Salesforce has introduced a new toolkit that allows developers to build custom Slack applications.
The new tool, Salesforce Platform for Slack, will allow over 11 million Salesforce developers to pull functionalities, including automations, directly from Salesforce into the popular collaboration software.
Salesforce Platform for Slack was announced at Salesforce’s developer conference in San Francisco, TrailblazerDX. The news comes after the CRM giant finalized its acquisition of Slack for around $27.7 billion in July 2021.
Good news, Salesforce developers
Salesforce claims this new tool will expand the number of developers who can build Slack apps and workflows across Salesforce and Slack, by allowing them to use the coding languages and tools they are already familiar with.
The move could be a welcome one, as research suggests that an increased focus on productivity tools by SMBs could save them billions every year.
The move also includes updates to Salesforce Flow for Slack, which the company says will enable developers to build Slack-first automations with support for Salesforce data and actions using low code.
The announcement also includes updates to Apex SDK for Slack, which allows developers to build for Slack in Salesforce's Apex language, and to automatically generate user interface framework Block Kit.
There are also multiple Salesforce for Slack apps launching into beta, including Sales Cloud for Slack, which automates deal status updates for sales teams, helps to locate records in Salesforce for pipeline analytics, and enables collaboration across teams.
Another app, Service Cloud for Slack, assigns service cases to team members as they come in, allowing teams to bring in experts to solve customer cases. And finally, Marketing Cloud for Slack will enable teams to collaborate and execute marketing campaigns.
Flow in Slack is expected to be available in beta in June 2022 and become generally available in October 2022, while Apex SDK for Slack is expected to be available in pilot in June 2022 and be generally available in February 2023.
Sales Cloud for Slack, Service Cloud for Slack and Marketing Cloud for Slack are now in beta and are expected to become generally available in June 2022.
In any case, it seems that workplace communication tools like Slack are likely to be a common fixture of workplaces for a long time.
Only a third of knowledge workers have reverted to working from the office full-time, and most of these workers are returning reluctantly, with 55% saying they would prefer to work flexibly at least part time.
