WillowTree’s Favorites from Dreamforce 2021

Image courtesy of Salesforce.

Here at WillowTree, we are always excited by the annual Salesforce Dreamforce conference to see what cool new features are headed our way. Now that Dreamforce 2021 is in our rearview mirror, here are 3 of our favorites that we can’t wait to use on our projects!

Slack Integration

Like many companies these days, WillowTree depends on Slack more and more. So anything that makes Slack even more useful always gets our attention. After Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack this July, it was no surprise that Slack integration was a big focus of Dreamforce, and they are wasting no time building super useful tools to marry the platforms.

One awesome example they demonstrated was Lead Pass on Slack. This feature builds on the existing Slack Midas Signals bot to automatically notify an account executive in Slack to complete a Lead that is submitted in Salesforce and allows them to provide all the information needed to qualify the Lead. Once the account executive qualifies the Lead and converts it to an Opportunity through the Slack interface, the Midas bot creates a new shared channel that includes the account executive and any other relevant users to collaborate on the newly created Opportunity. Salesforce believes this feature will save thousands of hours that would otherwise be spent tracking down newly created Leads and getting all of the relevant contacts for an Opportunity together. With cool features like this completed in such a short time after the acquisition of Slack, there is huge potential for more features that improve the customer experience as the platforms grow together. 

MuleSoft

There were some great MuleSoft announcements this year at Dreamforce, such as MuleSoft Composer for Salesforce and MuleSoft Robotic Process Automation (RPA). 

MuleSoft Composer is a terrific addition to the Salesforce/MuleSoft ecosystem because it gives business users the tools to unlock data and automate processes across workflows, by themselves, without having to wait for development resources. Business users can create these connections quickly and easily using clicks, not code, right within Salesforce. There are over a dozen pre-built connectors available right now, and additional connectors are rolling out monthly.

Coming out of their acquisition of Servicetrace, Salesforce announced the new MuleSoft RPA tool. With the MuleSoft RPA tool, users can create reusable bots that automate repetitive, manual tasks. These bots can automate any system, even legacy systems that don’t have APIs. When released, RPA bots can be used right within the new MuleSoft Composer, making it an even more powerful tool.

Being able to adapt to rapid changes in business requirements has become increasingly important, and the MuleSoft announcements at Dreamforce emphasized their commitment to this need. These enhancements empower business users who are on the front line and give them the tools needed to build connections and automations quickly.

DevOps Center

DevOps Center was on display again at this year's Dreamforce, and the more we learn about it, the more excited we are to try it. Currently, change management can be a bit cumbersome, especially for non-developers who would have to learn the Salesforce CLI and Git in order to maximize the power of SFDX. To modernize and maintain their preference of clicks over code when possible, Salesforce has developed the DevOps Center to bridge together:

• Ticket/issue-tracking
• Code changes
• Changes made through clicks
• Change-request approvals
  
• Deployment pipeline

This improvement reduces the need to know the inner workings of the tools used to make a full CI/CD pipeline possible. DevOps Center provides a single location to view the progress of a change, including detailed logs, and promote the change through each environment all the way up to production.

These are just a few of the many great things to come out of Dreamforce 2021, and we can’t wait to see everyone in person at Dreamforce 2022!

To learn more about the great new capabilities unveiled this year, or to discuss your Salesforce Roadmap & Initiatives with our Salesforce team - Let’s Connect.