Admin’s Guide to Automation at TrailblazerDX ’23

Automation is top of mind for many of you admins as you’re being asked to save costs and be more productive with the resources you have. Salesforce Flow aims to help you transform your company with data-driven automation. From the Trailblazer-favorite Flow Builder from which it derives its name to powerful tools like Flow Orchestration and Flow Integration, Salesforce continues to expand its automation portfolio.

To that end, it’s not surprising to find automation front and center at TrailblazerDX (TDX) this year! You’ll see automation show up everywhere from the first-ever Automation Keynote to sessions and demos. Here’s a handy guide of some of the key automation innovations announced at TDX this year as well as some new resources to help you on our Flow journey.

Check out the latest automation innovations

Salesforce Flow’s robust portfolio of process automation is infusing automation with real-time, unified customer data through the launch of Salesforce Data Cloud. Now, you can build automation that transforms your company in three key ways:

1. Unlock and unify data: Breaking down data silos has an added benefit of breaking down automation silos. You can build end-to-end processes by automating across any system including those without an API.
2. Scale complex business processes quickly: Aside from offering a composable and flexible solution that you can customize for any use case, you can use hundreds of automation templates to get started immediately and achieve faster time to value!
3. Take action from anywhere: Salesforce’s human-centric approach means putting a human at the core of every critical decision and doing so in the most efficient way. You can interact with automation from Salesforce, Slack, mobile, or even external portals where conversations are happening, which increases productivity and reduces the time between handoffs and approvals.

Now let’s get into the specifics with a short list of some of the awesome innovations at TDX this year:

• Flow Builder | Genie Data (GA Winter ’24): Create Genie-triggered workflows to update and act on unified data.
• Flow Builder | Web Callout (Beta Now): Bring external data into flows without code! Set up easily with a guided process to configure an HTTP callout action without relying on developer resources.
• Flow Orchestration | Orchestration Templates (GA now): Create templates to ship out-of-the-box orchestrations to your teams.
• Flow Integration | Sales & Service Templates (GA now): With a guided experience and best practices built-in, templates take the guesswork out of sales (quote-to-cash) and service (incident management) automations and help unlock value faster.
• Slack Functions for Workflow Builder (GA Summer ’23): Easily build low code workflows that combine all of your systems using prebuilt functions for Salesforce and the rest of your enterprise software ecosystem, and custom coded functions unique to your organization.
• Tableau | Flow Interactions Enhancements (GA Summer ’23): Easily configure widgets to trigger complex business processes between CRM Analytics and Flow directly from your data insights dashboard.

What are some of the must-see automation experiences?

Be sure to join us in-person or tune into Salesforce+ to learn more about some of the innovations covered in this blog in detail! Below is a quick look at some must-see automation sessions from TrailblazerDX that you’ll be able to watch on-demand on Salesforce+.

1. Automation Keynote: Build Automated Experiences Fast with Salesforce Flow: Learn how to create workflows that drive efficiency today. Hear from product leaders how to automate at any skill level, get an inside look at the roadmap, and discover Trailblazer best practices.
2. No-Code to Low Code: Enabling Enterprise-Wide Automation: Learn how to use a variety of features to create automation patterns that increase productivity and deliver value fast for your entire organization.
3. Platform Keynote: Roadmap to Build & Extend your Customer 360: Join this session to get the latest roadmap updates to the Salesforce Platform and meet product experts who will show you how you can extend your Customer 360 with automation, DevOps, and security.
4. True to the Core: Join Parker Harris, product executives from Salesforce, MuleSoft, Slack, and Tableau, and product managers for a one-of-a-kind question-and-answer forum about our product roadmap.

New resources available

Excited about all the new innovations but unsure how to get started? Fret not, we have just the resources available to help you get started!

New out-of-the-box workflows and solutions

Check out the Flow Library to explore all the out-of-the-box workflows included in your license. Our Salesforce Labs team is also constantly building new Flow solutions on the AppExchange to help you jump-start your automation journey!

New Trailhead Modules

We’ve launched five new hands-on Flow badges in time for TDX! After taking feedback from our Flownatics, we’ve created modules that tackle some of the most challenging topics when it comes to Flow Builder. We’ve also added a highly interactive hands-on module to help you get started with process orchestration.

Here are some quick links to take you right to the modules:

• Data and Actions in Flows
• Flow Builder Logic
• Autolaunched and Scheduled Flows
• Screen Flows
• Build a Flow Orchestration

New Trailhead Academy class

We’re also excited to share that Trailhead Academy has a new expert-led Flow class for admins. In the 3-day class, Automate No-Code Solutions Using Flow (ADX301), Salesforce Certified Instructors show admins the “why” AND the “how” behind the actions of creating a flow. Admins will learn how to analyze real-world use cases plus effectively create and manage flows that champion automation best practices and solve for user requirements.

So there you have it, your definitive guide to all things automation at the most flow-tastic TDX ever!

Additional resources

• Trailhead: TrailblazerDX 2023 Automation Quest