Power to the Point and Clicker: Salesforce Spring ’15 Release

At NimbleUser, we’re always looking for ways to make ourselves and our users more nimble. From better coffee, to whiteboard walls, to segways with attached standing desks (not yet a working prototype).

One of the huge ways we do that is by building Nimble AMS on the Force.com platform. That means that every four months, or so, the Salesforce fairy visits with a new release and brings dozens of new features that will impact the way everyone in the Nimbleverse does things. No matter who you are, or what you do; if you’re using Nimble AMS, you should expect a constant stream of improvements and new features that make your life better.

So let’s look at just a few of the features and improvements that are coming our way in the Salesforce Spring ‘15 Release.
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Note: Keep in mind that this list is broken down into two sections. The first is features that will be enjoyed on a day-to-day basis by staff. The second are those that can be enjoyed by admins, or enabled by admins and enjoyed by all.

Have you ever tried to search for something in Salesforce and the results were less than optimal? Perhaps your record was so new that it couldn’t be searched for yet, or perhaps you were searching for something very specific, like an email address or a phone number, and it just couldn’t be found.
Well get ready for an all new Salesforce search. Records can now be searched for far more quickly, with more accurate results. You’ll also be able to search using international characters, URLs, email addresses, and phone numbers.

You can now see exactly where on a map a member’s address is located. So no more going to Google Maps in a separate browser tab and pasting in an address. It’s just another way to keep everything on one page.

To assist in identifying which John Doe you’re looking for, Salesforce has added support for Middle Name and Suffix fields for Person Accounts. This will make searching for just the right Doe a snap.

There are new standard integrations with the Salesforce Standard Import Tool. You can now import data from Excel spreadsheets, Google Sheets, as well as other data formats. So it’s easy to get all of your information in one place.

Sometimes you don’t want to get a report until something important has happened. Well, the “Report Run” page now shows a Subscribe button that will let you subscribe to notifications relating to the metrics provided by the report, i.e. the number of event attendees is greater than 1000, year end membership revenue is less than $250,000, etc.
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Notifications can be scheduled to be recurring, sending a Salesforce1 Notification (via the mobile app), Chatter post, email notification or Custom Action.
Now that’s data, just when you need it. ​

The Rich Text Editor, which can be found in areas like Events, has a new look, better performance, bug fixes, improved styling for pasted data, improved handling for pasted images, and increased compatibility with newer browsers. Hurray!

Many associations use Chatter to get groups of people together to resolve issues, suggest improvements, and make changes to records. Staff can now add records to groups allowing group members to collaborate on and discuss the records as a team. Hello data, goodbye context switching. ​

The Salesforce Analytics Cloud is not part of the Force.com platform, but a whole new platform built for big data and easy to use reporting. Analytics Cloud enables you to access your association data, get answers to any questions, and act immediately. Now anyone can access powerful insights and let the data tell a story. ​

Previously, only administrators were able to edit records that were owned by inactive staff users. With Spring ’15, administrators and staff will be able to create or edit records that are owned by inactive staff users. So passing the baton is simple, and staff can stay on track.

You can now upload and view multiple files attached to a Chatter post, yay! If you want to post a slew of photos from your extremely fun and successful event, go for it, and let the “liking” begin.

In the past, when staff put text faces in Chatter posts, they were just left as text, :’-(. But that’s old news, :-), emoticons will now be shown in the Salesforce feed :-p.

It’s now easy to see which fields are setup to be indexed in Salesforce. This is very handy for easily improving performance of querying, list views, and reports.

The Lightning Process Builder is a workflow tool that helps you easily automate everything from daily tasks to complex processes. In just a few clicks you can automate business processes and help your association operate more efficiently. If at any time your staff feels like a process change is in order, easily change it in one place. Make Salesforce work for you.

If you use OneDrive for Business, you can now connect it to Salesforce to easily search for and share files without leaving Salesforce. So no more switching to another browser tab, searching for a file, downloading the file to your computer, (yawn), renaming the file, upload… (ZzZzZ)
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You get the picture, it’s really fast, and pretty neat. ​

Administrators now have much better searching in Setup. While typing in the search box, custom fields, objects, etc. will be returned as results, right in the dropdown. That should spare your clicking finger.

Now you can maintain clean and accurate data with Data.com Duplicate Management (This does not require a Data.com license). Administrators can control whether and when staff is allowed to create duplicate records inside Salesforce, customize the logic that’s used to identify duplicates, and create reports on the duplicates you do allow staff to save.

If you have questions on how this might apply to your specific use case, or Nimble AMS as a whole, please contact us with your questions.
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So this is just a small look at all the great things that are coming our way in the Salesforce Spring ‘15 Release. To see more, check out these short videos Salesforce has put together. If you want to take a deeper dive, be sure to check out the full release notes.