Salesforce Winter’18 preview release notes are out. They are now available under the pre-release program. On the 8th and 9th of September, Sandboxes will be upgraded; as a result, your organization will get the look and feel of Winter’18 release. In this release, you will find lots of new features, as well as, new enhancements related to Lightning Experience and Communities.
For example, features like, Get to the Right Record Faster with Enhanced Instant Results, Use More Types of Lead Conversion with Einstein Lead Scoring, Record Custom Voicemail Greetings, Get to the Right Record Faster with Enhanced Instant Results, and Use Case Milestones in Lightning Experience are now available in Lightning Experience.
Also, check out these beta and pilot features:
- Track Time with the Time Field Type (Beta): – Use this custom field type to track time that is not specific to a single date, such as preferred contact hours. The time field type is useful for time management, event planning, and project management.
- Lightning Report Builder (Beta): – Turn on the Lightning report builder and give your users a powerful, intuitive tool for analyzing Salesforce data. In the Lightning report builder, the report format automatically updates as you group report data. Tabular, summary and matrix reports are all available, but you don’t select the format before grouping the data.
- Reimagine the Future of Packaging (Beta): – Second-Generation Packaging ushers a new way for partners and enterprise customers to develop, distribute, and manage their apps and metadata.
- Check Your Encryption Coverage with Encryption Statistics (Beta): – The Encryption Statistics feature shows Shield Platform Encryption customers how much of their data is encrypted with an active tenant secret. The Encryption Statistics page is a one-stop portal for information about your encrypted data. You can see how much of an object’s data is encrypted and uses an active key, and which fields contain encrypted data. Deterministic Encryption pilot customers can also see which fields use a mixture of encryption schemes.
- Track External Object Data Callouts with Event Log Files (Pilot): – Audit the historical activity of your org’s access to external object data. For each callout, you can check whether it was a query or write operation when the call occurred, and which user accessed the external data
- Deliver Millions of Events Per Day with High-Volume Platform Events (Pilot): – Now you can publish and subscribe to high volumes of platform events. Deliver several millions of events per day using the new high-volume platform events. By using a different underlying data store, the system processes high-volume events more efficiently than standard events.
You can now add flows to the action (Launch a Flow from an Object-Specific Action (Beta)) menu on your Lightning pages without hunting down the flow’s URL. When you create a flow action, you can pick from a list of available flows rather than enter the flow URL manually. To work as a flow action, a flow must be active and have screens. This feature is available in Lightning Experience and in versions of the Salesforce1 mobile app.
Lightning Experience is supported by Apple® Safari® version 10.x+ on Mac OS X and Microsoft® Edge for Windows® 10. The most recent stable versions of Mozilla® Firefox® and Google Chrome™ are also supported. You can continue to use IE11 to access Lightning Experience until December 16, 2017. If you opt into Extended Support for IE11, you can continue to use IE11 to access Lightning Experience until December 31, 2020. You can’t access Lightning Experience via a mobile browser.
Salesforce Classic is supported with Microsoft® Internet Explorer® version 9, 10, and 11, Apple® Safari® version 10.x on Mac OS X, and Microsoft® Edge for Windows® 10. The most recent stable versions of Mozilla® Firefox® and Google Chrome™ are also supported.
Below is the quick summary of Winter’18 release from user’s /customer’s
Customers/Users Point of view
1. Share Calendars with Coworkers in Lightning Experience: – Now it is possible to share your calendar with coworkers. Sales reps can give coworkers access to their My Events calendars to share availability, meeting details, or even let coworkers add events on the reps’ behalf. Reps can give access from the calendar view by clicking on My Events | Share Calendar. The reps can choose a co-worker to share with and select the level of access.
2. Multitouch Campaigns Influence: – With new multi-touch campaign influence models, your marketing department can see the influence details they are most interested in. Separate models track the first touch, last touch, and evenly distribute revenue attribution to all the campaigns that influence an opportunity. This change applies to Salesforce users in orgs that have purchased Pardot. In addition to the Primary Campaign Source model, you can now enable up to three new models for Pardot users who use Customizable Campaign Influence.
- The First Touch model tracks where your brand first interacts with prospects.
- The Last Touch model shows which campaigns are helping close deals.
- The Even Distribution model shows how campaigns perform across all interactions with prospects.
