Tip of the Week – Salesforce Spring ‘18 Simplified (Part 3 of 3)
If you have seen our posts over the last two weeks then you already know that we have been rounding some of the top features of the Spring ‘18 Release of Salesforce. There are a lot of updates in this release and can all be a lot to sort through. That is why we decided to break it down a bit and give you a simplified guide to some of the top features.
Before diving in, If you would like to catch up with our previous articles, click here for Part 1, or Part 2.
Spring 18 Features – Part 3
Duplicate Jobs Feature
Rooting out duplicates in the system can be a big challenge for any organization. Anyone, from admins to users, hates dealing with dupes. Not to mention that duplicates can cause issues of efficiency and functionality issues, in addition to being plain old annoying. Salesforce is now introducing the duplicate jobs features, allowing you to report on, view, and merge duplicates in your system. Set up your validation rules and run the program in the background. This is an easy way to take control of your database, and prevent bad data from hurting your business. Previously, you could only do this through a 3rd party app, integrated to Salesforce, but it will now be a standard feature for Lightning.
LinkedIn Integration for Leads
These days, most business professionals have a LinkedIn account. The platform is a great place to network and connect with other professionals. So wouldn’t it be nice to generate leads from all those contacts? That is exactly what Salesforce thought. This new feature allows users to connect their Salesforce to LinkedIn ads. This Web2Lead style integration creates leads in Salesforce from ad clicks on LinkedIn. Available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning, this is a great way to passively increases your daily lead flow.
Mass Quick Actions
Updating large volumes of records can be rather mind numbing for Lighting users. The default record updating function made the process slow and tedious, however, this is problem no longer. Salesforce has finally built mass actions into the system as a native feature. You can now perform mass updates for up to 200 records, all from a simple list view. Let the OCD flow through you, as you can organize and clean up all your records in a fraction of the time it used to take.
Flow Enhancements
There are quite a few enhancements for Flows in Lightning. The breakdown is as follows:
Flow Design
- Better Flow Screens – Lightning Components allow you to build flow screens that look and operate in any way that you want them to.
- Override the Default Header and Footer – Style customizations for both Lighting and Classic
- Track Progress Through a Flow with Stages (Beta) – A developing feature so you can indicate a user’s point in any flow
- Call JavaScript Directly from Your Flow with Local Actions (Pilot) – Pull data from an on-premises or private cloud database directly into your flow without going through the Salesforce server. Or do things directly in the browser, such as open a particular URL or confirm that a record was created with a toast message.
- Upload Files Directly from a Flow – Don’t break your concentration or lose your place in the flow to add important documents
- New Labels for Some Flow Types – Flow type changed to “Screen Flow”. Field Service Mobile is now called Field Service Mobile Flow, and Field Service Web has changed to Field Service Snap-In Flow.
Flow Distribution
- Launch Flows as Subtabs in Lightning Console Apps (Pilot) – When records are opened in a console app and there’s an associated flow, the flow is autolaunched as a subtab.
- Launch a Flow from an Object-Specific Action – Add flows to the action menu on your Lightning pages without hunting down the flow’s URL.
- Start Flows Dynamically from Apex – Previously, you could start a flow interview from Apex, but you had to hardcode the flow name in your method.
- Check Which Flow Translations Are Out of Date – When you change a flow that has translations, the affected translations are marked out of date in the UI and in bilingual export files.
- Execute All Autolaunched Flow Interviews When Invoked in Bulk (Critical Update) – When flow interviews are invoked in bulk, they are now all executed. Previously, when multiple flow interviews were invoked in bulk, only the first interview was started and executed; the remaining interviews were discarded.
Expanded Paths
If you aren’t familiar, Paths are a feature of Salesforce Lightning that allows users to see a visual representation of where a record is in its life cycle and provides users advice on what actions are needed based on the records current state. Starting with Leads and Opportunities, Paths have been very successful for guiding users and ensuring proper progress of objects through their life cycle.
For Spring ‘18, Salesforce is expanding the role of Paths to now include any standard object. Admins can take advantage, and ensure users have the proper directions they need for any object. Paths can now work for Accounts, Campaigns, Cases or any other standard object. A custom component setup allows you to build out your paths fairly quickly, and add an extra layer of knowledge for your users.
Conclusion
That’s it for the Salesforce Spring ‘18 Release. We hope you have enjoyed this series and that it has helped you digest all the information a little easier.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.