Today we’re excited to announce the acquisition of one of our most popular Power-Ups, Butler for Trello. With this acquisition, Trello users will have the ability to work smarter and faster by bringing the power of workplace automation to their Trello boards.
With tools like iOS Shortcuts, Zapier, and personal assistants such as Alexa and Siri, many people have experienced the value of freeing themselves up from the repetitive, mundane tasks of day to day life. They can easily ask Alexa to do a complex task in plain English like “Alexa, add eggs and milk to my shopping list every other Wednesday.” However, in the workplace, those same benefits have been traditionally reserved for technical folks because of the complexity associated with automating processes, namely writing code.
Set up one button to perform lots of actions automatically. "Next Steps" kicks off a series of steps to keep your workflow going.
Why shouldn’t we expect our workplace tools to be just as smart and easy to use as Alexa? We believe we should, and with Butler’s acquisition, Trello will be the only tool of its kind to have native automation capabilities. That means you don’t have to install any 3rd party tools or integrations to get the benefits of automation for your team.
Over the years, teams have discovered that by automating processes on Trello boards with the Butler Power-Up, they could spend more time on important tasks and be more productive. Butler helps teams codify business rules and processes, taking something that might take ten steps to accomplish and automating it into one click.
Trello cards can automatically move from “To Do” to “Doing” based on upcoming due dates, or cards can automatically be assigned to teammates once they get put into the “Doing” list, all made possible through simple words and sentences turned into customizable Butler commands.
Anyone can write rules for their Trello boards using words and logic—no code required.
Once you give Butler a try, it’s hard not to get excited about all the commands and shortcuts you can incorporate into your boards. It may seem like magic, but it’s really just unleashing the power of automation.
In the coming months, we’ll be working to integrate Butler into Trello. New users won’t be able to give Butler a try until the integration is complete. Stay tuned: We’ll let you know as soon as it’s live. Butler will be available to all Trello users, and Business Class and Enterprise customers can expect more advanced capabilities and higher usage thresholds.
Butler’s rule automations can turn a basic “drag and drop” into a powerful “drag, drop, mark due date as complete, check all checklist items, remove card members, and more” without you having to lift a finger.
We’re also super excited to welcome the creator of Butler, Oscar Triscon, into the Trello family. Oscar created Butler when he noticed himself doing the same things on his Trello boards every day. As a developer, he realized he could write a Power-Up to automate a lot of the repeatable tasks. As an entrepreneur, he realized millions of Trello users may have the same problem, and voila, Butler was created. Since its founding in 2016, Butler has serviced tens of thousands of customers all around the world.
Working more efficiently has become a necessary skill with the constant demands on time in the modern workplace. That’s where Trello comes in, and that’s why we’re investing in bringing the power of automation to everyone. Butler is Trello's first step down this road, enabling every user to automate pieces of their Trello workflow to save time, stay organized, and get more done.
Good or bad, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Find us on Twitter (@trello)!
