Every year, Salesforce releases three major updates to its platform. The Winter, Spring, and Summer releases are planned far in advance, and they follow a strict schedule. Because of this, all users have adequate time to prepare and test for a seamless release. With the Summer 2020 release approaching quickly, here is everything you need to know to prepare yourself:

When Will I Get The Release?

The release date for Summer ‘20 will be determined by your Salesforce Instance. The three windows will be June 12, July 10, and July 17-18, 2020. If you want to check your specific date, follow these steps:

1. Go to trust.salesforce.com
2. Click on Status
3. Enter your instance, domain, or MID
4. Click on Maintenances
5. Look for “Summer ’20 Major Release” in the Subject column to find your date

NOTE: If you were previously aware of earlier release dates, take not that the Salesforce Summer ’20 dates have been pushed due to current events.

How Can I Preview The Release In Advance?

 If you want to do a bit of testing (highly recommended) before the big update, you can have your Sandbox upgraded in advance. For this release, there is only one Sandbox release window – May 29/30th. If you can, we highly recommend previewing the Summer ’20 release to check for compatibility and to make the transition as easy as possible.

Where Can I Read The Release Notes?

The Summer ‘20 release notes and details surrounding the update can be found in a variety of different formats:

• Interactive Summer ’20 Release Notes
• PDF Summer ’20 Release Notes
• YouTube Videos on Summer ’20 Release

Summer ‘20 Highlighted

Release notes can be long intimidating, so we’ve simplified some of the major updates here.

Note: While this summary will be helpful, we still recommend checking out the full release notes when you have time or using them as a reference for your organization.

General Updates

• Lightning Experience generally available on iPad via Safari
• Split view allows list view and records to be viewed side by side on the same screen. Select an item from the collapsible list view and it will load right next to the list
• Salesforce Optimizer App will inspect orgs to identify issues that require immediate attention and recommendations for remediation
• New In-App Guidance builder allows easily customizable walkthroughs to onboard users
• Create or update records based on customer survey responses
• Create personalized surveys with merge fields, additional question types, and customer lifecycle maps
• Redirect notices and confirmation for external URLs
• HTTPS connections now required to access Salesforce

Einstein

• Einstein Search generally available as a Beta feature
• Sales Cloud Updates
  • Opportunity Scoring now consistently labeled throughout
  • See only scoring factors you have access to
  • Activity data now built into Lead scoring
• Service Cloud Updates
  • Chat reply recommendations – select from several suggested chat replies when working with customers
  • Field value recommendations based on chat data
  • Facebook Messenger Einstein Bot support
• Analytics Updates
  • Einstein Discovery now supports three modeling algorithms to predict outcomes and you can choose the model that performs best:
  • Generalized Linear Model (GLM)
  • Gradient Boost Machine (GBM)
  • XGBoost
• • • Einstein Analytics datasets can now contain 100 million rows of data, up from 20 million previously
    • Score predictions on multiple records at a time – bulk scoring capabilities
• Customization Updates
  • Einstein Prediction Builder improvements to accuracy

Sales

• Einstein Call Coaching allows managers to get insight into sales calls
• Real-time information for sales cadence targets
• High Velocity Sales users can see entire email conversations via threads and use quick actions to assign tasks to queues
• More custom split types for Opportunities
• Support for organizations that use orders but manage price books in an external system
• Track products and pricing in one report
• Email tracking for integration with Gmail and Outlook

Service

• Improvements to schedule views to manage shifts
• Monitor asset downtime to improve service levels
• Service Cloud Voice – talk to customers with telephony services from Amazon Connect
• Status-Based capacity models indicate which agents have capacity based on case statuses

Industries

• Health Cloud provider search enhancements, remote monitoring for patients, and device registration and shipping tracking for medical device providers
• Financial Services Cloud enhancements to Policy component, Life Events component, and Business Milestones component
• Consumer Goods Cloud customized mobile app
• Manufacturing Cloud – translate growth plans into measurable targets
• Manufacturing Cloud has new objects and metadata types

Analytics

• Filter knowledge reports by category
• Attach report data to subscription emails as .csv

Commerce

• B2B Commerce now on Lightning Experience
• Salesforce Order Management support for multiple currencies, gross tax type on orders, refunds on cancellations, order product discounts, unmanaged orders, accounts and contacts, and payment processing with Adyen

Communities

• Revamped Title Menu component
• Use folders to manage Community pages
• On-demand SEO sitemap generation
• Security settings auto-enabled and will be mandatory in Winter ‘21

CMS

• New document and image content types
• Import content by uploading a .zip archive of JSON files
• Use CMS content on B2B Commerce Lightning Experience

Mobile

• More control over navigation bar and navigation menu order
• Quick actions to assign tasks to queues

Files

• Retiring support for Adobe Flash rendition – switch to SVG

myTrailhead

• Customize URLs for help and logout pages
• More customization in footer and other branding for myTrailhead

Customization

• Lightning Flow: trigger flows when records are saved or when platform events are received
• Declarative tool available in flow builder to build Apex-like functions
• Dynamic forms for easy record detail formatting for custom objects

Deployment

• New change set components are available

Development

• Use a common CSS module to style Lightning web components
• Lightning Message Service generally available

• …and much more!

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Salesforce Release Notes are always long and can be overwhelming. If you need help understanding the upcoming changes, the team at Ntegro is here for you! If you have a question or need a point clarified, we can guide you through the changes to help you prepare for the release. Contact us online to set up a consultation!

Are you excited about the Summer ‘20 Release? What features are you looking forward to most? Comment below to share your opinions!