[#Blogged] - Salesforce Summer’20 Release Notes Breakdown

Great News! The Summer ‘20 Release Notes are here! I don’t know about you, but I get really excited to see what’s been updated in each release cycle. There are so many great features this season, and I couldn’t just list a few. Not many people have time to sit down and comb through 537 pages (wow!) so I did it for you. Below, you will find a long list of features, segmented by general topic.

 

Keep in mind, this is intended for you to read through in the short amount of time you may have, so you can get a glimpse of what’s included, and take note of features you’d like to investigate further, as you have time.  The bullet points and images included are courtesy of the Salesforce Summer '20 Release Notes. 

 

 

General Lightning Changes, Lightning Flow & Lightning App Builder

 

There were a lot of general lightning changes, as well as some interesting Lightning flow and Lightning App Builder changes as well. The Split View for Lists is a big one, as it allows you to navigate much easier without losing your place. Also, Flow Builder had some great improvements, as well as being able to add dynamic actions in the app builder. Don’t forget to check out the Search features as well!

• Work Through Lists with Ease Using Split View for Standard Navigation (pictured above)
• Lightning Experience Engagement: Walkthroughs, In-App Guidance Builder, Prompts
• Salesforce Surveys: Deeper Org Integration and More Tools for the Builder
• Lightning Scheduler: Automatic Resource Assignment, Anonymous Scheduling, Enhanced Scheduling Experience for Global Users, and More
• Search: Find Information Faster and Get the Most Relevant Results
• Flow Builder: Platform Event-Triggered Flows, Record-Triggered Flows That Run After Save, More Debug Options, and System Context for Running Flows
• Lightning Flow Management: Prebuilt Report for Screen Flows, Resource Consumption in Debug Logs, and Flow Error Emails for Platform Events
• Lightning App Builder: Add Dynamic Actions to the Highlights Panel for Custom Objects (Beta)
• General Setup: Record Page Full View Is Generally Available, a New User Profile, and Lightning Page Tab Translation

Sales Cloud

 

Summer ‘20 did not disappoint regarding sales features, either.  There are more Einstein features to assist your sales team by knocking it out of the park, with Einstein Call Coaching, and Lead Scoring with Activity Data. They’ve also included better functionality with Enterprise Territory Management, and improvements with Google and Microsoft integrations.

• High-Velocity Sales: Einstein Call Coaching (pictured above), Engagement Details, and More Sales Cadence Customization
• Get a Cleaner View of Sales Cadence Tasks in the Activity Timeline
• Sales Cloud Einstein: Opportunity Scoring Includes Consistent Labels and Field-Level Security and Lead Scoring Includes Activity Data
• Use a Higher Split Limit to Make Opportunity Splits More Effective
• Set Up Alerts for Big Deals in Lightning Experience
• Enjoy Consistent Field Labels for Opportunity Scores 
• Orders: Enable Orders Without Price Books
• Enterprise Territory Management: More Options for Record Access and Object Labels
• Productivity Features: Email Threading, Tasks to Queues, New Email Insight, and Improved Kanban Views
• Integration with Google: Track Email Setup Changes, Text Shortcut Improvements, and Lightning Sync Setup Available to More Admins
• Integration with Microsoft®: Track Email Setup Changes, Text Shortcut Improvements, Changes for Lightning Sync and Retirement for Salesforce for Outlook

Service Cloud

 

I have to admit - I get really excited about Service Cloud changes. It’s very easy to see a path that Salesforce is paving towards more self-sufficient support reps and more efficiency in general.  They included a host of Field Service Lightning Changes this time, as well as making the customer experience more pleasurable, with a Dynamic Channel menu and improved chat headers. Also, Voice is something we heard about at Dreamforce last year and is starting to appear in this release. That is an awesome feature to keep an eye on!

• Field Service: Enhanced Shift Management, Optimization Insights, Asset Availability, and Confetti
• Voice: Intelligent Telephony Inside the Service Console
• See a Live Channel Menu Preview
• Respond with a Dynamic Channel Menu (pictured above)
• Enhance Conversations with an Improved Chat Header
• Transform Chat Sessions from Start to End
• Add Post-Chat Surveys for Five-Star Service
• Use Salesforce Sharing with Lightning Knowledge (Beta)
• Routing: Status-Based Capacity and Prioritized Additional Skills
• Show Extended Record and Polymorphic Relationships with the Related Record Component

Community Cloud

 

Summer ‘20 has continued to expound upon the Community Cloud, focusing on better organization and security in this release. More personalization, page management and sitemaps are key in helping to make it a better experience. They’ve also made some changes to Guest User security, which is definitely worth checking out. 

• Override Standard Actions in Lightning Communities
• Take Personalization Further with Navigation Menus, Tile Menus, and CMS Collections
• Reset Mission Activity Counts
• Better Manage Your Community Pages (pictured above)
• Generate Sitemaps for Your Community Pages
• Add Dynamic SEO Properties to Content Detail Pages
• Super Customize Your Community with the Revamped Tile Menu
• Get Flexible with the New User Profile Menu Component
• Get More Options for Multi-Level Navigation in Your Community 
• Guest User: Security Policies Enforced
• Security and Sharing: Two-Factor Authentication for External Users, Embedded Login

Einstein

 

Just when you think it doesn’t get any better, it does! The development they’re putting into Einstein is really a game-changer, across multiple clouds. Each of these points spans the course of pages in the release notes, but as you can see below, the functionality included is really changing how we do business. I can’t pick a favourite here - they’re all pretty awesome!

• Use Einstein Voice Assistant on Mobile to Ask Einstein for Record Info, Update Records, and Give Feedback (Beta)
• Einstein Search: Clearer Setup Process, Natural Language Search Examples, and Better Recommended Results on the Salesforce Mobile App (Beta) 
• Salesforce Einstein: Better Results in Einstein Search, Detect Text in Images with Einstein OCR, and Better Predictions with More Algorithms and Data in Einstein Discovery
• Einstein for Service: Reply Recommendations (pictured above), Multi-Language Article Recommendations, Enhanced Bot Event Logs, and Facebook Messenger for Bots
• Einstein Discovery: Tree-Based Modeling Types, Random Forest Models (Pilot), and Increased Row Limits 
• Einstein Voice Assistant: Pre-Built Skill Sets, Voice Skill Enhancements, and In-App Feedback (Beta)
• Einstein Prediction Builder: Define Your Prediction Set, Run Reports, and Enable Predictions from the Scorecard 
• Einstein Platform Services: Image Recognition and Natural Language Processing

Analytics

 

Salesforce also included some small - but mighty - changes for analytics in general, as well. Although in Beta, you can now (or will be able to soon) attach .csv files to report subscriptions, which is a big help if you pass reports through different departments for tasks like data cleansing, for example. And, you can now build reports on Price Book Entries and use unique fields in row-level formulas.

• Filter Knowledge Reports by Category 
• Attach .csv Files to Report Subscriptions (Beta) (pictured above)
• Enable Enhanced Folder Sharing (Update)
• Work with up to 5 Unique Fields in Report Row-Level Formulas
• Build Reports Based on Price Book Entries

Mobile

 

As we saw in late 2019, they did a huge revamp of the Mobile app, which was very much needed and appreciated! The Summer ‘20 release continues to expound upon that with tying in some of the Einstein Voice functionality we’ve discussed above, and generally better organization with reordering navigation menu items. It is also worth mentioning the Mobile Activity Reminders (Pilot), as well. 

• Salesforce Mobile App Requirements Have Changed 
• Retiring Salesforce Mobile Web Browser Experience
• Access All Lists on Android Object Home Pages
• Clear Your Cache Anytime on Android 
• Reorder Navigation Menu Items for Lightning Apps
• Keep Your Reps on Time and on Task with Mobile Activity Reminders (Pilot)
• Protect Your Data with Enhanced Mobile Security Updates
• Einstein Voice Assistant: Pre-Built Skill Sets, Voice Skill Enhancements (pictured above), and In-App Feedback (Beta)
• Notifications: Notification Builder Platform and More Push Notifications
• Switch Between Testing Modes with the Publisher Playground App (Beta)

Critical/Security Updates & Security-Related Features

 

Salesforce continues to take Security very seriously and has added a host of ways to increase security measures in Summer ‘20. Although not as much of a security issue, I did tie in a great feature in Beta for reviewing org changes with release updates. I can say from experience, that admins and developers are cheering out loud for this one. They’ve also enhanced two-factor authentication and increased security with salesforce sites. Safety is the name of the game - check out how to keep your org safe with some of these features below. 

• Review Important Org Changes with Release Updates (Beta) (pictured above)
• Authentication and Identity: Enhanced Two-Factor Authentication, Federation IDs, and Delegated Authentication Enablement
• Domains: OCSP Stapling, Salesforce Edge, and Shorter URLs
• Platform Encryption: Scratch Org Features for Testing, and Goodbye to Blocked Events 
• Event Monitoring: General Availability of Threat Detection Real-Time Events, Transaction Security Support for Threat Detection Events, Legacy Transaction Security Retiring
• Store a New Contact Point and Customer Consent Information
• Customize and Store-More Customer Consent Channels
• Improve the Accuracy of Consent API Calls
• Other Security Changes: Private Connect (Generally Available), Stricter Security with Salesforce Sites, and Stronger Algorithms with Apex Crypto Class 

Whew! That was a lot! Clearly, this is not every listed feature in the release notes, and I encourage you to explore chunks of the notes in the official release as you feel they may pertain to you. Also, a reminder we’re all familiar with - nothing is official until it is actually released, so it’s best to not base purchasing decisions on what you read here. But, I still encourage you to get excited! I know I’m looking forward to implementing some of these changes soon, and can’t wait until a few weeks from now for the official release!