Lightning is Coming This October – What Does This Mean?

You have probably received emails from Salesforce telling you that in October with the Winter 2020 release, Lightning will be turned on. What does this mean for your organization? We answered some of the most frequently asked questions for you and also discuss how Lightning’s features can help your organization become more productive.

Question #1. I’ve seen them, but what does that mean?

Right now, if you are in Salesforce “classic,” you would have to click ‘Setup’ and flip a few switches to turn on Lightning. Keep in mind, those switches are going to be set to “On” this coming October.

Question #2. How does that impact me?

Well, it means that users who have the permissions to use Lightning will be able to switch back and forth between the two user interfaces.

Question #3. So that doesn’t mean everyone will automatically be in Lightning and we won’t have Classic available to us?

Correct. But if you have the Lightning User permission, you will have to change back to Classic via the switcher. All Standard profiles have permission automatically. You’ll have to check your custom profiles to see if the permission is enabled. Unclick it if you do not want users to see Lightning.

Question #4. Is that a good idea?

Yes and No. Salesforce Lightning Experience does two things: 1. It changes the user interface dramatically from Classic and 2. It changes some of the core technical architecture that you can’t see, but it makes the Salesforce world a safer place.

So, safe and secure is a very good idea. Salesforce spends a lot of energy, time, and money on keeping their platform as secure as they can. And the bad guys spend a lot of time and energy trying to see who they can spoof or hack. (This is also a great time to review your session settings and password policies to make sure they are set to keep you secure.)

It’s not so great if people suddenly pop over to a new user interface that no one has tested or prepared them for. In our experience, companies that just turned on Lightning without following the recommended processes have switched back to Classic. People logged in and couldn’t find anything they needed to do their work. Buttons were missing, they couldn’t see the fields they were used to seeing, and what people did find was the – Switch Back to Classic button.

Lightning – Who Moved My Classic? Change is Difficult.

Change is difficult, so it’s important to control change so that it is anticipated by your team and they know what to expect.

You’ve maybe heard all the reasons that Lightning is great – but I’ll recap a few of them here.

• Efficient navigation and the ability to switch between custom-branded apps.
• Quick access to productivity tools including Notes and Recent Items in the utility bar.
• Sales productivity tools such as Kanban view, Opportunity Workspace, and Assistant.
• Lightning Voice allows salespeople to call prospects directly within the Sales Cloud.
• New record layouts that focus on what you can do instead of what you can view.
• List views that let you easily filter and visualize your data.
• Great dashboards with components that span both columns and rows.
• Report views that you can filter quickly to see the data that’s most interesting and important to you.

Lightning Makes Everyone Productive.

In a successful rollout of Lightning, you can expect increases in productivity.

But these results require change management – you need to present a vision of the future your team members can get excited about. You also need a plan to follow through to make sure that all your current classic features are working in Lightning.

I’ve Ignored Lightning This Long. Why Can’t I Continue to Ignore it?

You can control who sees Lightning by user profiles, but you don’t want to hold off for too long. Don’t miss out on the new features. All the new enhancements and features of the Salesforce release cycle apply to Lightning only. Lightning has the Kanban view, Performance Chart, Assistant, Activity timelines and more. Three times a year, new productivity features get released, but only for Lightning.

Question #5. Isn’t Lightning slow?

When Salesforce first released Lightning, it was missing many features we used every day, was not speedy, and had tons of white space. With each release, improvements have been made to address these issues, and it is now a robust platform and ready to be used. Plan to make the switch soon, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Enjoyed reading this article? Click here “4 Key Features of Salesforce Lightning” to read our other article on Lightning.

Still debating whether to move or not?

Most of your organization’s customizations work seamlessly in Lightning Experience, but a few things may need a little attention before the transition. Maintaining a consistent experience from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience will ease the transition for your users. FMT is here to help your organization avoid hiccups and to provide recommendations for best practices. If you are concerned with the migration process, click here to request a free consultation on Lightning migration package offering or give us a call at 833 – 827 – 4275.