A major benefit of a CRM product is the ability to automate your processes and Salesforce is no exception. There are several Salesforce automation options available to you and we will go through what the differences are between them below.
What are the Salesforce Automation Options Available to Me?
The three main Salesforce automation options available are:
- Workflow Rules
- Process Builder
- Flow
In the following sections, you will find a high level overview of each of these.
What are Salesforce Workflow Rules?
Workflow Rules help you automate certain actions to make your organization’s processes work better. Below are some examples of what you can do with a Workflow Rule.
- Assign follow up tasks one week after a lead is entered
- Send sales management an email alert when a large opportunity closes
- Change the owner of a record once an opportunity reaches a certain stage
It is important to note that Salesforce is not doing any further development on Workflow Rules as they are trying to shift users to Flow. However, Workflow Rules will still be available.
What is Salesforce Process Builder?
Process Builder includes most of the functionality that Workflow Rules have but go a bit further. While Workflow Rules can update a parent record, you would need Process Builder to update related records. You can even combine several Workflow Rules into one process.
A process can start when records are created or updated or when a platform even occurs. Below is an example.
Like Workflow Rules, Process Builder is still available and can be used for existing processes but is no longer a development area for Salesforce.
What is Salesforce Flow?
Salesforce Flow is a point and click automation tool. Technically it is made up of Flow Builder and Process Builder but Process Builder should only be used for existing processes. All future support is with Flow Builder.
Flow Builder goes further than Process Builder since it can also be used for business processes that require input from users. In addition, with Flow you can build processes that previously required Apex coding.
Examples of business processes you can do with Flow include:
- Provide a step-by-step wizard to request a new credit card
- Launch a discount calculator when a button is clicked in an opportunity record
- Update all contact records when an account is updated
- Create a renewal opportunity when an opportunity closes
Please contact us at info@marksgroup.net for any Salesforce questions or support you need. Feel free to comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
