Remembering Past
Last 20+ years of my It career, I have been witnessing several evolutions. There was a time when we were seeing innovation effort in developing new programming languages. Started my career with C++ where I was writing thousands line of code and then explored several new languages like C#, Java, Python, Node etc…
Learning new languages used to be passion for most of the IT developers and mastering a new language used to be key to success. Then we started seeing trend of package applications and then cloud based application (Platform as a service, Software as a service etc…)
10 years ago, a typical Salesforce engagement normally used to start with assumption of 80% configuration and 20% customization (development or coding). Most of the complex projects used to end with 40% to 50% of customizations. I worked on several engagements where customizations were more than 50%. And this was the reason, we were expecting every developer to know APEX, Visualforce, Aura, LWC etc…
Evaluating Present
Well, things have been changing in last 10-15 years. Thanks to Salesforce product engineering & innovation team. It is result of hard work and long-term vision of Salesforce innovation team that we have a CRM system that stands out on principal of Low-code / No-code.
You do not need to write any code for most of the business use cases. Some use cases still require writing APEX but that is going to be minimal. We do not need APEX to do automation or configuring integration. Most of these can be done using configuration tools.
Last one years, I see most of the engagement starts with principal of No-code & Low-code. Client is also insisting to use tools like Salesforce Lightning Flow, OmniStudio etc.. to avoid APEX coding. Client is more inclined towards partners who can deliver a great solution with no-code / low-code.
These are some of the Salesforce productivity tools available today and that you should evaluate before writing APEX code. These configuration tools can be used to avoid APEX coding. These lists are growing in every release so keep a watch on every release note as you would find something new that would help you avoiding coding.
| Salesforce Configuration Tools | Use Cases |
|---|---|
| Salesforce Screen Flow & OmniScript | Guided Process, Custom User Interface |
| Salesforce Flows (Record Triggered Flow, Auto-launched Flow, Platform Event Triggered Flow etc.) | Automations |
| OmniStudio Modules like Flex Card, DataRaptor, Integration Procedure, OmniScript | Custom User Interface. designing complex guided process, Industry solutions etc. |
| Platform Events, Change Data Capture, Event Relays, OmniStudio Integration Procedure | No Code Integration |
Predicting Future
Do not get confused here. I am not going to predict future by seeing cards but yes, I can predict it based on my experience and the vision Salesforce has been presenting during different events.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be next big thing in evolution of Salesforce CRM (actually most of the IT fields). I am excited to see a new era of CRM that is not very far. I would not be surprised if in next 20 years we just need someone (most likely client) to define the requirements and AI is going to configure the entire application from definition. This may result in complete shift of IT jobs.
This is the time to up-scale your skills if you are looking for an IT career after 10 years. Do not stop learning and be part of innovation and challenge the status quo. AI may take-over several IT jobs but at the same time it is going to bring many more new jobs.