What Is Process Builder In Salesforce?

Salesforce CRM has always been a go-to option for small, medium, and large enterprises when it comes to handling customer databases. Salesforce has been reducing the time and efforts of various sales teams of business organizations with its distinct services.

Salesforce development offers a high degree of customisation for every business organization. This helps you in getting the platform built and implemented to serve the specific needs and requirements of your business. All the major processes revolving around storing, assessing, segregating and analysing business data are carried by Salesforce in an efficient manner. As it provides you with valuable feedback, you can rely on the platform for making important decisions that would affect the functioning of your business.

One of the most important benefits implementing Salesforce in your organisation is the fact that it automates a lot of your business processes. There are multiple sets of data to be handles by a business organisation on a daily basis. You need to have data of current, previous and prospective customers. You need to have data of all the businesses having a vested interest in your company. You also need to match your business process to the database held by your business house.

Businesses organisations are getting more diversified with time. Global markets are opening several doors for businesses across the world. New markets are emerging that are conducive for businesses pertaining to all scales of operation. This has also resulted in an increase in the number of customers being handled by an organisation, along with their demands being more personalised. Along with this influx, technological advancements are also being made in all sectors of the industry at an astonishing rate.

Owing to this business diversification and technological advancements, it is nearly impossible for a business to employ traditional methods of managing CRM. You need sufficient automation in carrying out your business processes, which are efficiently provided by the platform of Salesforce CRM. A variety of Salesforce tools are dedicated to helping your sales team in getting work done faster.

Salesforce Support, Consultants, and Operators are all masters of designing and implementing automation tools and platforms pertaining to Salesforce CRM. If you are willing to make a career revolving around Salesforce (especially Salesforce Developer) and aspire to become a Salesforce professional, it is mandatory to be well-versed with the platform of Process Builder in Salesforce.

Also, Read : The Power of Salesforce Consulting Services

What is Process Builder in Salesforce?

As mentioned earlier, a major benefit of Salesforce is the fact that it provides the client organisations with high degree of automation. Process Builder in Salesforce is a tool that helps you carry out this automation. It is used by Salesforce Developers for automating specific business processes, such as email alerts, record updates or any other task they want to assign according to the client requirements.

Process Builder is essentially an extension of Salesforce workflow rules having multiple features. Using this tool, you can create an entire process on a single platform as opposed to using different workflow rules. The interface of Process Builder Salesforce is based on a point and click interface. It uses a Salesforce object (custom or standard) with a related action that results in the automation of a business process without the developer having to use any line of coding.

Process Builder is also a tool that helps you in controlling the order in which you want specific actions to be performed or in evaluating the criteria for a record. Here are some of the major actions associated with the interface of Process Builder:

1. Creation of Records – This action is dedicated to creating specific Salesforce records and adding necessary fields to the same.

2. Updating Records – This is the record that helps you in updating the records you created, either by entering the records manually or by utilising information from related records.

3. Chatter Posting – This action facilitates the users in posting on the interactive platform of Salesforce Chatter for the purpose of sharing necessary information.

4. Quick Action – This action helps you in using global objects or actions present within the platform of Salesforce for necessary records.

5. Launching The Flow – This action is dedicated to launching or triggering a flow from your process for automating multiple processes.

6. Submission of Records for Approval – This action allows you in automatically submitting the record that started a process, and no other record.

7. Triggering Apex Code – This action helps you in calling or invoking an Apex code already entered into the platform of Salesforce.

8. Invoking Other Process – This action will help you in invoking one process to another.

There are three major types of automation processes that are supported by the platform of Process Builder Salesforce:

1. Once a record is created or updated, it would start a change in the concerned record.

2. Once an event message is received, it would start with an event process.

3. If a different process requests for an invocable process, the same would start immediately.

Components of Process Builder

In order to automate a business process, there are three major components a developer needs to deal with – a trigger, a criteria node (at least one) and an action (at least one). Developers can choose to schedule necessary actions to be performed at a specific time or to configure actions immediately. Here are the three components explained briefly:

Trigger

This Process Builder component helps you identify the time when a process should be run by the user. In case of processes undertaken for changing records, the trigger would ascertain the object and changes the concerned process should deal with.

Criteria

This component of Process Builder helps you in ascertaining whether you should be executing specific actions or not. Developers have an option of adding multiple criteria nodes as a process gets one trigger. Every node controls whether specific actions should be executed by a process.

In case the record fails to meet the necessary criteria, the process would automatically skip the concerned action and would move on to the next criteria node. Every criteria node allows a developer to set relevant filter conditions, enter necessary custom formula (which must result in true or false) and to opt out of the concerned criteria and execute specific actions associated with the same.

Actions

This is the Process Builder component that involves specific actions that are executed once a criteria node evaluates an action to true. Developers also have an option to schedule certain actions to be executed at the desired time.

An immediate action is executed the moment criteria evaluated to true, while a scheduled action is executed at a specific time. When the scheduled time arrives, Salesforce will make sure that the concerned criteria node evaluates to true for the action to be executed.

Here are two major aspects based on which you can schedule your actions:

1. Specific date or time field on the record used to start the concerned process.

2. The time period for which a process runs on the platform.

Developers can execute process actions for the following purposes:

1. Creating specific records

2. Updating the record used to start the concerned process

3. Submitting the concerned record for approval

4. Sending specific emails using relevant email template

5. Posting information on the feed of Salesforce Chatter

Benefits of Using Process Builder

Developers can use the platform of Process Builder in Salesforce to ease the complicated business processes that would otherwise take considerable time by the sales team to undertake. Here are some of the major benefits of using Process Builder in your organisation:

1. Process Builder is fairly simple to use and easy to understand. The visual breakdown it provides to the users allows them to know exactly what a specific situation required by a mere glance.

2. Using the platform of Process Builder can result in the applications being created and implemented three times the normal speed.

3. Process Builder can cut the cost of undertaking business processes to half.

4. The platform can combine varied workflows in one single process and form an efficient chain of criteria.

5. Process Builder can be used to notify the users in real time regarding Chatter updates and email alerts.

6. The platform of Process Builder can be efficiently used in updating child records.

7. The platform would allow the users to associate varied actions with every criterion.

8. Process builder can be used for accessing and replacing Apex codes and simple tasks.

Creating a Process Using Process Builder

You can follow the steps mentioned here to effectively create processes using Process Builder in Salesforce:

1. Firstly, click on the option of “New” in order to create a fresh process.

2. Select the ideal process value and save the same.

3. Add the object you want for the concerned process.

4. Add the necessary criteria you need for your process.

5. Set the condition you consider to be ideal for your process.

6. If required, schedule necessary actions having specific time and dates, completing the process.