Winter ‘20 Release - What you need to know.

It may still be summer, but winter is coming. It’s already time to start preparing for the Winter ‘20 release. With just over 3 weeks left till the first release weekend, it’s time to get ready. 

As we’re sure most of you know already, this update is quite important. Salesforce Lightning is being switched on for all Orgs. 

First off, let’s look at some important dates for this release. 

Important dates to take note of: 

September 6th: 

• Refresh your Sandbox before the deadline - You’ll need to decide before this date if you want your sandbox to take part in Winter ‘20 Preview. 
• Sandbox preview (Oct 6th & 7th) - More info regarding your sandbox here.
• Trailhead Module released (access here)
• Release site - See the top 5 features for each cloud.

September 9th & 10th:

• Release overview Deck / Matrix is available to review. 

September 20th:

• First release weekend
• Awesome Admin Release Preview 

September 20-26th:  

• Release Readiness LIVE by cloud (watch here)

October 4th & 5th: 

• Second release weekend

October 11th: 

• Third and final release weekend. 

Salesforce admins have even put together a Google calendar of all the important dates which you can access here.

Our Five Favourite Updates: 

Next up is the release notes. You can spend hours and hours combing through the release notes. We’ve gone through and picked out our favourite five releases to share with you. 

1. The New Salesforce Mobile App: Customize Your Users’ Experience (see notes here)

   - Custom record pages on users phones - No longer restricted to the desktop. You can now create custom record pages specifically for mobile. 

   - Show or Hide Record Page Components by Device - show/hide what you want for users on different devices - only show users exactly what they need. 

   - Make Lightning Apps Accessible on Phone/Desktop/Both - Configure which form factors your Lightning app supports when made/edited. 

2. Einstein Search (Beta), a Smarter Way to Work in Salesforce (see notes here) 

   - Personalized Search Results (Beta) - Search by what’s important to you (geographical locations, industries, statuses, product areas, and people)

   - Enhanced Instant Results (Beta) - A ‘supercharged productivity hub’ in your global search box. Instant access to record previews/page-level record actions/ related list quick links/suggested searches. 

   - Instant Reports with the right filters and Conversational Search (Beta) - turn your search terms into record filters for instant access to important data. 

   - Recommended Result (Beta) - see a preview of the record to know if it’s the right one straight away. 

   - Profile-Specific Search Results Layouts (Beta) - fine-tune search results layouts. See what’s important for each unique profile in your org.

3. Turn On Lightning Experience (Critical Update, Enforced) (see notes here)

   -Not exactly a feature, but a very important update. The time has come for Lightning Experience to be switched on for everyone. You will still be able to access classic but transitioning to lightning is your best option as it is the future of Salesforce. Available for a while now, Salesforce will auto-activate the update on a rolling basis in Winter ’20. Find out more about how Pexlify can help with your Salesforce Lightning Migration here. 

4. Connect to Your Customers with WhatsApp (Pilot) and WeChat (notes here & here)

   - An interesting update is generating a lot of talk. This pilot will allow customers to communicate with support agents using WhatsApp. Agents will be able to reply from the Service Console.

5. Count Unique Values in Report Results (Beta) (see notes here)

   - See specific values in your report returns with a unique count. Think about when you want to count how many accounts are specified in a report but each account has many opportunities. You can now add a unique count to the account name column. 

Bonus: Access the Recycle Bin in Lightning Experience (see notes here)

 - You no longer have to switch back to Classic to access your Recycle Bin as it is now available in Lightning Experience to view, restore, and permanently delete. 

Three Tips for reading the release notes:  

The release notes can be intimidating if you are not familiar and know how to use them. We’ve added a few tips here to help you find exactly what you are looking for:

1. Filter the release notes. 

 - Not only can you select your edition and product area but you can select what addition you want to see updates for Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic or Mobile. 

2. Read the ‘Release Note Changes’ for changes in the release notes themselves.

You can check here for any changes to the release notes since the last release. 

3. Do the trailhead readiness module & subscribe to Release Readiness email series

You can access the Trailhead module here as soon as it becomes available. Click here to sign up for the release readiness email series.

Bonus: you can see the dates for the next year of releases here.

Information about your sandbox

Lastly, we’ll share some information regarding your sandbox. 

If you’d like your sandbox org to participate in the Winter ‘20 preview, your sandbox must be active on a preview instance before the 6th of September.

Sandbox instances are divided up into two sections: preview instances and non-preview instances. Preview instances are upgraded before production instances, while non-preview instances are upgraded near the end of major releases with most of the production instances. 

The dates for the upgrade for  Winter ‘20 are: 

Preview instances: September 6th & 7th
Non-preview instances: October 11th & 12th

Note: All incomplete sandbox requests will be reset on a non-preview instance. 
Request your sandbox a week beforehand as there are backlogs in sandbox create and refresh requests. 

For more information on your sandbox preview, you can watch this video from salesforce.

We understand migrating from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience isn’t always easy. If you find your not ready, with a lot of visual force pages, custom links and development requirements, now is a great time to reach out to Pexlify. We can do a readiness assessment with you and help you on your journey from Classic to Lightning. 

Download our Lightning Ebook here to find out more. 

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