#AutomationMonth … Could We Make It Into an Annual Thing?

Mark Jones
Ragamuffin Admin
Published in
4 min readNov 9, 2022

November’s Been Dubbed Automation Month … Should It Stay After ‘22?

Photo by Nelly Antoniadou on Unsplash

I love automation! That certainly isn’t an understatement. A huge amount of my time in and outside of work is devoted to Flow. I regularly build Flow in my job, I also regularly create and deliver content on Flow. So I was beyond excited when I saw 9 days ago that Christie Fidura at Salesforce had deemed November as #AutomationMonth. Simply amazing isn’t it?

As the days have gotten closer to Automation Dreamin’ which kicks off tomorrow, I’ve been wondering if #AutomationMonth could (or should become) an annual tradition. I think it possibly should. So in this post, I’m going to share a bit about what is making November #AutomationMonth and why it could work as an annual tradition from a strategic standpoint.

What’s Happening in #AutomationMonth?

We couldn’t quite make it a hashtag could we if there wasn’t stuff going on to make it a hashtag could we? This month there is a number of different things happening to make #AutomationMonth a thing at least for this year.

Here are just some of the events taking place this month on automation:

That’s just the sessions that I know of and can list. There’s probably more! In fact I know that there is as my series, Build It In Flow continues and concludes in the month of November. But does sessions alone make the case for #AutomationMonth being an annual tradition going forward?

Well, in part, yes. Let’s move on and I’ll go into my case for all this.

Why Should #AutomationMonth Be a Thing?

While I’m not saying this as if to make it gospel, I do think it actually makes a lot of sense to actually make #AutomationMonth a thing in years going forward … and I do think it could make sense to do it November. I have three lines of reasoning as to why this makes sense. Let’s get into them.

Salesforce Admins Need Help to Learn Flow Ahead of 2025

As you will most likely know, the currently proposed date for the end of life of Workflow Rules and Process Builder is sometime in 2025. Granted, that date might change, but the fact that we even have a proposed date out there means that Admins need opportunities to learn Flow ahead of that date.

There’s numerous ways this can be done for sure, but having a dedicated period of time that a campaign can be built around to signpost people to resources and learning about automation. Having a designated period of time when the campaign runs will in the long term make it easier for people to find that content and engage with it. It makes sense from a user stand point for sure. Well, at least I think so anyway. So why not do it?

Content on Process Automation Has Never Been More in Demand

Following my previous point, it’s not only that Admins need to help learn Flow, it’s that for many … they want to learn it as well. So why not lean into that and provide content to help them learn more about automation. This is a simple and easy win for Salesforce, so again why not lean into this. This could also easily be used as a means of sharing easy wins for Salesforce as they approach the end of their fiscal year in January. Adding a month in the calendar towards the end of the year can really positively increase the impact made in this area as the financial year begins to come to a close.

The Timing Fits Within the Salesforce Annual Calendar

November also makes sense for #AutomationMonth when looking at the traditional Salesforce calendar. November is two months after Dreamforce takes place and a month after the seasonal Winter release finishes rolling out across orgs. The Winter release often sees some of the biggest and best updates being rolled out. And when it comes to Dreamforce, we know that Dreamforce is Salesforce’s biggest annual event, it has a far bigger reach than TDX, Connections, Frontiers, World Tour and every other event that Salesforce run each year. This means that intrigue and awareness of the biggest updates to Salesforce are at its peak in and around this time. So why not capitalise on that by again picking up on a key learning area in months that follow it. This is why Salesforce.org do their week of learning the week after Dreamforce, it capitalises on that interest in what Salesforce is doing.

Closing Remarks

This was a brief blog, but this was my thoughts on the matter of making #AutomationMonth an annual thing. What do you think? Should we see this become an annual thing at least for a little while? Is it even needed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on social media.

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Mark Jones
Ragamuffin Admin

Mark is a Salesforce Consultant at Cloud Galacticos. With over 5 years experience as a Nonprofit Salesforce Admin, Mark is a Trailblazer who loves to give back.