The smell of fresh cut grass, a cool summer breeze, fire works, sun screen, the sound of the ice cream man, and new Salesforce Features....Yup Summer '15 is officially here and it has some goodies for everyone. I thought I would take a few minutes this month and outline some of the things we are most excited about.
1. Data Loader for Mac
Yup, you heard that right, Data loader is finally coming to Mac. For those Apple afficiandos who have been strong armed into using a PC for lack of support for data loader, the wait is finally over. Now all the power of the Data Loader can be yours on your shiny Mac.
2. New Notes
A Simple upgrade but a useful one, Notes now supports rich text formatting, making related notes more helpful. This is available both on the Desktop and Salesforce1. Also in Salesforce1, you can tap line items in notes and convert them instantly into tasks. Now that is a productivity boost if I ever saw one. This is still in Beta, so I anticipate more and better enhancements to this for Winter '16.
3. Salesforce1 Upgrades
In addition to the new notes feature, there is a whole slew of upgraded features for Salesforce1 underscoring the emphasis Salesforce continues to place on their mobile platform. Just going to quick fire on a few here. To get the full list check out the release notes.
- Convert Leads to Contacts is now Generally Available
- You can now customize Actions in the Salesforce1 Action Bar.
- Create custom App Pages with the new Lightning App Builder
- Additional Google Maps integration. Google Map images replace the map productivity Action
- Better scrolling for Long lists (Tablets only)
- Access external data in your app with Lightning Connect
4. Duplicate management for Force.com
Last release Salesforce made Data.com duplicate management available with to all organizations without the need for a data.com license. This however was only available on Salesforce standard objects. Now in Summer '15 you can control duplicates on your custom objects.
5. Chatter Feed Post editing
Ever make a mistake in a chatter post you wish you could take back? Now you can. Edit any post you own. A user can also edit any post made on a record they own, regardless of who posted it. These abilities are now configurable as part of profile permissions.
6. Chose Lead/Case Assignment Method
You can now choose to automatically assign leads and Cases with auto-assignment rules or choose let users turn lead assignment rules off and on when editing or creating leads.
7. HTML support for email-to-case
In prior versions of Salesforce Console for Service, emails were displayed as text and inline images, but now the compact feed layout can be displayed in HTML. This now makes it easier to see customer emails with inline images.
8. Bulk Macros for Cases
Gone are the days of running a macro against one record at a time. Now Service agents can run macros against multiple records at once. There are some caveats. You can only run macros against records in one object list view at a time. And only macros that contain a submit action as the final instruction can be run in bulk.
9. Updates to Process Builder
Process builder, first released in Winter '14, has gone through constant improvements since. This release is no different. Process builder, which has been coined as workflows 2.0, is slowly starting to live up to its name, and no doubt will replace workflows all together in the near future. A few of the upgrades include:
- Compare and Return Values in Formulas
- Update Fields using Formulas and Date Functions (Finally!)
- Define Additional Conditions when updating Records
- Update Fields with More Value Types
- Overall improvements to the User Interface
10. Prospect Insights with Data.com
Spend less time researching and more time selling with data.com prospect insights. Now with a click of a button you can gather information about an accounts financial, competitive, and industry information, highlighting trends and opportunities.
Have Questions? Leave a comment below. We will get back to you with an answer.
Know someone else who might benefit from knowing what we know? Please share us with your friends.
Would you Like to know more?
There's lots more where that came from. Learning new things comes with the job. So does teaching. Join the list and we'll share with you what we know each and every month. (Don't worry, your email is safe with us).