10 important things you need to know about Salesforce flows and OmniStudio

10 important things you need to know about Salesforce flows and OmniStudio

Several years ago, Salesforce acquired Vlocity, which is now recognized as Salesforce Industries. In this article, we clarify how OmniStudio is related to similar tools offered by Salesforce, such as Workflows and Flows. Vlocity consists of several modules, such as CPQ (Configure Price Quote), CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) and OM (Order Management). In addition to these business processes, Salesforce Industries offers OmniStudio, which includes OmniScript, Integration Procedure and DataRaptors. These data integration tools are now combined in a new product: OmniStudio.

Salesforce

Salesforce offers several tools that may look familiar to you: Workflows, Process Builder and Flows. Let's focus on Flows for now, as it will replace the other two tools.

With Salesforce Flows, business processes can be easily implemented in Salesforce: the tool is particularly suitable for applying low-code. This way, you can build a process with Screen Flow on the front end without writing a single line of code: back-end and database automation processes are just as easy to edit. Both OmniStudio and Visual Flows work well with Salesforce objects and fields.

OmniStudio

This tool consists of three complementary tools: OmniScript (OS), Integration Procedure (IP) and DataRaptors (DR). OmniScript is a solution in which visual processes can be built without any development experience. It uses Integration Procedures to retrieve data from multiple locations. In turn, an Integration Procedure uses DataRaptors to interact (read, transform and store information) with objects and retrieve data from external APIs/databases. It then sends this combined data back to OmniScript. In addition, Lightning Web Components (LWC) can also be used here.

Comparison of tools

Now that we have identified what the different tools are used for, let's compare Flows to OmniStudio.

Flows

1. The user interface can be edited with Screen Flows. However, you will need Lightning Web Components more often because the customization options are limited.

2. A record-activated flow is always associated with a database transaction, an operation, or the creation of a new record.

OmniScript

3. Works well with other Vlocity products such as Configure Price Quote and Contract Lifecycle Management.

4. Integration Procedures and DataRaptors are also easily combined with OmniScripts.

Integration Procedure

5. Can be associated with a process the user wants to perform. This is not strictly associated with a database transaction.

6. Very easy to combine with other Vlocity products such as CPQ and CLM.

7. Using Integration Procedures, you can make API calls. You can also combine this with Named Credentials.

8. Easy debugging and testing with the example function. Individual steps within the process can be previewed and debugged.

9. Options to work with high consumption of Salesforce limits, by implementing queueable and chainable features.

10. Integration Procedures can work with anything represented in JSON. XML can be converted to JSON using DataRaptors. Integration Procedure can also be called as an API.

Summary

In this article, we have discussed several key differences between Salesforce Flows and OmniStudio. We recommend using OmniStudio for complex API calls or data processing; OmniStudio products are also much more suitable to use with Vlocity (Salesforce Industries). So, if you're already using Salesforce Industries, it makes more sense to use OmniStudio. Want to know more about this tool? Trailhead offers excellent modules for this.

If you have any other questions, please contact us or follow our page here for weekly updates.

Theodore van Donge

Tech Lead

Theodoor van Donge works at CaseNine as a Tech lead. In this capacity he is responsible for several projects at customers. Theodoor not only deals with the actual development and implementation, but also advises customers in the areas of process and strategy.