Workplace collaboration and communication platform Slack is revamping itself to easily streamline workflow automation and integration with building blocks, a new tool that developers can use to build and string together pre-packaged arrangements workflows. According to Steve Wood, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Slack, the platform had to be largely redesigned to accommodate the new reusable blocks, which empower the user in ways previously only available to developers. The company hopes the overhauled system will allow users to link together apps and workflows, improving communication while creating a more customizable and useful platform.
Slack, which is owned by Salesforce, made the announcement at its annual Frontiers flagship conference, which was held virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions. The new approach is driven by users’ needs and aims to prevent “context switching,” or flipping back and forth between apps. The capabilities are designed to accelerate the app and workflow creation process in addition to making workflow building easy for non-developer users. The rebuilding of the Slack platform is illustrative of how Salesforce is increasingly competing with ServiceNow for workflow automation domination and task streamlining superiority.
