Welcome to another “Automate This!” In this live-streamed video series, we cover all things automation, from use cases and best practices to showcasing solutions built by #AwesomeAdmin Trailblazers like you. Automation allows you to remove manual tasks, drive efficiency, and eliminate friction and redundancy. In this episode and accompanying blog post, Narender Singh will show us how we can boost user productivity by integrating approvals and flows directly in Slack.
Frequent app switching can severely impact user productivity. Each time a user switches between tasks, it takes time for their brain to shift focus, which leads to cognitive overload and decreased efficiency. Streamlining tools and reducing interruptions can help users maintain focus and maximize their productivity.
If your organization is using Salesforce and Slack, your business users might find themselves switching back and forth between Slack and Salesforce to get the work done. What if you could make them more efficient by reducing their need to switch between apps? That’s what we’d like to achieve in this blog. So without further ado, let’s roll!
Note: In this blog, we’ll be focusing more on technical implementation instead of discussing the whole use case I demoed in the Automation This! episode.
Before we begin let’s take a look at the prerequisites:
Follow these steps to connect Slack to your Salesforce org.
When you enable a flow to run in Slack, an action with the name of the flow is automatically created.
To invoke/launch the flow you created in Slack in Step 2, you’ll need a second flow. In your second flow, you’ll have to use the automatically generated flow action (how and when you configure your flow to run depends on your use case). Check the screenshot below for how to find which Slack action to choose.
If the name of your flow is User Onboarding – Get User Preferences, then the action will look like this.
Once you select the action, you’ll configure the inputs.
Slack Input Name | Description |
Slack App | If your org has properly enabled Slack integration, you should see a choice "Salesforce for Slack." Choosing anything other than that is for experts. |
Slack Workspace | This will show the workspace(s) that have 1) installed the specified Slack App and 2) connected it to your org. |
Execute Action As | This should generally be set to Slack App. If a flow is running in User Context and not System Context, you can choose to have the message sent to Slack by the running User, as opposed to the app. |
Slack Conversation ID | This allows you to input the channel ID of Slack channel or User ID of the Salesforce User to whom you want to send the mesage. |
Slack Message | This allows you to customize the initial launch message. |
Button Label | This allows you to customize the name of the button that launches the flow. |
Slack Bot Name | This will change the label that posts the launch message. |
Slack Timestamp | Slack timestamp acts as unique identifiers for messages. If you pass in a valid message timestamp, the flow launch message will show up as a response to that message. |
If you want to pass any inputs to the flow, you can use the Set Flow Input Values section while configuring the action.
Save and Activate your flow.
Before you can test it, you will need your users to connect their Slack to Salesforce. They should be able to do it by logging in to their Slack workspace, going to Salesforce for Slack in the Apps section on the pane, and connecting their Salesforce account.
Let’s see how it would look for an end user in Slack.
Approval notifications are automatically enabled in Slack if you have the Salesforce for Slack app installed. To receive approval notifications, users must connect their Slack account to Salesforce as explained in Step 4.
Welcome to another “Automate This!” In this live-streamed video series, we cover all things automation, from use cases and best practices to showcasing solutions built by Awesome Admin Trailblazers like you. With automation, you can remove manual tasks, drive efficiency, and eliminate friction and redundancy. In this episode, learn how Becka Dente leverages a simple […]
Welcome to another “Automate This!” In this live-streamed video series, we cover all things automation, from use cases and best practices to showcasing solutions built by Awesome Admin Trailblazers like you. With automation, you can remove manual tasks, drive efficiency, and eliminate friction and redundancy. In this episode, let’s see how Ohad Idan vanquishes shared […]
Welcome to another “Automate This!” In this live-streamed video series, we cover all things automation, from use cases and best practices to showcasing solutions built by Awesome Admin Trailblazers like you. With automation, you can remove manual tasks, drive efficiency, and eliminate friction and redundancy. In this episode, learn how Michael Barnes uses Flow to […]
