When a nonprofit organization needs to integrate external third-party applications into the Salesforce user interface while maintaining a seamless "single pane of glass" experience, Salesforce Canvas is the specialized tool designed for this purpose.
How Salesforce Canvas Works:
Application Encapsulation: Canvas allows a consultant to take an existing external web application (such as a legacy accounting tool, a specialized document management system, or a custom program tracking app) and "embed" it directly within Salesforce.
Authentication and Identity: Unlike a simple
Bi-directional Communication: Canvas provides a JavaScript API that allows the external application to communicate with the Salesforce record it is sitting on. For example, an external billing app embedded on a Person Account page can "read" the Account ID and "write" a status update back to Salesforce.
Placement: The consultant can place the Canvas app in the Utility Bar, as a tab on a record page, or even within a Chatter feed.
Why other options are incorrect:
External Objects/Data Sources (Option A & B): These are part of Salesforce Connect. They are used to view and query external data as if it were stored in Salesforce tables, but they do not provide a way to "use" the full interface and logic of the external application itself.
Distributed Marketing (Option D): This is a specific tool for Marketing Cloud integration and has no relation to general application embedding.
By implementing Salesforce Canvas, the consultant ensures that staff remain productive within the Salesforce ecosystem while still having full access to the external tools necessary for their daily mission-driven work.