Summary of the Main Points of the Winter ´23 Release

With the new winter season upon us, we look forward to new features from Salesforce. This cyclical update is packed with a lot of interesting changes and I will try to summarize them for you in a clear list. You can read more, and even earn some extra points, in this Trailhead module. You can also find these links in the Resources section and learn more from the Salesforce Help page.

What’s new and where:

Sales and Service

• Dynamic Forms for Account, Contact, and Opportunity
• Sales Cadence Screen Flows
• Subscription Quotes
• Territory Planning criteria beyond geographical location
• Forecasting – custom calculated columns and custom data filtering
• Broadcast Communication
• Amazon Connect for Service Cloud Voice – includes outbound campaigns
• Facebook Messenger – structured content, more automation
• Preventive Maintenance – plans based on fixed frequency or usage since last maintenance
• Article and Reply Recommendation – dashboards and insights from Einstein

Marketing, Commerce and Loyalty

• External Actions when using Engagement Studio for third party applications
• Push Enhancements using RESTful APIs
• Ecommerce Marketing Insights
• CDP Connector for Google Cloud Storage
• TikTok Integration for Commerce
• Store Fulfillment
• B2B Commerce and B2B2C – integration of recurring revenue from Revenue Cloud to Commerce Cloud, D2C channel with local tax tables and languages, Semantic Search
• Payments – new payment methods, Reports and Dashboards
• Order Management – service agents can recommend and order products on behalf of customers, Tableau data
• Member Engagement Widgets
• Loyalty Member Badges
• Loyalty Journeys for Marketing Cloud
• Loyalty Management for Media
• Loyalty Promotions Setup – creating program rules

Analytics and MuleSoft

• Einstein Discovery: live predictions in Snowflake
• CRM Analytics – a new, personalised Home with access to useful resources
• Einstein Discovery: Model Inspection
• UI improvements
• MuleSoft Robotic Process Automation
• MuleSoft Composer Templates
• MuleSoft Composer Connectors
• MuleSoft Accelerators
• Anypoint Connectors

Platform

• DevOps Center
• Sandboxes in Hyperforce: Quick Clone
• Salesforce Function – dashboards for developers
• External Services – easier integration
• Flow Builder – improved testing
• Flow Orchestration – Work Guide and Supervisor Permissions
• AWS Partnership – Event Relays and Salesforce Connect Adaptor for Athena
• Publish-Subscribe API
• Private Connect – available in EMEA and APAC regions
• Privacy Center: preference manager
• Security Center – additional information
• Scoping Rules

Slack and other apps

• Huddles – simultaneous screen sharing and other features
• Permissions and Roles – Granular role
• Salesforce Feedback Management: Sentiment Insights
• Salesforce Scheduler: Shift Rostering – recurring shifts
• Salesforce Surveys – API connection
• Salesforce Scheduler: Scheduler Appointment
• Salesforce Surveys: Survey Distribution

Financial Services and Health

• Tear Sheet Generation
• Actionable Relationship Center – new templates, sophisticated views and additional features
• Slack for Financial Services Cloud
• Customer Compliance – frameworks for information verification
• Virtual Care
• Advanced Therapy Management
• Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) API
• Medication Management
• Utilization Management

Manufacturing and Public Sector

• Service Console for Manufacturing – interaction snapshots, identity verification, alerts and more
• Partner Performance Management
• Composable Case Management
• Benefit Management
• Events and Relations Map
• Complaint Reporting

Communications, Media and Energy & Utilities

• CRM Analytics for Communications Cloud: Order Management Analytics
• Enterprise Self-Service
• MuleSoft for Communications Cloud
• CRM Analytics for Media Cloud
• Media Cloud Intelligence
• Loyalty Management for Media
• Advertising Sales Management integration with Revenue Cloud
• Advertising Clean Room
• Utility Customer Self-Service
• API Integration Suite

Net Zero and Salesforce.org: NGO and Education

• Carbon Credit Allocation
• Water Management
• Enhanced Reference Data Management
• Business Travel Predictions
• Supplier Product Emission Factors Management
• Data Lake for Nonprofits, running on AWS
• Recurring Gift Management
• Nonprofit Success Pack: Gift Refunds
• Data Entry Verification
• Data Mover – import, custom mapping, duplication prevention logic
• Student Success Hub: Appointment Booking – comments
• Student Success Hub: Guidance Center

Customer Success and Skilling & Enablement

• Guidance Center
• In-App Guidance and Walkthroughs – better targeting and additional features
• Proactive Monitoring – Availability for multiple clouds and services
• Onboarding – greeting, capturing targets and pain points, and more
• Guided Onboarding for Service Cloud, Platform and Account Engagement
• Expert Coaching – new programs, updates and more
• Salesforce Help – Support Bot

Summary

As you can see, Salesforce and its clouds have received many improvements and new features. It would be exhaustive to describe everything in depth within the scope of this article, so we encourage you to take a closer look at what you are interested in using the links provided in the Resources. If that’s not enough for you, or the feature didn’t have a link, you can try to find additional information elsewhere – I recommend using your favorite search engine.

We may look at some of the features in more detail in the future.

Vojtech Landa, CRM Consultant