Salesforce Spring ’20 Release Notes Highlights

We’ve done it again! Green Irony has scoured the pages of the Spring ‘20 Release Notes to highlight the “need to know right now” for your Admin skimming pleasure. There were a lot of updates with Einstein across the board — both in Analytics, areas of Service Cloud, and even sprinkled in the Community Cloud. Also, Salesforce didn’t stop with the Mobile App in the last release — they carried that momentum into Spring ’20 with more updates there, as well. So, without further adieu, let’s dive in!

Sales Cloud

There weren’t as many changes this time around relating to Sales, but it doesn’t mean that what they produced won’t have an impact. The ability to hover on calendar events is surely a time saver, and choosing a specific time to send an email can increase the likelihood of closing that sale!

• Now you can see the related account when searching for Contacts on Opportunities
• Schedule High-Velocity Sales emails to send at a specific time, when a customer is more likely to read
  
• Manage email templates using list view on the email templates home page
• Assign tasks to a shared sales queue
• Hover over a calendar event for more details without clicking into each event
  

Services Cloud

We weren’t kidding when we said how much your Services department has to gain from what’s coming in Spring ‘20! Here we’ve grouped some of the general changes for Services Cloud.

• Omni-Channel Supervisor Filters are now sticky, so they remain when you log out
• Omni-Channel widget can now be minimized when you accept work
• You can route chats to agents who aren’t members of the Omni-Channel queue
• Case merge is finally here! This works similarly to account merges
  
  
• View and edit case details from list view with Case hover in Lightning Experience
• Decide whether Closed Status is visible to agents
• You can now insert code snippets into case feed emails
• Increase productivity with bulk macros and run macros faster on record home page

Services Cloud – Einstein

Salesforce stepped up Einstein efficiencies for Service Cloud, including a lot of improvements for Bots. This is an exciting area to be a part of, and it looks like it’s only getting better with each release.

• Using Einstein Reply Recommendations (Pilot) can help you respond more quickly and efficiently
  
• Tailor Chat Bot with Conditional Messaging using built-in logic
• Train Bot with Upgraded model management dashboard
• Granular Conversation Logs to show every move the bot makes, for future improvement
• Increase Customer Engagement with the Chat Bot Typing Indicator
• WhatsApp is now available in 180 countries for Einstein Bots
• The session window has been shortened from 24 hours to 2 hours
• AND you can try Einstein Case Classification for FREE!

Knowledge

There are a lot of cool changes coming to Knowledge to help make your Services or Communities more efficient.

• You can now compare versions of an article to see what changed (Beta)
• Link articles in Chat & Messaging
• Show or hide field labels and skip related files from inserted articles
• Grab edges to resize images in Rich Text Fields using Google Chrome
  
  
• Set default access for the files attached to the article
• Increased number of data categories from 25 to 50

Industry Clouds

Although not thick in volume, the changes that are coming for Industry Clouds will pack a punch! Don’t miss the two beta features (and more) available for Field Service Lightning!

• Commerce Cloud – Salesforce Order Management is now Generally Available, to allow you to manage, fulfill, and service orders at scale
• Sustainability Cloud – Streamline carbon footprint data for auditing purposes with reference data from gov’t agencies
• Health Cloud – Easier setup for care plans and more options for finding the right care provider
• Consumer Goods Cloud – Optimized Visit Sequences, Stock Level Monitoring, and Improved Business Performance
• Manufacturing Cloud – Offers account managers greater control and improved visibility into sales agreements and account forecasts
• Financial Services Cloud – More visibility into distributors and a new API for creating mortgages
• Field Service Lightning:
  • Flex your field service scheduling with Ad Hoc Shifts (beta)
  • Schedule an Appt time that immediately follows another (beta)
  • Assign work to the minimally/most skilled resource
  • You can now generate work orders from maintenance plans

Lightning Flow & Process Builder Changes

There were a whole host of updates for Lightning Flow, so be sure to check those out in the release notes as well!

• Record-Triggered Flows for Before-Save Updates in Flow
• Configure Action and Create Records Elements without creating Variables
• Run flows with System Mode, without worrying about user permissions
• Categorize Actions, making it easier for location by Admins
• Opportunity Contact Role Record types are now available in Process Builder
  
  
• Now view Processes that are subscribed to a platform event

Communities

There are a handful of Communities changes as well, varying from features available for use, to developer productivity, guest user sharing and general security.

• Drag and Drop sections in Flexible layout pages, making re-organization a cinch
• Create and Publish Communities in Scratch Orgs faster with Experience Bundle
• New LWC-Based Template helps to build faster and more efficiently
• An Enforced Security Alert now enables the “Secure Guest user record access” setting effective March 1, 2020
• Community Users can now log in with Apple ID
  
  
• Lightning Locker can now be switched On and Off in the UI
• An embedded Channel Menu allows customers to select how they want to communicate with Services
• Community Users can now see a warning when accessing with an unsupported browser
• Partner Community and Customer Community Plus licenses can see records of external users in account hierarchy
• Use a Permission set instead of a specially created profile for Delegated External User Administrator permissions

Einstein & Einstein Analytics

There were a ton of Analytics changes for Spring ’20, including being able to attach formatted spreadsheets to Report subscriptions (beta) for reports and dashboards. Fun Fact: The word “Einstein” appears 991 times in the Spring ’20 release notes!

• Try Einstein Prediction Builder at NO ADDITIONAL COST!!
• Einstein Next Best Action: Create recommendations from the records of any Salesforce object and Launch Flows when Recommendations are Rejected
  
  
• Get more done on the run with Einstein Voice Assistant (Beta) – note, this is also a mobile feature!
• In Einstein Discovery, get the best prediction from three different models (Pilot)
• Ability to get 10x more data with the Einstein Analytics Plus License
• Connect to your data with more connectors, including – but not limited to – SugarCRM, Zendesk, Google Cloud Storage, etc (Pilot)
• Connect to External Salesforce Object Data with Specialized Connectors (Pilot)

Salesforce Mobile App

Back in Winter ‘20, the new Mobile App was released, and how excited we were! In Spring ’20, all active Salesforce Mobile App users get upgraded to the new, recently released app. Although they’ve done more upgrades, it is worth noting that there were only certain devices tested — multiple versions of the Google pixel, Samsung Galaxy, and iPhone, along with Samsung Tab and iPads. It’s also worth noting, that the operating systems and mobile browser requirements should be up to date on your devices, should you expect customer support to be able to fully assist with any issues.

With that being said, it’s hard to overlook some of the mobile changes, especially in regards to Einstein.

• You can now customize the first four items of the navigation menu
• See more details when you search, so you can make a more informed choice (to be released the week of February 17th, 2020)
• Recommended Results on Mobile (Beta) highlight the most likely option as a top
  
  
• Customize Account and Opportunity Team Related Lists
• Update paths with Dependent Picklists
• You can now link share with your colleagues using a new icon
  
  

Critical Updates and Security Alerts

We’ve listed these out as they appear in the Release Notes, but be sure to take a deeper look to see how your org will be affected!

• Generate Valid HTML Output from Formulas in Processes and Flows
• Enforce Data Access in Flow Formulas
• Make Flows Respect Access Modifiers for Legacy Apex Actions
• Require Permission to View Record Names in Lookup Fields (Summer ’20)
• Enable New Salesforce Mobile App
• Enable Dependency Access Checks in Lightning Components
• Restrict Reflective Access to Non-Global Controller Constructors in Packages
• Enable Improved Caching of Org Schema
• Require Secure HTTPS Connections
• Restrict Access to @AuraEnabled Apex Methods for Guest and Portal Users Based on User Profile
• Restrict Access to @AuraEnabled Apex Methods for Authenticated Users based on user Profile

It’s a lot to take in, but there’s a lot to gain, especially for Services. As always, this is just an abbreviated list of what’s coming, so make sure to check out the Release Notes for those areas that can elevate your efficiencies and take your company to the next level! Don’t forget to check out the Trailhead for Spring ’20 Release Highlights for a shiny new badge AND 900 points!