Posted on December 22, 2021 in Misc, Releases  

10 Hottest Salesforce Spring ’22 Features

It’s that time of the year again! Another Salesforce release is approaching, which means a whole bunch of new features and functionality to play around with. Salesforce releases bring excitement both to Admins & Developers in the backend, as well as users who get to enjoy UI improvements on the frontend.

Having just announced the release date, sandbox preview, and pre-release org information for Salesforce Spring ’22, the release notes are also now available! So in true Salesforce Ben fashion, let’s dive into our top features of this release…

1. Collaborative Forecasts

There are multiple exciting enhancements to collaborative forecasts in the Spring ‘22 release:

• More efficient forecast setup, combining Forecast Types and Forecast Settings into a single setup page.
• Create core forecasting KPIs using two new out-of-the-box columns: Gap to Quota and Pipeline Coverage.
• See recent changes to forecast categories.
• Custom filters enabling you to control which opportunities are included in a forecast based on record type.

I’m most excited about the ability to add Gap to Quota and Pipeline Coverage metrics to forecasts!

• Gap to Quota – how close are you to achieving your quota.
• Pipeline Coverage – how much pipeline remains vs how much quota is needed.

Source: Get Insights from Core Forecasting KPIs Quickly

2. Easily Find the Right Report Type for New Reports (Beta)

You can now easily find the right report type using the enhanced report type selector.

When you click ‘New Report’, the Choose Report Type screen will display your recently used report types, as well as a list of your report types with name and category (Standard or Custom).

Even better, you can display even more details about a report type such as who created it (1) (2), the objects that report type uses (3) and the ability to check if a report type contains the field you need (4).

Source: Easily Find the Right Report Type for New Reports (Beta)

3. Edit Multiple Fields Inline on the Report Run Page (Beta)

Inline editing for reports just gets better and better with every release. You can now edit multiple fields and records without needing to rerun your report. This is a huge time saver and brings greater feature parity between list views and reports.

Another new feature of inline editing is that fields will show as ‘Pending’ if they are related to a field that has been updated. Let’s say you are editing and making a change to a field that will impact other fields, those other fields will be marked as ‘Pending’ until your changes are saved.

Source: Edit Multiple Fields Inline on the Report Run Page (Beta)

4. Monitor Your Slowest Desktop Record Pages

Pages taking too long to load can have a serious impact on user adoption. A new prompt in the Lightning App Builder will identify pages with performance issues and direct you to the new Lightning Usage App table where you can view problem pages and performance analysis.

Once you click “Take Me There”, you’ll see the table which displays the page name (1), developer name (2), the number of views (3) and the option to view performance analysis results (4).

Source: Monitor Your Slowest Desktop Record Pages

5. Enable Stronger Protection for Your Users’ Personal Information (Release Update)

Data protection is so important! So it’s great to see that we can enable Enhanced Personal Information Management which prevents external users, such as portal or community users, from viewing other users’ information.

Enhanced Personal Information Management shields more personal identifiable information (PII) on the user record and you can choose which custom and standard fields are treated as PII.

6. Control the Default Records Your Users See with Scoping Rules (Generally Available)

Scoping rules are now generally available. “What are Scoping rules?” I hear you ask…great question. Scoping rules allow you to control the default records your users see when searching.

You can set up different scoping rules for different sets of users, so users always see what’s most useful to them. This feature can help users focus on and access the records they need most. Scoping rules do not restrict access to any records.

Source: Scoping Rules

7. So Many Flow Updates

It wouldn’t be a proper Salesforce release without a bunch of cool updates for Flow! Don’t forget, Salesforce is retiring Workflow Rules and Process Builder so all new automations should be built using Flow.

We’d be here all today if I included all the enhancements for Flow so here are just a few of my favourites!

• Place Flow Elements Automatically with Auto-Layout (Generally Available) – Auto-layout is now GA (was Beta). Auto-layout means that the elements on your canvas are positioned, spaced and connected automatically.

• Visualize All Your Record-Triggered Flows in One Place with Flow Trigger Explorer – This new tool allows you to view all Flows that are associated with a specific object and run when a record is created, updated, or deleted. For example, you could choose to see all Flows that are triggered to run when an Opportunity record is updated.

• Define the Run Order of Record-Triggered Flows for an Object – You can now determine the running order of your Flows, to ensure certain Flows run before or after others. You can set the trigger order for before-save or after-save Flows. This means you can set the trigger order for each of your before-save Flows but it’s worth noting that you cannot prioritize any before-save Flows over after-save Flows and vice versa. Enter a number in the ‘Trigger’ order to prioritize your Flows.

Source: Flow Builder

Find the full list of Flow updates here.

8. Use Orchestrator Work Guide to Connect Users with Tasks (Generally Available)

Flow Orchestrator is generally available and has some exciting new updates! But first, what’s Flow Orchestrator? Salesforce Flow Orchestrator is a new Flow functionality that allows Admins to string a number of Flows and business processes together across multiple people. Rather than rebuilding your existing Flows to support the new feature, Flow Orchestrator has been built with your existing Flows in mind and allows you to use them in any new Orchestration. You can check out our full article about Flow Orchestrator here.

From Spring ‘22, you can use the Orchestrator Work Guide to connect users with Tasks. The Orchestrator Work Guide component can be used to display actions assigned to users, including Tasks.

9. Updates for Einstein Search

Einstein Search is one of the many free AI-driven features provided to us by Salesforce. Whilst this feature has been available for a while, there are updates in almost every release.

Updates for Einstein Search include:

• Einstein Search for Knowledge (Pilot)
• Adjust Natural Language Search Results (Pilot)
• Use Natural Language Search with Tasks
• Distinguish Similarly Named Users or Groups with Profile Images

• Search Results Objects Page Has a New Name (Beta)

10. Revenue Intelligence

Revenue Intelligence is a seriously powerful add-on for Salesforce (it is a paid extra). This tool combines Tableau CRM dashboards and analytics with Pipeline Inspection, to create easy to visualize and actionable results in a pipeline progress flow chart. With Revenu Intelligence, you also get Einstein Forecasting, Einstein Activity Capture, and more.

Update to Revenue Intelligence include:

• Generate More Revenue and Build Stronger Pipelines with Revenue Insights

• See Pipeline Changes in a Dynamic Chart

Source: Revenue Intelligence

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this summary of our favorite Salesforce Spring ’22 features. Did we miss any out? What are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below…