It may be winter in Australia, but we’re enjoying a slice of summer! Three times a year we look forward to a new Salesforce release as these always deliver powerful new features and useful functionality that we encourage our clients to take advantage of. The Salesforce Summer ’17 release is no exception, and while it has brought about many changes overall, it is the updates to the Lightning User Interface that I enjoy most.
So, here’s my top 5 favourite new features:
Number 1 is mostly for the Service Cloud agents who use a Console. What a great use of the space on a single page and definitely a productivity improver. Consoles aren’t just for the Service Cloud folks though. Sales Consoles are a great way to easily see multiple key pieces of information on one page. In a nutshell:
- Split console view – users can switch between a list view and a table, allowing agents to work with multiple records more easily
- Compact case feed – quickly updates anyone picking this case up to see what’s gone before
- Drag and drop files – bang, too easy
- Case hovers and prior cases – quick access with rich information
- Omni-channel utility – provides access links to important items
Number 2 are the new quick access buttons that provide the ability to see Activity timeline details much more easily than before. Now everyone can quickly and easily pick up on what’s been done and what still needs to get done.
Number 3 is for everyone… Tracking Field History is now available in Lightning. This is a really important catch-up feature, especially the functionality that allows for the tracking of the Opportunity Stage history. Now you can identify the key fields in an Account, Contact, Case or Opportunity and track those fields with before and after snapshots.
Number 4 is for Marketing… Leads and Contacts can now be added to a Campaign from standard and custom reports. Great time-saving functionality.
Number 5 (and lucky last) is one for the Administrators. I must admit I have been going back to classic to do any Admin work, but I don’t have any more excuses now! Objects are separated and there’s even a Service Setup page. It’s really very good.
Until next time!
Peter
