Salesforce Summer ’21 Release has made substantial improvements that will delight both customers and users. What do these mean for you? What benefits can these improvements bring to your organisation? At Smplicity Consulting, we have picked 11 items to look out for from the Salesforce Summer ’21 release.
Here are the key takeaways.
1. Salesforce Flow
The Summer ’21 release brings additional enhancements to Salesforce Flow.
a) Build Multicolumn Screens in Flow Builder (Generally Available)
Salesforce Flow now fully supports a multicolumn screen layout where each flow screen can be divided into multiple sections and columns. This multicolumn layout is responsive and works perfectly on mobile phones. To use this feature, in Flow Builder, you need to configure the Section component to arrange screen components into multiple columns. The Summer ’21 release also supports the Section component inflows that get launched from Einstein Next Best Action and Actions & Recommendations components.
In the example shown below, the Section component has been divided into three equal-width columns. As you edit a screen in Flow Builder, drag the Section component (1) onto the screen canvas (2). In the Section component’s attributes, add columns and set their widths (3). If you don’t want the section to always appear, change its component visibility (4). Then drag other screen components into the columns on the screen canvas (5).
At run time, the multicolumn screen from the example looks as follows.
The same screen appears as follows on a mobile phone.
b) Use ISCHANGED, ISNEW, and PRIORVALUE in Record-Triggered Flow Formulas
Salesforce Flows now support the ISCHANGED, ISNEW, and PRIORVALUE formula functions. These formula functions are available in the flows triggered when a record is created or updated only.
You need to use the $Record global variable instead of the object in record-triggered flows. For example, to use ISCHANGED(account.x) in a record-triggered flow formula, change it to ISCHANGED($Record.x).
c) Debug Flows in Auto-Layout (Beta)
The Summer ’21 release has simplified debugging! You can now debug flows in auto-layout. This release offers the same rich and contextual debugging experience for flows built-in auto-layout as for flows built-in free-form. You can debug directly on the canvas or use a link provided in a flow error email.
In auto-layout, click Debug and then Run to view the debug’s path and details.
d) Debug Flows with One Button
To debug a flow, you can now click on the Debug button directly on the canvas. The flow now determines whether you can debug on the canvas or see only the debug details. For example, you can debug auto-launched flows with or without triggers on the canvas but debug screen flows only in the debug details.
2. Lightning App Builder
a) Improve Page Performance with Custom Lightning Component Analysis
The Analyse button from the Lightning App Builder toolbar now enables you to get more performance predictions on custom Lightning components on your Lightning record pages. You can view your page’s predicted Experienced Page Time (EPT), the component performance breakdown card, and recommendations for optimizing custom components.
b) Create a Dynamic Actions Bar for Your App Page (Pilot)
With the Summer ’21 release, you can now add a Dynamic Actions Bar configured with important standard and custom actions to your app page.
Edit your app page in the Lightning App Builder, drag the Dynamic Actions Bar component to a preferred position on your page, reorder and add actions (standard and custom global actions) as required. You can additionally click Add Filter to
configure the visibility settings for the Dynamic Actions bar.
3. Reports and Dashboards
a) Inline Editing in Reports (Beta)
In this new release, Salesforce has added inline editing to reports to ensure that reports are always up to date. You can update certain types of text, numeric, and checkbox fields directly on the Report Run page without the need to go back to the original object record. In your report, hover over the field that you want to update, click it, update its value and click save. This change will be reflected in the report and the source object record.
You will need to contact Salesforce Customer Support to enable inline editing in reports. Then, in Setup, under Reports and Dashboards Settings, select Enable Inline Editing in Reports (Lightning Experience only) to enable the feature in your org.
b) Download a Dashboard Image to a File
Previously, to get a dashboard image, you had to rely on a screen capture app. Now, on the dashboard, simply click on Download to obtain an image of your dashboard in a PNG format.
With Pipeline Inspection, sales teams have a single view of their pipeline with key metrics, opportunities, and weekly changes in close dates, amounts, stages, and forecast categories. With greater visibility into the pipeline, the sales teams can concentrate on the most important deals whereas sales managers can provide support in the areas identified.
In Setup, under Pipeline Inspection, select Pipeline Inspection Setup and turn on Pipeline Inspection. Verify that you have Historical Trending enabled and configured for opportunities. Add the Pipeline Inspection button and assign the Pipeline Inspection permission set to the users who you want to have access to Pipeline Inspection.
You can access Pipeline Inspection from the Opportunities tab after it has been enabled in your org.
Sales teams can filter the Pipeline Inspection view in multiple ways. Use the quick filters to narrow the view by time period, team, or sales rep (1). Click any of the pipeline metrics, such as Moved In, to see a list of matching opportunities (2). Or refine the view with filter criteria (3). To see what changed, and when and who made the change, hover over the highlighted text (4).
5. Experience Cloud
a) Maintain Business Continuity with the Customisable Service Not Available Page
In the case that your site is down, you can now still continue to maintain brand continuity using the new Service Not Available page in Experience Builder. You can configure the Service Not Available page with a customised message and image to inform your customers of the site’s unavailability. In addition, you can continue to receive cases from your customers by adding Email-to-Case directly on the Service Not Available page.
You can customise the Service Not Available page using the HTML Editor in Experience Builder and add a Rich Content Editor component to include text and images.
b) Redirect Users to Your Experience Builder Sites
Enhancements to the Experience Cloud will enable you to redirect users from pages outside of Salesforce to an Experience Builder site URL on the same domain.
To configure URL redirects, in Experience Workspaces under Administration, click URL Redirects and add the source and target URLs to a CSV file.
6. Salesforce CPQ
a) Strengthen CPQ Access Requirements by Updating Permission Sets and a Setting
You can now assign new permission sets to customers and enable a new CPQ package setting. Users assigned to the CPQ package setting will have their access to data limited and controlled by these permission sets.
For setup, you need to assign one of these permission sets to users as appropriate: Salesforce CPQ User Access or Salesforce CPQ Customer User Access. Then from Setup, under Installed Packages, click Configure and enable the setting Perform Enhanced Data Access Checks in the Additional Settings tab.
b) Strengthen Order and Order Product Actions Access Requirements by Updating Permission Sets
The Summer ’21 release for Salesforce CPQ contains updated permission sets which include new access requirements for several actions involving orders and order products.
These new access requirements are concerned with the actions Create order from quote, Create order from opportunity, Contract an order and Create an order product from a usage product respectively.
7. Pardot
a) Designate a Marketing Admin to Handle Pardot Setup Tasks
Previously, to handle Pardot setup tasks, a Salesforce admin and a Pardot admin were needed. Now, with the Summer ’21 release, a Marketing Admin assigned with the new user permission, Manage marketing setup tasks can handle all Pardot setup and management tasks.
b) Mark List Emails in Lightning as Operational
Customers have the option to opt-out of receiving marketing emails. Pardot now allows marketers to bypass their customers’ opt-out status and still send critical and operational emails to them. Simply mark an email as Operational in the email content record to use this feature.
c) Focus on Accounts by Tracking as Campaign Members (GA)
In a view to supporting account-based marketing efforts, the Summer ’21 release enables you to add accounts as campaign members from related lists. In Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Account, and then select Accounts as Campaign Members (Beta) to enable this functionality. Then, add the Campaign History-related list on account page layouts.
8. Service Cloud
The Service Setup Assistant now supports more tasks to make setting up an out-of-the-box Service app even easier. You have access to a prebuilt help centre, automated case email notifications, Knowledge setup, and sample data such as macros and flow recommendations to help you get to know Service Cloud best practices.
Click on Service Setup Assistant from the Setup menu to get started. You can purchase extra licenses to unlock all setup tasks in Service Setup Assistant.
Here’s what new:
- Sample data: Leave Add sample service data selected to get a handful of sample cases, flow recommendations, macros, knowledge articles, and quick text messages. The sample data shows you some best practices for working with Service Cloud, and you can customize or delete it to your preference.
- Case email notifications: With the help of Lightning email templates and preconfigured support settings, automatically email the case contact when a case is created, updated, assigned, and closed.
- User access: When you add users, choose the features they need access to. The Assistant assigns them the relevant feature licenses and permission sets based on what your company has purchased.
- Prebuilt help centre: Add knowledge articles and branding, and then publish the help centre to give customers a place to resolve straightforward questions without contacting your support team. For complicated issues, customers can use a simple web form to create a case.
- Knowledge setup: Get an optimized record page for knowledge articles that includes a compact layout, Article Tools and Feed tabs, and a Compare Versions component. A global action makes it easier for agents to create articles, and prebuilt Channel Mapping configurations give agents article-specific responses to use when inserting articles into emails and chats.
b) Connect Your Customers to the Right Service Agents Using Omni-Channel Flow (Beta)
Manage complex routing processes from a centralized location to create efficient, flexible, and productive service experiences. Use the power and flexibility of Omni-Channel Flow to define your routing rules and other business processes and dynamically route work to the best agent for each customer.
You can enable Omni-Channel Flow in Omni-Channel Settings.
For example, use the information on the Chat Transcript or a related Contact to route work based on the website your customer is using, their location or language, the number of times they reached out for help or even their preferred agent.
In-App guidance walkthroughs in Lightning Experience is concerned with providing users with a hands-on interactive tour, to guide them through onboarding or feature introduction with a series of step-by-step prompts.
Previously, you would only have access to a 30-day trial or be required to pay for a myTrailhead subscription to activate walkthroughs in your org. Now, with this release, you can create three custom walkthroughs for free!
As of February 1, 2022, Salesforce will require all its customers to enable Multi-Factor Authentication for their Salesforce products to better safeguard business and customers’ data. All internal users who log in to Salesforce products through the user interface will need to use MFA. You can turn on MFA directly in Salesforce or use your single sign-on (SSO) provider’s MFA service.
The Summer ’21 release lets you preview MFA during your evaluation period. You can test the rollout process and gather user experience feedback early on to ensure a smooth MFA rollout. In Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter MFA, then select Multi-Factor Authentication Assistant. The new Preview MFA step is available from the Evaluate MFA Options and Requirements stage in the Get Ready phase.
Split View now enables you to perform actions on multiple records at once without the need to open a separate list page. Select the items needed in the split view list and apply a quick action to all of them in standard or console view.
Mass actions in the split view follow the same logic as mass actions in the table view. Inline edit isn’t supported in split view, so you see checkboxes only if the object has mass actions available.
Key Dates
The main release dates are May 7th, May 11th, May 14th & June 4th, 11th.
You can go to Salesforce Trust, select your instance name and click on the Maintenance tab to know when the Summer ’21 release will be deployed on your org.
This article covered our 11 picks from Salesforce Summer ’21 release. If you would like to learn more about these we would be happy to help advise how to can make the most of these options available to you.