devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Author: Ari Leeds

  • Salesforce Winter Release: What you Need to Know

    Salesforce Winter Release: What you Need to Know

    With the Salesforce Winter release dates behind us, it’s time to evaluate all of the new innovations added to your Salesforce ecosystem. Let’s just say that many users will be excited about the features added to this release cycle; plus, there were many anticipated updates that have finally come to fruition.

    Let’s dive right in and get to the meat of the release that will appease the administrator community, automate internal processes and close many operation gaps, and promote more team collaborations for you and your clients.

    Search Capabilities and Admin Processes

    These updates make an admin’s day-to-day work more streamlined, automated and convenient when it comes to getting things done.

    ● Configure Searchable Objects: This update allows admins to determine searchable objects available by Profile. This will allow users to broaden their search capabilities of records and more quickly and easily find what they need. For example, you can search for a picklist value and see all the records with that chosen value. Users, especially those in larger organizations, have been wanting this as it will streamline their process for customers. *This is in beta.
    ● Refine Your Search Results With Sort: Another win in the Search department – now you can sort your searches by different attributes and column headers. A nice “sigh of relief” feature for users, allowing them to find what they need faster. *Created because of users’ input on IdeaExchange.
    ● Dynamic Forms on Standard Objects: Administrators will very much appreciate this update as it streamlines the admin process with enhanced page performance and optional visibility rules. This will be rolled out everywhere except in three areas: Campaigns, products and tasks (though we really look forward to when this will be available here.) *Created because of users’ input on IdeaExchange.

    AI

    Since Einstein was introduced to the Salesforce community, it has helped users work smarter and faster, which is why seeing some of these key updates come to light, as noted below, has been a game-changer for many.

    ● Ability to Report on Emails Captured by Einstein Activity Capture (EAC): When EAC was first introduced, it was a huge weight off of admins because there was no more logging and it helped synchronize all conversations in one place. Over time, you couldn’t access or report on the data because it lived outside of SF, so you couldn’t compare it to other data in Salesforce, i.e., how many conversations does it take to close a deal? However, with this new update, you can! This is an enormous feature gap that has been filled, and will ultimately save people time and money as many would outsource this work to third-party vendors. *Created because of users’ input on IdeaExchange.● Call Summaries Powered by Einstein: This is fully available, and just a generally cool feature where Einstein will record voice and video calls and transform them into summaries that are editable and include next steps and customer feedback.
    ● Conversation Sentiment Analysis: This feature goes hand in hand with the call summaries because now, customer success agents can listen and view sentiments of a conversation between agent and customer, distinguishing if they are happy, calm, disgruntled, etc. There’s a sentiment score and visuals provided for easy reporting as well. This is a great feature for agent performance grading and identifying coaching opportunities.

     

    Flows

    Flows continues to be a priority and focus for Salesforce, and they certainly delivered on giving users what they want with these improvements.

    ● Screen Flows With Reactive Components: Users and developers will very much appreciate this update as it reduces the number of screens they have to click through. With reactive components, the user interface can react to the user and what it puts on the screen. Previously, in order to use the choice a user selected, you’d have to click “next” for it to recognize and load the next screen. This could turn into three to four “next” clicks to get where you need. Now, the choice can be calculated on the fly and the dependent choice will appear below, without the need for extra click-throughs!
    ● Custom Error Messages in Record-Trigger Flows: What was once an automated feature, now puts the user in the driver seat. With a custom error message, you can now create targeted – and user-friendly – error messages for your customers and explain what went wrong and/or how to correct it. This is a big win in our opinion, which will not only save the end user headaches and blockers but will also save your admin or consultant time researching where and what happened. This is now generally available – during the Summer release, this was still in beta. *Created because of users’ input on IdeaExchange.
    ● Autolaunched Flows Based on Data Changes in Data Cloud: Based on a data model object or calculated insight object, you can start a data cloud-triggered flow. This allows you to apply flows to your data cloud, storing all of your business data, and of course Salesforce data too.

    Callouts

    It wouldn’t be fair to close out the review of this release update before highlighting a few noteworthy callouts that will surely resonate with certain users, which include:

    ● Automated Site Check-Ins and Check-Outs: For mobile workers, this new feature protects their privacy while also tracking the times they arrive and leave job sites. It provides automated timestamps for location-based actions and gives you a report based on those insights. This is being piloted so not fully available yet.
    ● Controlled Tabs and Sub-Tabs: This change is currently in beta, but will resonate with the day-to-day user as it makes it immensely easier to manage these tabs with the methods they provide.

    There’s a lot to experience and discover within the Winter ‘24 release, from increased workflow to automated operations; any user will be happy. But Salesforce also delivered for its users. Many of the ideas posted on IdeaExchange are now reflected in these new features, which just goes to show that Salesforce is listening. Let’s continue using these innovations and work with Salesforce to continue bettering the overall experience for us and our customers. We can only imagine what Salesforce will conquer with the Spring ‘24 release!

  • DevOps Guide to the Salesforce Summer 2023 Release

    DevOps Guide to the Salesforce Summer 2023 Release

    The second installment of Salesforce’s 2023 releases provides some great eye candy for DevOps pros. From new admin features to user enhancements and the anticipated Flow updates, a lot is covered in the nearly 700-page Salesforce Summer ‘23 release. Let’s break down the highlights of some appealing features, why these updates will save all Salesforce users time and energy and explore key details of the impending transition to Flows.

    First, we’ll break down notable updates from this release that will save you time, help DevOps teams automate faster and enhance the experience for both you and your customers.

    User Enhancements

    There are lots of great adjustments to some tools we know you’ve been waiting for and some we hope will be made available to all users.

    ● Mass Quick Actions on Related Lists: This is a beta feature that you can opt-in to try. You can now add and update records directly from a related list—a time and tab saver! This feature has been requested many times and will decrease the need for custom-built interfaces. For instance, if you’re on an Account and want to edit the related Contacts, you can add, edit or mass update directly from the Account screen. This saves clicks and stops new tabs from opening and losing your spot, etc. Allowing users to update in bulk is a major win!

    ● Einstein Search: Advance your search capabilities by having additional field types to search within, such as picklist, which were not previously searchable. For example, if you have a picklist field on Contact, you can search for one of the values and any records with that selected value will appear. Users will get more relevant results in their search. This new enhancement is in beta, so we’d highly suggest opting in to give it a test drive.

    ● Lightning reports and dashboards improvements, including:

    Enhanced reports and dashboards with images and text descriptions let you add visualizations to your dashboards with company logos, helpful imagery or clarifying text. Explain exactly what the Dashboard is providing with helpful messaging or encourage the sales team with positive feedback about their work. This will not only better guide end users throughout the dashboard but will also increase engagement and personalization.

    Additional dashboard filters permitted: Dashboard filter allowance jumped from 3 to 5, making dashboards more configurable and customizable for different views and end users.

    A new ‘post to Slack’ option on dashboards: share analytics across your Slack workspaces so your colleagues can view, share, and subscribe to dashboard details and view in real-time.

    Note: While all of these improvements to reports and dashboards are amazing features, they are only available to unlimited edition users. We hope Salesforce will trickle this down to enterprise users soon.

    ● MFA auto-enablement continues: Unless you’re using a single sign-on (SSO) solution like Okta, Salesforce mandates the use of multifactor authentication (MFA). Hard enforcement is coming by spring 2024 when Salesforce initiates a full rollout, so we’d suggest getting ahead of it by implementing this now.

    Flows

    With the forthcoming transition to Flows, we find that the more Salesforce does with Flows, the better. In general, it gives users better tools to deliver to customers and offers better experiences overall. These Flow Builder updates are key:

    ● Send API callouts without using code (this is in beta). This is like having Postman-like capabilities right in Flow!

    ● Create screens that react to changes from other components on the same screen. This is huge, since you can’t create reactive screens in Flows right now. Workflow optimization is all about reducing clicks, which users can now achieve with reactive forms (this is also in beta).

    ● Log emails and use email templates with the ‘Send Email’ action. This was rigid before, as users had to pull in their own templates or make very basic emails in Flows. This is a basic but hugely helpful upgrade.

    Honorable Mentions

    • The new Undo field change feature: A lot of you have been waiting for this (ourselves included) since there is no such thing as “undo” in Salesforce … until now!
    • New Salesforce connect adapter for GraphQL: Developers and system architects will be happy to see this feature that allows you to access your external data by connecting to AWS Aurora via GraphQL queries from Salesforce as if the data were native. This saves you from having to copy and store your external data in Salesforce with complicated syncs.

    We’re all always hunting for ways to save time and simplify processes. Once again, Salesforce delivered with the Summer ‘23 release. Fewer clicks, bulk actions and more sharing and collaboration capabilities. And this one has a little bit of excitement for everyone–admins, developers and end users.

    The best thing you can do is to experiment with ways to optimize. There’s a lot in beta, so roll your sleeves up and dig in! Happy summer!

  • Salesforce Spring 2023 Release: Out With the Old, A Lot of the New

    Salesforce Spring 2023 Release: Out With the Old, A Lot of the New

    Salesforce is the connector and enabler of so many critical business functions. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with its headaches. The environment is so complex that it really takes a conscious, focused effort to properly leverage all that Salesforce has to offer, as well as stay up-to-speed on everything that’s new and evolving.

    The Salesforce spring ‘23 release brought a lot of change. Some old tools disappeared and new products, dashboards and automation tools were introduced that admins will have to adapt to. There’s a lot to catch up on.

    Combing through the 600+ pages of release notes, there are three main themes represented in the spring release that will be useful to the entire organization, from DevOps and RevOps to sales and marketing teams, including: 1) new admin and developer tools and dashboards, 2) doubling down on low-code/no-code with enhancement to Flow and 3) commitment to security and permissions best practices.

    Admin and Developer Updates

    From an administrator’s and developer’s perspective, there are some exciting new features that will undoubtedly improve DevOps’ day-to-day. For instance:

    • Flows – allows you to migrate your old automations.
      • Connect to external data source (beta)
      • Support for lookup fields
      • Reactive screens (reduce the number of “Next” clicks)
      • Removal of “Iteration Limit Exceeded” governor limits
      • Element descriptions are now visible on the canvas
      • Migrate to Flow from Process Builder

    • DevOps Center – Still in V1, but it provides developers with a new interface.
      • Getting on the software development life cycle bandwagon so we can all say goodbye to change sets – finally!
    • Dashboards – Now you can insert text and graphics around charts.
      • Collections – organize reports and dashboard into logical collections that are free from their folder hierarchy. While they will still “live” in their folders, they can be accessed from a collection as well.
      • Add image and text components in your Dashboard to make better experiences with additional information, descriptions, instructions or whatever you want.

    These updates are not only useful for DevOps but, from an executive viewpoint, are extremely useful to showcase the business’s data with a clearer perspective. In other words, the new dashboards have more options to provide additional context and insight. In general, the user interface is not only more organized but can be navigated at a significantly faster rate than before.

    Doubling Down on Flow

    As the old adage goes, “Out with the old, in with the new;” Salesforce will be retiring the automation tools Workflows and Process Builders and converting them to Flow. The reason Salesforce is making this move—and ultimately forcing users to Flow—is because Workflows and Process Builders don’t have the flexibility or functionality that Flow does. Flow can create automation and provide great screen experiences that derive a far greater bandwidth of context and situational logic. The additions made to this much-anticipated migration tool will help administrators convert their current automation into Flow with less stress and hassle than rebuilding them all from scratch.

    So what is the timeline for this migration? Salesforce plans on blocking the ability to create new Process Builders in the Summer ‘23 release but has admitted that it’s not a hard date and will look at the success of customers’ migrations to Flow and feedback from the community. They have not yet announced a date for complete retirement but expect it to come sometime in 2025. That said, users should start doing this now. With any major change to your Salesforce environment, a plan is always recommended, especially with such a huge migration like this one. Given the amount of data and processes most organizations already have in place, we suggest taking time to strategize and test your migration prior to releasing it directly to Flow to make sure your order of operations for your automation is clear and follows best practices. Analyze your business processes and confirm with your users that these processes are still accurate.

    Commitment to Security

    As organizations lean more on Salesforce as their primary business operating system, Salesforce is becoming a critical piece of infrastructure rather than just software that businesses consume. It is also the “build-and-develop” nature of Salesforce that has more companies treating Salesforce as software they build rather than just software they use. The ripple effect is that as companies build within Salesforce, more developers are responsible for deploying and managing data. With that comes the responsibility for security and compliance.

    This has traditionally been handled as an administrative task, but now, Salesforce has created the tools for true enterprise infrastructure security and data management with permission sets and permission set groups. Even though permission sets have been around a while, the introduction of permission set groups and the growing need to transition permissions into more complex structures have changed the way permission sets are being consumed. Permission sets were previously used for basic exceptions to the permissions provided by profiles, but now they are front and center, providing even more organizational capability with Permission Set Groups (and their muting capability, but that’s a different story).

    Salesforce has taken note and announced the partial end of permissions within profiles as they lean into the new, better way to manage permissions. Profiles won’t be gone entirely, as they will still be needed for basic defaults, i.e., defining users’ default app selections. However, while Permission Sets will still have the responsibility for what apps you have access to, it will be the Profile that states which one is your default. This is also true for other types of assignments where there needs to be a single source of truth, like page layout assignments.

    Salesforce said they will be enforcing this plan in 2026 but are beginning to make sure everyone gets on board now by releasing great new tools to make this transition smoother, including user access policies and access to Permission Sets when adding new fields (currently only available for profiles). For large organizations, three years is just around the corner when it means implementing major overhauls in technology and philosophy to the business. While some are heading to building Permission Sets based on each object, I’d recommend basing them on features or functional areas to have the most control and the clearest overview of your new vast area of Permission Sets.

    Next Salesforce Release

    Overall, the spring ‘23 release was jam-packed with content to boost productivity, strengthen security, enhance the user experience and improve the overall business functionality. There are two Salesforce releases still to come in 2023, and I’ll be dissecting them both to highlight the most critical changes that can help you better your business. I’m looking forward to seeing what the summer ‘23 release has in store – any predictions on what Salesforce will come up with next? I’ve got a few guesses…