Introduction to Salesforce Flow Orchestrator
Salesforce is invested in giving admins more power to achieve fast, reliable, and complex solutions through clicks, not code.
Here we will talk about Salesforce Flow Orchestrator, which organizes complex processes and is particularly useful for cases involving multi-user/departments.
Salesforce Orchestration development is very similar to developing flows—they are even created with the same page builder.
What is Flow Orchestrator in Salesforce?
Orchestration is a user-centric application that provides a connection between users and tasks, building complex business processes systematically in order to facilitate maintenance and future improvements. It coordinates processes by combining flows (screen or autolaunched) and decision elements, resulting in proper workflow automation, and assigns responsible users to tasks. Salesforce Flow Orchestration’s design is guided by who will complete the required task (user or area), in opposition to Flows that are record-centric, focused on query data, updates, and insert records.
With that in mind, Orchestration benefits business processes involving multiple users/areas, and ones that require interaction of the same user multiple times or have a multi-step approval process. It can also organize complex business processes, functioning as a backbone to the process instead of nesting several flows, which can often be difficult for someone else to understand when conducting maintenance or upgrades.
Flow Orchestration Key Components
To build your orchestration you will need to choose between two Orchestration launching options, two new components, and two related components:
Launching options:
- Autolaunched
- Record-Triggered
New Components:
- Stage
- Steps
Related Components:
- Flow (screen flow or auto launched flow)
- Decision’s element
Impressed by how much this tool can do? We want to help you implement it on your own. Here is our short guide to Salesforce Orchestrator.
Steps to Start Your Orchestration in Salesforce
Know how to create flows in Salesforce? Then you already know how to create orchestrations in Salesforce Flow Orchestrator; the process is the same.
- Setup -> Flows -> click New Flow button.
- Go to All + Templates tab and select Orchestrator at the left column.
- Choose ifyou want AutoLaunched or Record-Triggered Orchestration and start building your process. You will need your flows complete before you can build your Orchestration.
You can assign variables through steps and decision elements by creating Input/Output variables in the desired flow.
New Possibilities With Flow Orchestrator
Every time a step is assigned to a user, they receive an automatic email notification, and can view all their open Orchestration Work Items in a new Salesforce tab, and easily access the related record to complete their tasks.
On the other hand, Admins and Developers may use a FlowOrchestrationWorkItem object for reporting purposes, to measure time spent in each step of the orchestration by calculating the difference between the Last Modified Date and Created Date.
SOQL suggestion: SELECT Id, Label, LastModifiedDate, CreatedDate FROM FlowOrchestrationWorkItem WHERE Status ='Completed'.
By applying these new practices enabled by Salesforce Flow Orchestrator, you can expect more productivity and shorter SLA on process, both from the user side and from the Admin and Developer side.
To work with Orchestration, insert the record related to your orchestration object (the standard Orchestrator Work Guide component) into the Lightning App Builder.
The component will only display the screen flow related to the step for the assigned user. The next image shows an example:
Unassigned users will see as it follows:
Salesforce Flow Orchestrator Use Case Scenarios
Use case 1: Let’s take for example an HR company that uses cases for registering candidates for a position. You may use orchestration to collect feedback after the interview from the HR personnel, manager, and technical experts.
Use case 2: A business process to change an account address requires the support agent to open a case and receive approval from the direct manager and financial staff. After approval, the account and related case can be auto-updated.
Flow Orchestrator Current Limits and Pricing
Per the Salesforce website, its starting price is $1.40 per run, per organization.
Conclusion
It’s much easier to use Orchestration to automate a business process when you have a clear view of what you need, such as the flows required to complete each step and the users/groups involved.
While working with Salesforce Flow Orchestrator, keep in mind that it’s a user-centric solution to guide your steps and developments [1], so before building your Orchestration, plan it out by sketching the stages needed, and identifying the users related to each case. This will save you a lot of time reworking and improve the quality of your development.
Salesforce Flow Orchestrator FAQ
What is Salesforce Flow Orchestrator?
Salesforce Flow Orchestrator is an application that connects users and tasks and builds complex business processes.
Is Salesforce Flow Orchestrator free?
As of today, it costs $1.40 per run, per organization. We recommend you visit the official website for updated prices.
What is the difference between orchestrator and workflow?
Flow Orchestration's design is user-guided instead of record-centric.
What is the use case of Flow Orchestrator?
You can automate complex processes that involve many interrelated steps. It enables you to build sophisticated business processes in a systematic way to facilitate maintenance and future enhancements.
What are the benefits of Salesforce Flow Orchestrator?
- Create and organize complex business processes.
- Facilitate maintenance and future business processes enhancements.
- Aid multi users/areas, multiple times, and multi-steps business processes.
Can I use Salesforce Flow Orchestrator to automate processes outside of Salesforce?
You can connect some integrations with other systems, but they must be written in Salesforce.
Is Salesforce Flow Orchestrator available to all Salesforce users?
It is available to all users. Salesforce charges by orchestrator run, not by license per user, and permission is not required.
Is coding experience required to use Salesforce Flow Orchestrator?
You don't have to be knowledgeable to use Flow Orchestrator. It is similar to writing a Flow.
References:
- https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.orchestrator_vs_flow.htm&type=5
- https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.orchestrator_concepts_type.htm&type=5
- https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.orchestrator_considerations_limit.htm&type=5
- https://www.salesforce.com/form/platform/streamline-workflows-with-orchestrator/?d=cta-header-51
