Why do we need workflow softwares like Salesforce?

2•abhishek203r•7mo ago

Why can't we replace workflow softwares with ChatUI + MCPs + Process rules(what steps the agent should take) + Database.

What is stopping us from doing this today?

Comments

bigfatkitten•7mo ago

Same thing that stopped you writing it yourself in Django at any other time in the last 20 years.

gobins•7mo ago

Most companies want to see outcomes quickly. They will always go for tried and tested solutions. Why would they risk building something on their own? There will be a threshold where companies are too small and the software is too expensive to buy, so they will go for something small that they build themselves. At scale, it will get harder and harder to maintain the solution themselves and they'd rather spend time focussing on their core business than to maintaining their in-house software.

abhishek203r•7mo ago

we don't need to build from scratch right? What is stopping anthropic from saying Dont use tools like Salesforce anymore - where you have to pay for licence and consultants.

Instead use Claude + MCPs + some database and manage all your workflows

physicsguy•7mo ago

People aren't going to be replacing Salesforce and SAP with this, they'll just use the Chat interface built into these products.

Don't forget too that a large part of what these products do is give auditing and compliance data...

GianFabien•7mo ago

You don't. But the management has been sold by the smooth fast talking salespeople. Then come the consultants to do the bespoke customization.

abhishek203r•7mo ago

Wont the whole consultant mess go off if we completely switch away from workflow softwares

GianFabien•7mo ago

Unfortunately NO. Consultants own management's thought processes.

If you look at IT history, it goes something like:

    $ -> COBOL & mainframes -> RPG & minicomputers -> RDBMS (DB2, Oracle, Ingress, etc)
    -> ERP (SAP, PeopleSoft, etc) -> CRM (Salesforce, etc) -> ... AI/LLM/ML -> $$$$ -> ?

bigfatkitten•7mo ago

At a bank or a large telco, this is not a chronology; these are layers in the stack.

The billing system still runs on the mainframe. There’s still a service provisioning system bolted onto the ERP. CRM is how the sales and customer support teams interact with those backend systems, and now there’s chatbots (some of which are LLM powered) on top of the CRM handing some routine customer interactions.

abhishek203r•6mo ago

This is quite insightful

Make Trust Irrelevant: A Gamer's Take on Agentic AI Safety

Show HN: Sem – Semantic diffs and patches for Git

Hello world does not compile

Show HN: ZigZag – A Bubble Tea-Inspired TUI Framework for Zig

Metaphor+Metonymy: "To love that well which thou must leave ere long"(Sonnet73)

Show HN: Django N+1 Queries Checker

Emacs-tramp-RPC: High-performance TRAMP back end using JSON-RPC instead of shell

Protocol Validation with Affine MPST in Rust

Female Asian Elephant Calf Born at the Smithsonian National Zoo

Show HN: Zest – A hands-on simulator for Staff+ system design scenarios

Show HN: DeSync – Decentralized Economic Realm with Blockchain-Based Governance

Automatic Programming Returns

Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation [pdf]

The Search Engine Map

Show HN: Souls.directory – SOUL.md templates for AI agent personalities

Real-Time ETL for Enterprise-Grade Data Integration

Economics Puzzle Leads to a New Understanding of a Fundamental Law of Physics

Switzerland's Extraordinary Medieval Library

A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight?

ESR: Comes the news that Anthropic has vibecoded a C compiler

Frisco residents divided over H-1B visas, 'Indian takeover' at council meeting

If CNN Covered Star Wars

Show HN: I built the first tool to configure VPSs without commands

AI agents from 4 labs predicting the Super Bowl via prediction market

EU bans infinite scroll and autoplay in TikTok case

Benchmarking how well LLMs can play FizzBuzz

Why I Joined OpenAI

Octave GTM MCP Server

Show HN: Portview what's on your ports (diagnostic-first, single binary, Linux)

Voyager CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved