (user acceptance testing) without ever impacting your production setup.

• As a sales enablement team member, you can rapidly train and onboard new sellers onto Clari without having to utilize production data.

• As a user-focused ops manager, you can trial new Clari features in your staging environment before production so that you can participate in beta releases without risking any impact on our user experience.

How To Set Up Staging

Note: Your Clari CSM will need to enable Staging for you. So, contact your CSM if you're interested! Once your CSM enables this feature, then your admin can set up Staging with the steps below. 

When first entering the Staging module (and no environments exist yet), users are shown an empty state which prompts them to create their first environment.

1. Click Create Environment to get started

2. Fill in the required details in the Create Sandbox modal

• Name: The name of your new sandbox, which will appear in the sandbox tile header and Account Settings dropdown
• Description: Describe the purpose of the sandbox
• Choose Configuration Source: Decides which Clari org to copy metadata from
• Salesforce Org ID: The org ID of the connected SFDC instance (can be found here).

Note: Make sure to enter the correct SFDC Org ID here otherwise, the sandbox connection will fail when logging in.

3. Click Create Sandbox.

4. Once the sandbox creation is kicked off, a new tile appears on the page with the sandbox details. The tile status will show Creation in progress which indicates the sandbox metadata is being copied over from the source org.

Note: This step usually takes a few minutes.

5. Once the creation is complete, you'll get a notification, and the tile status will show Connect Sandbox to CRM:

You can either:

• Click Connect from the sandbox tile OR
• Click Connect Sandbox from within the email sent to their inbox

Both options direct you to the same next step.

6. From here, you'll see a pop-up to connect your Salesforce. Click Connect.

7. Enter the username and password of the integration user you will be using to connect.

IMPORTANT: The integration user you are logging in with needs equal to or higher permissions as the integration of the parent org. For example: If Acme is using “jerry@acme.com” as the integration user for Clari prod, then their Clari sandbox needs to be set up with an integration user with equal or higher permissions as “jerry@acme.com" 

If all the below checks pass successfully, the user will see the redirect screen. Proceed to the next step.

If one of the below checks do not pass, the user will need to take action to resolve. The three checks include:

• Valid login credentials: If it fails, fix by re-entering valid SFDC login credentials
• Connecting the correct Salesforce instance based on the Salesforce Org ID inputted during sandbox creation. If it fails, Clari will need to update the Salesforce Org ID in our database. Please reach out to support to assist with fixing this.
• The integration user has the correct permissions. If this fails, fix it by logging in with an integration user with higher permissions.

8. Once the connection process starts, you'll see a tile with the connection status. Once complete, it looks like this: 

And that's it, you've set up Staging. 

Sync Your Staging Environment

When you first create a Staging Environment, it's generally at parity with the production environment since all the metadata was copied directly. But, changes can happen across both the staging and production environments as time passes, causing the information in both environments to diverge.

This can be undesirable when trying to conduct UAT since the staging environment doesn't accurately reflect the experience shown in production. To update your staging environment, use the Sync capability.

Sync will copy the latest metadata from your source org and insert it into the staging environment where you requested the sync operation.

IMPORTANT: Performing a sync can potentially replace everything in the staging environment. This action cannot be reversed.

1. Go to the Staging module and find the staging environment you would like sync. Use the menu on the top-right of the card to select Sync. 

2. You'll be asked to confirm. Remember, you can't undo this action. When you're ready, click Start Sync.

3. Once the sync starts, the status in the tile will update to Sync in progress. 

If the Sync is successful, you'll see a green notification at the bottom left corner, and the status on the tile will change to Active. (see image below).

If the Sync fails, you'll see a red notification in the bottom left. The status on the tile will change to Sync Failed. To fix this, click the Retry button to start the sync again.

Reconnecting your staging environment back to your CRM

You may trigger a Salesforce sandbox refresh when trying to update metadata or perform a sync. A Salesforce refresh will break the connection to the Clari sandbox, causing the data to be outdated in the Clari sandbox. That's where reconnecting comes in!

Reconnect allows users to re-establish between the Clari sandbox and the Salesforce sandbox. Here's how: 

1. Within the Staging module, find the staging environment you would like to perform a reconnect on. Click the menu in the top-right corner of the tile and click Reconnect.

2. Clari will request that you input the newly generated 18-digit SFDC org ID. Find this  on your Salesforce Account details page. Then, click Reconnect to CRM. 

3.  Once the reconnect has been kicked off, the status in the tile will update to Reconnection in progress.  

If the Reconnect is successful, then you'll see a green notification in the bottom left corner and the status on the tile will change to Active. 

If the Reconnect fails, then a red notification will appear in the bottom left corner, and the status on the tile will change to Reconnect Failed. To fix this, click the Retry button to kick off the sync again.

Deleting your Staging Environment

Delete allows users to shut down a staging environment after it has served its purpose and erase all configurations and data associated with it.

1. Within the Staging module, find the staging environment you would like to delete. Click the menu in the top-right corner of the tile and click Delete.

2. Clari will prompt you to confirm the action. Remember, you can't undo deleting. When you're ready, click Delete.

3. Once you confirm your deletion, the tile status updates to Sandbox will permanently delete on [30 days from today]. 

Grant Others Access To Staging

If you're an Advanced Ops/Admin who wants to grant other users on your team access and toggle rights in a staging environment — then provision them like this: 

1. Use the same workflow you use to invite and provision users in production (psst: Production means your org's actual Salesforce instance).

2. Once invited, other users will get the email inviting them to the sandbox, and then they just need to make sure when they connect their account. Note: ensure they're connecting to the Salesforce staging/test account and not production.