Easily Managing Hundreds
of Domain Names from Salesforce

The challenge

IEEE was searching for a solution to automate its manual process of ensuring hundreds of independently-owned IEEE domain names were being updated with their latest information in the WHOIS Domain Name Registry. More specifically, there was a critical need of identifying upcoming domain name expirations early in order to enable IEEE to alert domain name owners of the potential loss of these domain names. At that time, it was necessary to run a manual and repetitive search of the WHOIS Domain Name Registry to confirm that each domain name of hundreds was not approaching its expiration date.

The solution

To solve this challenge, IEEE's goal was to store and automatically update the WHOIS Domain Name Registry details for each of its third-party domains in its own Salesforce instance. In this way, IEEE could then simply use Salesforce's built-in workflow tools to create email alerts when specific criteria were met, such as upcoming domain name expirations.

With this goal in mind, IEEE assembled its team. First, it located Whois API, a web service that provides consistent, well-structured data in both XML & JSON formats. IEEE then contacted Princeton Innovators, a Salesforce ISV & AppExchange Partner, to develop a solution for integrating the Whois API web service with Salesforce.

From the start, Princeton Innovators founder Thomas Carrier was pleased with what he found when evaluating the Whois API web service. “After running a few tests on Whois API,“ Carrier explained, “I was confident it could be integrated with Salesforce, and I was psyched because I knew IEEE would be pleased with what could be delivered.“

After IEEE had tested PI's prototype of what soon became known as Whois Connect, Carrier's hopes were realized as IEEE was in fact interested in moving forward with the project. From its original prototype, IEEE's project manager recalls, “Whois Connect was simple to use and provided all the information we needed.“

So, with IEEE's green light, Princeton Innovators began work on building Whois Connect, a Salesforce app that can integrate the Whois API webservice with any Salesforce object. PI designed this app with a focus on future flexibility through configuration screens, which would enable IEEE to manage Whois API account login credentials, scheduling details for launching the updates, as well as, field mappings for supporting future changes to either Whois API results or IEEE's Salesforce data model. “Working with Princeton Innovators on the integration of WHOIS into our Salesforce applications has allowed us the ability to manage the vast amount of domain data within the company,“ says IEEE's project manager. “The ease of installation and configuration options, such as scheduling which domains and when to launch a lookup provided, is exactly what we needed,“ he continues. Regarding the Whois API webservice, he adds, “The features and cost of Whois API made it a perfect fit for our needs.“

The solutions team

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - customer.

PI - Princeton Innovators - Salesforce ISV & AppExchange partner.

Salesforce.com - Customer Success Cloud Platform.

WHOIS API, Inc. - Whois API web service.

The results

With this solution in place, IEEE can now rest easy, knowing its third-party domain names are safely updated. When associated domain names are close to expiration, an IEEE representative is automatically alerted of this. “This could never have been possible without the excellent web service created by Whois API, and of course, Salesforce's cloud platform,“ Carrier continued, “it's thanks to Whois API, it's thanks to Salesforce, and most importantly, it's thanks to the customer, IEEE.“

More information

For more information about Whois API, please visit https://www.whoisxmlapi.com.

For building Salesforce apps or functionality, please visit http://www.princetoninnovators.com.