Slack moves to expand in-app workflow automation

Slack may best be known simply as a tool for group messaging, but for many users, the ability to connect apps and automate actions is central to its appeal.

With that in mind, the company announced a redesign of its workflow engine today designed to make automation more accessible to more users. The changes have been announced at Slack’s Frontiers event.

The updates are intended to expand existing capabilities that allow developers to customize apps and automate in-app workflows. This includes the Slack Platform APIs for developers and Workflow Builder, a codeless platform released two years ago allows non-technical users to create their own automation.

It’s an important focus for Slack, which says more than 400,000 users have created workflows since the introduction of Workflow Builder, created after the acquisition of Missions, a startup specializing in the field in 2018. Last year, Slack added the ability to include third-party in-app actions in the workflow with the implementation of “app steps.”

The latest updates – due out in 2022 – expand on ambitions to help users customize the software to meet their individual needs.

“What we’ve always wanted is to give people equivalent Lego blocks that they can put together, because there are so many common actions,” Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said in a briefing. pre-recorded, while asserting that automation can bridge the gap between records systems and workers in business roles without requiring developers. “If you’re a salesperson or an HR benefits administrator, you have a much better idea of ​​where conflicts are occurring and the pitfalls and challenges of how you use the software.”

Slack users and developers can create workflows using “blocks” – essentially, pieces of code that trigger actions in Slack, such as creating a new channel or starting interactions between teams. Third-party applications – which can then be combined into larger blocks for multiple -workflows.

One important change is that these blocks can also be shared with other Slack users by sending a link. The recipient can then edit or “remix” the automation to fit their needs, such as adding or subtracting steps. Changes need to be made in Workflow Builder.

Slack

These updates will give users a more automated approach to workflows than is possible with Workflow Builder, said Steve Wood, vice president of product for the Slack developer platform. job. Instead of installing an app and having it show up as a slash command, for example, the new workflow tools “give you a library of these blocks, so you have more in your arsenal.” to automate the work,” he said.

“To have a digital headquarters, you need to customize your space the way you would with your office environment: we made the workflow tool the foundation,” says Wood. for you to customize Slack.

The enhancements to Workflow Builder themselves include a new drag-and-drop interface and the addition of conditional logic that allows users to structure workflows around if/then statements.

Slack says it’s also possible to connect multiple apps in one workflow, with information automatically updated across separate apps – allowing for more complex workflows. For example, an incident response message from PagerDuty could trigger the creation of an issue in Jira, while a more severe issue could also open a new team channel in Slack to coordinate responses.

According to Wayne Kurtzman, research director at IDC, while channel-based messaging alone can improve communication, integration with third-party tools is also important. He quoted a recent IDC survey that effectively integrating external applications into collaborative software tools can lead to 77% faster project completion times.

“Slack is always looking to be 2% of the IT budget making the other 98% more valuable,” says Kurtzman. He describes Slack’s new building block approach as “an easy-to-understand metaphor with serious potential to improve the way individuals work – even without any coding experience. ”

Angela Ashenden, principal analyst at CCS Insight, said the changes to the platform are likely to widen the appeal of Slack’s automation capabilities to non-technical users.

“Simplicity and reusability are really key, especially for organizations that are newer to automation and building apps in Slack, because you need to realize that people don’t want reinvent the wheel every time,” she said.

The latest moves also make sense for Slack, Ashenden said, as it continues to compete with Microsoft Teams by strengthening its existing strengths as an integration and automation platform.

“It has always been a challenge for Slack in terms of how they differentiate themselves from Teams, so this ‘hub’ ability to automate and focus on work instead of just chatting is increasingly important. It’s an important area where they invest for obvious reasons,” she said.

At Frontiers, Slack also announced new developer tools, including a command line interface, software development kit, and the ability to store data on Slack’s infrastructure to simplify building Build apps on the platform.

Other updates include expanding the number of external users who can access Slack Connect sharing channels. Slack Connect launched testing last year, which simplifies communication with external partners via direct messaging and sharing channels without requiring a guest account. Next year, the limit on how many organizations can share a channel will be increased from 20 to 250.