Cozy up by the fireplace with a nice blanket and a cup of hot cocoa; Salesforce's Winter '23 update is as cool as ice! This release is packed with innovative content ready to be used within your Salesforce organization. We discuss some of our favorite new features coming in Winter '23. Here are a few of the most exciting highlights from the release:

Salesforce Platform: Break Up Record Details in Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities

Salesforce's Dynamic Forms allow the creation of user-centric page layouts that display the right amount of information, foregoing the necessity for multiple page layouts and separate profiles.

• Create Flexible Record Pages - Use Dynamic Forms to make pages for accounts, contacts, and opportunities.

• Create Sections and Fields - The Lightning App Builder allows the addition of fields and field sections without using the page layout editor. Find the Field Section option and the available fields for each object in the Fields tab next to Components, and drag your desired fields onto the page.

• Configure Sections and Fields - Along with this, employ visibility rules to enhance user experience.

• Migrate Layout to Dynamic Forms - A Lightning record page may be migrated by selecting the Edit Page option from Setup, and the Upgrade Wizard takes the fields and sections you choose to be added to the page.

Automation: OmniStudio

OmniStudio provides a modular suite of services, task-based components, data model objects, and other reusable industry-specific solutions. You can create guided interactions and complex processes using data from Salesforce and external sources.

A few key similarities between OmniScripts and Screen Flows are as follows: they both create guided interactions with branching logic, can read/write Salesforce data, can call Apex classes and custom LWCs, may be embedded in 3rd party web pages, are responsive, and more. OmniScripts stands out with custom stylesheet support, dynamic LWC screens, Google Analytics integration, and low code API consumption.

As a rule of thumb, OmniScripts should be used for external personas and industry use cases, while Screen Flows should be used for employee-facing use cases. 

OmniStudio Licenses and Permission Sets

The OmniStudio User user license's standard permission set is now part of the Admin user license, creating one primary OmniStudio user license. 

Standard OmniStudio Runtime

• Activating an OmniStudio component is now faster.

• Already active OmniScript and FlexCard components can run natively in your org or from the installed package.

• If an OmniStudio component wasn't active before Standard OmniStudio Runtime is enabled, activating that component no longer generates LWCs.

• A package-generated OmniScript or FlexCard component can run natively in your org through deactivation and reactivation.

Standard OmniStudio Content

• Out-of-the-box standard OmniStudio components run natively in your org.

• OmniScript and FlexCard standard components are visible in the Lightning and Experience Builders and render out-of-the-box standard OmniStudio content.

• Out-of-the-box standard OmniStudio content and custom OmniStudio content are visible on the OmniStudio product home screen.

• Create a version to modify out-of-the-box standard OmniStudio content. Version 1 remains unmodifiable.
  

OmniStudio Migration Tool

OmniStudio for Vlocity

After migrating custom objects to standard objects, edit the standard object versions of migrated OmniStudio content.

OmniStudio FlexCards

OmniStudio

• Add a standard FlexCard to an LWR Experience site when Standard OmniStudio Runtime is disabled.

• Add the generated FlexCard LWC to the LWR Experience page. 

• View out-of-the-box standard FlexCards in the FlexCard Designer Preview.

• FlexCard standard component is supported on Home pages.

• Add an out-of-the-box standard FlexCard or OmniScript component as a custom LWC by entering the name of the out-of-the-box component in the FlexCard Designer's Custom LWC element.

• Reference a packaged custom label in a standard FlexCard component.

OmniStudio and OmniStudio for Vlocity

• Data and Update Datasource actions support SOQL and SOSL data sources.

• Enable continuation on FlexCards that call a long-running Integration Procedure or Apex class.
  

OmniScripts

OmniStudio

• Add out-of-the-box standard OmniScript components from the Build Panel of the OmniScript Designer in between or on steps.

• Previously unsupported features are now supported in Winter '23 and later releases.

OmniStudio DataRaptors

OmniStudio

Create different versions of a DataRaptor by enabling DataRaptor Versioning and OmniStudio Metadata in OmniStudio Settings.

Sales Cloud: Custom Opportunity Fields in Forecasts

Need to look at a specific attribute and single out the data you want to study? Now your sales team can filter forecasts by numbers, currencies, picklist fields, and custom fields. When you create a forecast type in the setup flow, select standard and custom fields to filter by. You can add up to three conditions and use the AND operator.

Service Cloud: Swarming

Swarm on Customer Issues in Slack

Service organizations are given the tools required to collaborate at scale with experts, solve customer issues, and report on Swarming participation and impact. Agents can involve other experts and seamlessly log collaboration, participation, and ownership, as well as save time and increase customer satisfaction through a more efficient service model. The Service Cloud for Slack app, now generally available, includes some enhancements since the beta release.

Speed Up Your Time-to-Swarm with Guided Swarming Setup

The enhanced setup page is sure to get your team swarming. You can give users access to objects, set up your Service Console, and configure flows. If Slack is your primarily collaboration tool, the setup brings you to the new unified Salesforce for Slack Apps setup.

Add Multiple Users to Your Swarms

Creating a swarm is easy! Save time adding swarm members one by one with the ability to select multiple users by name and add them all at once.

Save Time with Swarm Records That Close Automatically

Keep your teams productive with swarm and swarm member records that close when a related case or incident is closed.

Swarm on a Record Multiple Times with Overridable Swarm Record Names

Override the default swarm record name with a name that is specific to your needs or naming conventions. Your teams can more easily identify the swarm’s purpose from the case or incident list view, especially if a record has multiple ongoing swarms.

Add Swarm Members More Easily with Swarm Member Descriptions

The Swarm Member Name field is now called Swarm Member Description; users will more easily understand that they can include information about the swarm member or swarm and not reenter the user’s name.

Catch Up on Service Cloud for Slack App Features

You can use the Service Cloud for Slack app to swarm on customer issues directly from Slack.

Experience Cloud: Deploy Partial Site Content with Change Sets

Clicks, not code! With partial deployment, you don't simultaneously finalize and deploy all of your updates; rather, each update is moved from the test environment to production at its own pace. Create an outbound change set, add the new component type, select only the updated components, and deploy. 

Analytics: Dashboard Lightning Reports with Direct Report Queries

Using Direct Report Queries, you can access and interact with all your analytics in a single, consistent space:

• Unify Your Analytics - Instead of relying on multiple different tools, you can incorporate tabular, summary, aggregate, and matrix reports in your CRM Analytics dashboard.

• Build New Reports - Report insights can be visualized in different ways by exploring various CRM Analytics functionalities. 

Field Service: Add Flexibility to Work Order Generation

Taking the most recent work order completion date into account, you can now create recurring work orders on a floating schedule; work orders completed ahead or behind schedule generate another work order based on the recurrence cadence. This is in contrast to fixed schedules wherein work orders are scheduled at exact intervals determined by the work order start date.

Commerce Cloud: Order on Behalf of Shopper

Waiting on a shopper to place an order? Service agents can now directly place orders on behalf of shoppers through a streamlined process using a sequence of API endpoints.

Industries: Customer Service with Service Console for Manufacturing

With Service Console Manufacturing, you can empower your customer service representatives to deliver a smooth service experience and increase customer satisfaction. On a single screen, CSRs manage end-to-end service interactions and can verify a customer's identity, view a timeline of interactions with them, and find information about related orders, assets, and cases. They can also search for knowledge articles, receive alerts for record changes, take contextual actions, and capture interaction details.

Conclusion: Grow an Efficient Business

With the Winter 23' release, Salesforce introduces many new and improved features that showcase a commitment to continuous growth and advancement as well as serve to refine their user experience. If you'd like to learn more about these updates or any of the others included in the release, please check out the official release notes. If you have any questions about Salesforce or want to see any of the implementations in your own Salesforce organization, contact DB Services!