What is Orchestration Flow in Salesforce? Detailed Guide

What is Orchestration Flow in Salesforce? Detailed Guide

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Flow Orchestrator is a Salesforce tool that assists users in visually designing and automating complex business procedures including user interactions, data manipulation, and system integrations.

Are you still confused?

Don’t worry. We’ve created this detailed guide on Orchestration Flow in Salesforce to give you a clearer idea. In this guide, we’ll deeply explain Salesforce Orchestration Flow, its types, fundamental components, benefits, and more. So, let’s begin!

Overview: ‘Orchestration Flow in Salesforce’

Orchestration Flow in Salesforce is a new feature that lets admins connect several flows and business processes across multiple users. You don't need to recreate your existing flows to use this new feature. It is designed to work smoothly with your current flows, making incorporating them into any new orchestration easy.

According to Salesforce, the Flow Orchestrator is defined as “A tool for orchestrating complex flows that involve multiple users, steps, and stages.” This means admins can create a sequence of automations that may require different people to take action at various points.

Type of Flow Orchestration in Salesforce

Flow Orchestration in Salesforce contains the following types:

1. Autolaunched Orchestration (No Trigger)

• External events initiate Autolaunched Orchestration.

• It can be triggered by various methods such as REST API, Apex, and Processes.

• Unlike some processes, it isn’t tied to specific record modifications.

2. Record-Triggered Orchestration:

• Record-triggered orchestration is triggered when specified types of records are updated or created. 

• It responds to modifications in data within the system.

• This type of orchestration can perform actions like updates, notifications, approvals, etc.

How can I Access Flow Orchestrator in Salesforce?

To access a new Flow Orchestration in Salesforce, follow the steps below:

1. First, head toward the gear icon available on the home page.

2. Here, click on the “setup” option and type flow in the “Quick Find” box. Then select the “Flows” option.

3. Now, go to the “All + Templates” section available on the New Flow page.

4. In this section, you will see a “Flow Orchestrator” section, click on it. 

5. There are two types of Orchestrator within this “Flow Orchestrator” section:

• Record-Triggered Orchestration 

• Auto-launched Orchestration  Select the preferred one and you are ready to launch a new Flow Orchestration.

When is the best time to use flow orchestration?

Flow Orchestration is best used for creating advanced approval processes, group task lists, or any other procedures that involve multiple interconnected steps. 

For example: consider the scenario of employee onboarding, where a new employee has to go through a multi-user, multi-level, multi-system approval procedure to get access and equipment to digital company resources. Flow Orchestration can be used to design and manage this complex process, providing a smooth onboarding experience for every new employee.

Key Concepts:

1. Flow Builder for Flow Orchestration: Understand the requirements and user interface of Flow Builder for creating orchestrations.

2. Flow Orchestration Concepts: Learn about the components of an orchestration (what an orchestration is made of) and how they relate to flows.

3. Building an Orchestration: Use Flow Orchestration to create sophisticated business procedures by coordinating and combining flows.

4. Deploying an Orchestration: Once your orchestration is designed and tested, it is time to deploy it!

5. Orchestration Run: Each running instance of an orchestration creates an orchestration run.

6. Managing Orchestrations & Work Items: Manage your orchestrations and work items through list views. Stop running orchestrations and reassign tasks that have been assigned, but are incomplete.

7. Troubleshooting Orchestrations: Use the orchestration fault email to troubleshoot failed orchestration runs. Use the debug option to test and observe orchestration behavior.

8. Limits and Considerations of  Flow Orchestration: Consider different issues when managing, designing, and running orchestrations.

9.  Flow Orchestration Entitlements: Flow Orchestration contains usage-based entitlements, where an orchestration run represents an orchestration’s running instance.

10. Reference Materials: Bookmark the Flow Orchestration Reference pages for fast access to information or details about orchestration resources, elements, events, etc.

Fundamental Components of Flow Orchestration

A flow orchestration is a Salesforce application created by your admin. It uses stages, steps, and flows to keep everything in order. Let’s have a look! 

Stages:

In stages, connected actions are organized into logical phases. These stages are executed sequentially, one at a time, and they ensure that the process moves in a well-defined order. The completion of a stage is determined by specific conditions, which must be met before the next stage can commence. This logical sequencing helps maintain clarity in the orchestration process and ensures that all necessary actions are completed before moving forward.

Steps:

Steps are grouped within stages and can be executed either sequentially or concurrently, depending on the task's requirements. Steps can be interactive, requiring user participation to progress, or they can be background processes that run automatically without any user engagement. 

Flows:

Flows are crucial for the functionality of each step within the orchestration. Interactive steps rely on screen flows, which guide users through the necessary actions and ensure that all required information is collected and processed. On the other hand, background steps utilize auto-launched flows, which run automatically and handle tasks behind the scenes. Additionally, evaluation flows play a vital role in initiating steps or marking the completion of interactive steps.

Advantages of Using Salesforce Flow Orchestration

Using Salesforce Flow Orchestration has the following advantages:

1. Improve Efficiency and Productivity: 

The time duration between notifications and tasks is reduced through parallel work streams. By automating task assignments, the right users receive requests promptly, allowing them to perform and track their work efficiently.

2. Reduce Errors and Save Time: 

Users can complete their tasks without switching between different tools, minimizing the risk of errors or missing data.

3. Enhanced Customer and Employee Satisfaction: 

Monitoring tools enable your team to solve problems proactively. This provides the visibility needed for quick and effective action, improving overall satisfaction.

Wrap Up

Flow Orchestrator lets you continuously monitor and improve your orchestrations. With its no-code approach, you can turn Flows into structured steps organized by stages. Moreover, this helps simplify and optimize repeatable processes, making it easier for data teams to handle complex tasks and workflows efficiently.

Check out our other articles: What is Auto-launched Flow in Salesforce  OR  What is Screen Flow in Salesforce