Automation
Overview
Salesforce offers a variety of automation tools and features designed to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and ensure consistency across your organization.
These include but are not limited to:
Here we will focus on Flows, Workflow Rules and Approval Processes. As Salesforce matures automation features get sunset. This happened with Process Builder being aligned to Flows. Workflow rules are seemingly next to go.
How Is Automation Used?
Flow
Flow is a powerful tool that provides advanced automation capabilities allowing for more complex and interactive processes.
Types of Flows
Screen Flows
Interactive flows that guide users through a series of screens to capture and process information.
Autolaunched Flows
Background processes that run automatically based on certain triggers or events without user interaction.
Features
Visual Flow Designer
Provides a graphical interface to design and configure flows.
Data Manipulation
Can perform complex data manipulations and logic operations.
Workflow Rules
Workflow Rules automate standard internal procedures and processes to save time across your organization.
Components
Rule Criteria
Defines when the workflow should trigger based on record criteria.
Actions
Includes tasks like sending email alerts, updating fields, creating tasks, and sending outbound messages.
Approval Processes
Approval Processes automate the approval of records within Salesforce ensuring that they are reviewed and authorized according to predefined criteria.
Components
Approval Steps
Define the stages of the approval process and the criteria for each step.
Actions
Specify what happens when records are approved, rejected, or recalled, such as updating fields or notifying users.
What is the Benefit?
Salesforce’s automation tools provide a wide range of capabilities to enhance efficiency, ensure consistency, and standardize business processes. By leveraging Workflow Rules, Flow, Approval Processes, Einstein Next Best Action, and other tools organizations can automate mundane but necessary tasks.
Common Use Cases of Automation
Situation Based
When you have processes, in say Opportunity Lifecycle, that concretely and repeatedly need to occur (no flexible determination), automation is a great way to enable those efficiencies. If each time an opportunity is closed won, you want to ensure the seller follows up for payment, you could automate an email alert immediately at opportunity closure or a scheduled flow “x days after” closure to create a task reminder to the rep. This example is applicable across the board for any scenario in that manner. If something “can or can not” happen, just ensure your decision criteria is up to date. And if something is very fluid, meaning the business is experimenting or the conditions frequently change, I would suggest strong consideration before creating automation around that scenario.
Complex Queries
Salesforce Programming Language, Apex, is a very good solution to create bulkified automation or decisions. Implementing classes and triggers (with test code coverage and controllers) helps add stability to an org when needed. Things like field updates, emails, tasks etc. should be left to simple tooling like flow, but if you need to programmatically rebuild your Account Hierarchy every MWF, then scheduled Apex would be a great tool. If you’re calling external API and needing to read endpoints in real time to create/update records in salesforce, without a productized connector, then Apex is a great fit.
Who is Impacted?
Developers/Admins
Developers and Admins together can use Flow to build “no-code” solutions to handle complex automation logic, repetitive actions and manage workflow logic. Approval Processes help Admins define multi-level steps of record approval for their end users.
End Users
Flows provide improved efficiency and a smoother user experience. Flows can automate data entry, guide users through multi-step processes and reduce manual effort. Automated approval processes can help increase efficiency and automate document signature.
Customers
Customers reap the benefits of flows in external applications. Here tools such as Screen-Flows guide them through a custom interface.