Definition
Digital Process Automation is Salesforce's comprehensive term for the suite of automation capabilities including Flow, Process Builder, Workflow Rules, and Approval Processes. It encompasses tools for automating business logic, approvals, and user interactions to reduce manual work.
Real-World Example
Consider a scenario where the Salesforce admin at FreshStart Inc. is working with Digital Process Automation to automate a multi-step process that previously required three different people to complete manually. Digital Process Automation now handles the entire sequence in seconds, sending notifications at each step and logging every action for audit purposes.
Why Digital Process Automation Matters
Digital Process Automation is Salesforce's comprehensive term for the suite of automation capabilities used to replace manual work with automated processes. The category includes Flow (the modern, recommended automation tool), Process Builder (being phased out in favor of Flow), Workflow Rules (the original automation tool, also being phased out), and Approval Processes (for routing approval requests). Together, these tools automate everything from simple field updates to complex multi-step processes spanning multiple objects.
Salesforce's automation strategy is consolidating around Flow as the single declarative automation tool. Both Workflow Rules and Process Builder are deprecated, with Salesforce recommending migration to Flow for any new automation. Flow supports the full range of automation needs: record-triggered flows (replacing Workflow Rules and Process Builder), screen flows (for guided user interactions), scheduled flows (for time-based automation), and platform event flows (for event-driven automation). Building automation expertise on Flow specifically is the right investment for any modern Salesforce team.
How Organizations Use Digital Process Automation
- •Cobalt Ventures — Migrated all their Workflow Rules and Process Builder processes to Flow as part of a modernization project. The consolidated automation is easier to maintain and unlocks Flow's richer capabilities.
- •NovaScale — Standardized on Flow as their automation tool for any new work, even when a Workflow Rule could technically handle the use case. The consistency pays off in maintainability.
- •Vertex Global — Built a Center of Excellence around Flow training, recognizing that automation expertise on a single modern tool is more valuable than fragmented knowledge across multiple legacy tools.