Salesforce Summer ‘20 Release Overview

With the global COVID-19 pandemic still causing unexpected delays and impacts to many facets of life, it is now finally time for us to review the Salesforce Summer ‘20 release. Though originally slated for May 2020, it was pushed until July 10 and July 18, 2020.  

As we always do here at Oceanforce, we’ve gone through the release notes and the updates to find the top features worth summarizing and mentioning here for you. While this won’t replace an in-depth guide specific to everyone’s Salesforce instance and account, it will help you know what updates to look for and new features to explore. 

Here are the top noteworthy new features and updates to be excited about in the Summer ‘20 release: 

Split View for Standard Organization in Lists 

To improve efficiency and cut down on time viewing records, this update allows users to see a list view and a record simultaneously. For users who find themselves going through many records in a list, the flexible and collapsible record view make moving between lists and records a breeze. Users can see this feature in the Lightning Experience in Group, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions. 

Lightning Experience Transition 

New and improved features have been added to the Lightning Experience Transition toolkit. These include additional guidance in the Lightning Experience Transition Assistant, the new Salesforce Optimizer app, the Lightning Experience Configuration Converter, and the release of the Lightning Readiness Tool available separately from the Transition Assistant. 

The Salesforce Optimizer App is an interactive tool to help users review and complete expert recommendations for maintaining your organization’s Salesforce implementation. It’s an easy to use app that can identify and target areas for improvement. 

Salesforce Anywhere (beta) 

Salesforce Anywhere is a newly designed collaboration tool to help users communicate with their teammates and access updates, even if they’re on the go. The Salesforce Anywhere mobile app pushed updates and communications to mobile devices, even when you’re out of the office. Customized alerts keep users on top of new data changes. 

This collaboration tool is only available in Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions, and interested users can apply to access the beta here. 

Salesforce Surveys 

Salesforce has added new functionality and updates to their Survey tools in the Summer ‘20 release. Several of these include being able to create or edit records based on survey responses, adding merge fields to insert personalized Salesforce org data into a survey, the ability to add surveys to the end of a chat session to gather feedback, and the addition of a Short Text question in surveys to gather more long form data from participants. 

Einstein Search Improvements 

With the latest release, Einstein Search can now be accessed by all Salesforce instances and organizations. Other improvements include a more concise setup process, the addition of natural language search capabilities, and improved recommended results on the Salesforce app (this is in beta). 

Sales Cloud Einstein Opportunity Scoring 

The Sales Cloud received a fair number of improvements in this update, so if you use the Sales Cloud, we encourage you to check out the full list. However, one interesting new feature to note is to the Sales Cloud Einstein tool, in the form of Opportunity Scoring improvements. 

Field-level security determines what opportunity score and scoring factors that sales reps can see within the Sales Cloud dashboard. Another new tool is the Einstein Opportunity Scoring models have been updated to include products, quotes, and price books. 

Einstein Discovery 

Regarding analytics tools in Salesforce, Einstein Discovery received an upgrade in the quality of predictions and types of modeling algorithms no offered. Tree-based modeling types, random forest models, and increased row limits have all been added to Einstein Analytics: Discovery tool. 

Generalized Linear Model (GLM), Gradient Boost Machine (GBM), and XGBoost are the three new modeling algorithms supported by Einstein Discovery. By comparing the three models, Einstein Discovery can showcase all three results, so that you are able to see which performed the best. 

Work.com Technology 

While announced and released in part earlier than the Summer ‘20 release, Work.com is Salesforce’s contribution to help businesses manage their COVID-19 return to work plans. However, the technology and services are applicable to future major events as well. 

Available in Enterprise and Unlimited Salesforce instances, Work.com services and apps include Emergency Response Management, the Workplace Command Center, and Shift Management tools. There’s even a service for Contact Tracing for Employees, so that businesses can make informed decisions about keeping employees safe as quickly and reliably as possible. 

For more information about Work.com, click here to view the full website. 

This is only a summary of some of the biggest updates in the Summer ‘20 release so if you have specific concerns regarding your organization’s Salesforce account, click here to access the full release notes. You can always reach out to the experts at Oceanforce Solutions to determine if there are any new updates or features that make the most sense for your business and goals.