Recently, Salesforce took over ‘Vlocity’. Vlocity consists of several components, i.e. CPQ, CLM and OM. Besides these business processes, Vlocity has a Data Integration Suite, which contains OmniScript (OS), Integration Procedure (IP) and DataRaptors. These data integration tools are now combined in a single new product: OmniStudio. In this blogpost, we’d like to clarify how OmniStudio relates to similar tools that Salesforce offers, such as Workflows and (Visual) Flows.
Salesforce
Salesforce offers multiple tools that might sounds familiar: Workflows, Process Builder and Flows. For now, let us focus on Flows, as this programme is slowly but surely replacing the other two.
With Salesforce (Visual) Flows, business processes can easily be implemented in Salesforce: the tool is suited especially for doing so without any programming knowledge. This way, one can build a process with Screen Flow in 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 the Salesforce database, objects and fields.
OmniStudio
This tool consists of three complementing tools: OmniScript (OS), Integration Procedure (IP) and DataRaptors. OmniScript is a programme in which visual processes can be build without any developing experience. It uses Integration Procedures to retrieve data from multiple locations: in turn, an IP uses a DataRaptor to have interactions (read, transform and save information) with the database and request data from external APIs / databases. It then sends this combined data back to OmniScript. Aditionally, Lightning Web Components (LWC) can be used here as well.
Comparing tools
Now that we’ve established what the different tools are used for, its helpful to shortly compare Flows with OmniStudio.
Wrapping up
In this blogpost, we have discussed multiple important differences between Salesforce Flows and OmniStudio. We recommend using OmniStudio for complex API calls; OmniStudio products are also much more eligible to use in combination with Vlocity (Salesforce Industries). So, if you already use Salesforce Industries, it makes more sense to use OmniStudio. Would you like to learn more about this tool? Trailhead offers excellent modules to this end.
If you have any other questions, contact us or take a look at our website.
