Salesforce Flow toolset selection for approvals, integrations and recommendations
Key Takeaway
Let the requirement pick the tool. Multilevel approvals point to Flow Approval Processes, flows coordinated across teams point to Flow Orchestration, and tailored offers point to Einstein Next Best Action. For an external system, try a connector first, then the system's API, then MuleSoft RPA when the system has no API.
A flow built in Flow Builder automates a business process, such as creating records, sending emails or calling an external system. For a more complex business challenge, Salesforce suggests complementary tools, and each one matches a specific kind of requirement. Connecting to an external system is a separate choice, and it depends on what that system offers: a prebuilt connector, an API, no API at all, or data inside documents. A consultant reading a final design matches each requirement detail to the tool that fits it.
What a flow can automate
A flow is an application that automates a business process by collecting data and doing something in your Salesforce org or an external system. You build flows with Flow Builder, a point-and-click tool. Flows can provide screens to guide users through a process. Flows aren't tied to any one object, but they are record-centric. A flow can look up, create, update and delete records for multiple objects.
A flow can automate these tasks:
- Work with records, such as creating an account or changing a contact's address.
- Communicate with, collect input from, or notify people, such as sending a customer satisfaction survey after an opportunity closes.
- Submit a record for approval, such as requiring that managers approve discounts.
- Run another flow in the context of the current flow.
- Access external systems and data with or without an API, such as starting an automation in Salesforce when a Jira record changes.
- Call a custom invocable action.
- Send outbound messages, such as starting the reimbursement process in an external HR system for an approved expense report.
- Connect to legacy systems without APIs, such as extracting customer data from a desktop application to create Salesforce records.
- Extract data from documents, such as PDFs, images and forms, to create or update records.