Salesforce Winter ’21 Release Highlights—Features We’re Excited About

In a time of uncertainty and constant change, there’s one thing we can rely on to be the same: Salesforce releases. This summer in the midst of these crazy times we’re living in, Salesforce Winter ‘21 release notes became available.

With the release of new features and functionality for Salesforce users everywhere brings excitement for Admins and Developers who use the platform every single day. But, the release notes can also be time-consuming to go through and most people just want the highlights. That’s why we here at Abstrakt Cloud Solutions have summarized our favorite features from the release, a Salesforce Winter ‘21 Release highlight reel, if you will.

Here are the features discussed in the Winter ‘21 Release that we’re most excited about.

General Admin Features

Fields
- Deleted fields can now be accessed from the Object Manager in Lightning
- User Interface settings can be changed to automatically add new custom fields to custom report types
Lightning Pages
- Dynamic Forms and Actions are now available to all instances
- New ‘Analyze’ tool gives feedback on the design of a page or Lightning app based on desktop performance and suggests ways to improve load and response times
Email Template Builder
- New builder interface that is similar to the Lightning Page Builder UI that allows for drag and drop of features to create email templates
Utility Bar can now be placed on the left side of the screen or the right side of the screen
- Controlled in the Lightning App Manager
Submit for Approval button can now dynamically appear only when a record meets approval criteria
Permission Set Groups are now available in Professional Edition
- Limited to 10 per org in Professional Edition
Microsoft Teams integration is being rolled out as a demo later this year

Object Specific Changes

Opportunity
- When in a List View, changes to the Opportunity Amount and Close Date can now be viewed on hover

Development Updates

Change Sets
- The following components are now available to add to change sets for deployment:
  - Allow URL for Redirects
  - Channel Menu Deployment
  - Custom Index (used for SOQL query indexing)

Automation Updates

Flows
- Flows can now be triggered when a record is deleted
- Flows can also be triggered on specified record conditions
- In a Sandbox, Debugging can now be performed as a specific user rather then the logged in user
- Auto-layout is available
  - This lets you add components on a guided path instead of manually moving them around the canvas
- Decisions can now have the setting to only run if certain changes were made to the record. This allows the rest of the flow to run but skip over unintended processing
- Error messages when debugging now contains a link to the element that contains the error
- Easier access to related record field variables in flow elements. This removes some of the need to include “Get Records” actions for some relationships
- Global Variables are now more accessible then just in Formulas
- Beta Features
  - Multi-Column Screen Flow Components
  - Debugging can be done in the canvas and doesn’t need to open a new tab

Security and Org Identity

Two-Factor Authentication has been replaced with Multi-Factor Authentication
- This is mostly the language used when talking about authenticating logins
- Multi-Factor Assistant has been added in Setup to help manage authentication access and policies from one place
Mobile Device Access Management
- When a user has the permission “View Devices” enabled, they can see what mobile devices have access to their Salesforce instance
- User can also set up custom access policies around individual devices
- Reporting on policies and access levels for individual devices has been added
- Access can be granted/revoked for individual devices as desired
Domain Settings
- New orgs automatically have My Domain enabled when they are created, and a domain must be defined for those orgs. For existing orgs, My Domain must be set up and defined by the Winter 2022 release
- Instance Name is being removed from Visualforce, Experience Builder, and Content File URLs
  - This is done to shorten the URLs and make it easier to remember for users. Bookmarks will be automatically redirected if they have not been updated.
  - Note: This was first introduced in Spring 2018 release, but is getting a more permanent push in this release
Profile Access
- A new feature can be enabled that restricts the available profiles for settings and record selection choices based on the current user’s level of access.
  - i.e. A Sales User cannot see the profile settings of a Sales Manager
  - If this setting is enabled, the counterpart setting is “View All Profiles” and this is what you grant to profiles that should have access to the full list

High Velocity Sales

Sales Cadences
- Who can access and use specific cadences can now be controlled in settings by administrators
- Cadence Targets that are currently In-Progress can now be reassigned individually to another user without resetting the cadence, the target, or any other progress
- Sales Cadence Targets can be paused to not lose progress (i.e. if a prospect was called but they are out of office, the sales rep can pause the target and pick up the touchpoint the next day)

Salesforce Release Notes are always a lot to digest. Beyond that, managing Salesforce can be an overwhelming task for any business without the proper resources in-house. At Abstrakt, we’ve been using Salesforce ever since we began doing business. Over the years, our team members have become experts in Salesforce; and now, we offer Salesforce consulting services.

We can assist with the day-to-day management of your Salesforce instance, handle integrations, or take on any special projects. We even have a Salesforce Partner Program specifically for MSPs (grow your MSP by providing a more extensive service offering to your clients). No matter what your Salesforce needs are, we have a team of experts to handle it.

Ready to maximize your Salesforce investment? Schedule a meeting with us today.