Meet Flow Orchestration
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe workflow orchestration.
- Identify the difference between Flow and Flow Orchestration.
- List the benefits of using Flow Orchestration.
- Identify business uses for Flow Orchestration.
Workflow Orchestration
Some business processes are more complex than others. Updating data fields in a Salesforce account may require one person to enter a few keystrokes (or none if the process is automated). But what happens if the online service that your company provides has a widespread outage or if a new process requires the coordination of different departments?
Now, instead of relying on a single person, you may need to involve multiple teams that haven't collaborated with one another before. As your business process complexity grows, so do delays in handoffs. That’s where workflow orchestration can help.
Workflow orchestration turns complicated, inter-related processes that may involve many handoffs between teams into a single, streamlined workflow that maps out all its logic and actions. With Flow Orchestration, you can:
- Model complex workflows into work items.
- Coordinate step-by-step activities.
- Show team members where handoffs occur.
- Support parallel workstreams.
- Combine both automated actions and manual work items.
How Is Flow Orchestration Different from Flow?
Salesforce Flow lets you automate actions based on triggers, and helps you create process-driven experiences through guided screen flows. Flow helps you automate your manual business processes, such as updating a record automatically or providing a form to collect the information your business needs. Some of these processes are standalone, but some can be combined as part of a bigger workflow to further streamline your overall process.
To learn more about Salesforce Flow, check out the Build Flows with Flow Builder and Automate Your Business Processes with Salesforce Flow trails on Trailhead.
Flow Orchestration is built on top of the same Flow engine that powers billions of flows running across Salesforce every month. But it is used to solve very different problems.
Imagine you’re applying for a new credit card online. The online application form can be powered by a screen flow. But the information is simply collected and must wait for an agent to review the application. The approval process that happens after submission is an entirely separate process that involves additional risk analysis, Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance checks, and more.
With Flow Orchestration you can combine your automated processes into a single workflow, and use Flow Orchestration’s no-code approach to create orchestrations and transform flows into steps that are organized by stages. This means more flexibility to create approval processes, a greater ability to assign work to any Salesforce user, and more control over record lifecycles. You can streamline any delays between processes and help guide different teams along the way. Flow Orchestration also lets you combine multiple flows together and map out how each flow interacts with one another, just like a conductor directing musicians in an orchestra!
Use Cases for Every Industry
As you just learned, Flow Orchestration helps create complex workflows that can involve multiple users and work streams. These workflows can be tailored to meet the demands of different industries and business goals.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Use Case | Industry/Line of Business (LOB) | What do I use it for? |
|---|---|---|
Incident Management | Service, IT | To create an incident response plan for when service agents and ops teams encounter a sudden spike in cases related to an incident. The Ops team can investigate the root cause with Engineering, work with Marketing to reach out to customers, and find a workaround to stay compliant. |
Claims Processing | Insurance | To combine the steps involved after a claim is initiated through a contact center rep. The claim adjuster inspects the damage (home/car), passes a work item onto the fulfiller who approves the estimate, QAs the review, and approves payment. |
Sales Quote to Contract | Sales | To streamline the complex workstreams involved when a lead is converted to a prospect and then a customer. This may involve prospecting, qualification, evaluation, proposal, quote, client approval, closing, and follow through. The process encompasses many sales, account management, order fulfillment, billing, and accounts receivables functions. |
Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) | Retail | To submit an authorization request. Can check warranty and service agreements and dispatch a field service rep for repair. |
Mortgage Approval | Financial Services | To submit mortgage application, processing, and underwriting processes. Parallel processes can run when a processor requires additional documents from the title company while running appraisals simultaneously. |
Flow Orchestration probably sounds like music to your ears at this point. Next, you explore the elements of an orchestration.
Resources
- Website: The Unofficial Flow Orchestration Home Page
- Salesforce Help: What’s the Difference Between Salesforce Flow and Flow Orchestration?
- Trailhead: Build Flows with Flow Builder
- Trailhead: Automate Your Business Processes with Salesforce Flow