The Weekend Picklist

Every weekend, we’ll be delivering our top headlines – highlights from the previous week for you to enjoy with a cup of coffee!

1. Salesforce Architects: What We Found Out in 2022?

As we all know, the Salesforce Architect is one of the most sought-after personas in the ecosystem. The problem is, the role itself isn’t completely understood, resulting in companies hiring Salesforce Architects to complete tasks that an admin could easily do, and vice versa. Based on this year’s Career and Hiring Guide, here’s what we have found out about architects:?

• 25% of architects who participated agree that hiring managers do not fully understand what the role of an architect actually entails.
• The skills and responsibilities between Solution, Technical, and Enterprise Architects are misjudged.
• 72% say it’s not possible to advance your career without extensive, hands-on experience.
• 48% of respondents that aren’t architects have been asked to complete architect-level tasks outside their capabilities.

Obviously, there is room for improvement! Salesforce Ben recently sat down with Lilith and Ankit, two working Salesforce Architects, to ask them what considerations people should take when following in their professional footsteps – overall, dedicated study time and project variety were their two top choices.

Many people are trying to forge their way along this career path, and finding that the right job and supportive community is essential. Lately, the role of architect has shifted from IT-focused specialists to those pursuing seniority without having to move into the management team or becoming a project delivery manager. As Salesforce becomes more established, seniority and salary should increase as Salesforce specialists gain more years of experience.?[Read More]

2. Free Salesforce Integration Crash Course?

?Did you know that Salesforce Ben regularly hosts webinars and live chats with professionals within the ecosystem? Join us on November 2nd for a whistle-stop tour of different integration types and patterns. Anup will also be sharing an overview of the various tools used for syncing data with external systems, as well as the other Salesforce clouds and the trade-offs involved in choosing one tool over another.?[Register]?

3. Top Trends From the “State of Salesforce” 2022-23 Report

?How are companies “unlocking the next wave of value with Salesforce?”?IBM’s?State of Salesforce?report has been released and the results are in. The global, data-driven survey explores business strategies, investments, and developments, along with insights from IBM’s thought leaders and consultants.?

?Salesforce’s cross-cloud technology is a big component – with the rise in remote working setups, harmonizing intelligent workflows is imperative. Breaking down barriers such as geographical limitations and improving employee satisfaction is a #1 priority for many companies.?

Orgs around the world are also maximizing their Salesforce service, with 50% of CEOs stating their prioritization to deliver more innovation in products and services to their customers. How do they plan to achieve this? Trust. Companies are investing in platforms like Tableau to reinforce their business strategies, and in turn, earn their customers’ loyalty.?[Read More]

4. Salesforce Dynamic Forms: Overview & Deep Dive Tutorial

What are Salesforce Dynamic Forms? Essentially, their purpose is to fix your Lightning pages’ congested “details” section. The new user-centric page layout will only display the right information at the right time – using visibility rules, Dynamic Forms can create fields and components appear based on the criteria you choose.

Dynamic forms are currently available to support standard objects, Accounts, Person Accounts, and Opportunities – but don’t worry, Salesforce recently announced their intention to support all standard objects by Fall 2023. For now, you can access the feature through a custom object’s Lightning Panel; clicking on “Highlights Panel” or “Record Detail” will show you the option to upgrade to Dynamic Forms.?[Read More]?

5. Salesforce Custom Address Field: Tutorial

Great news for everyone! As of Winter ‘23, Salesforce Custom Address Fields are Generally Available. Until now, there has been no way to create customized Address fields without creating multiple custom fields – the only options available have been Standard or Custom Address Fields, the latter being the better option as it improves data accuracy and user adoption.

Before you get ahead of yourself, be sure you have configured your org’s state and territory picklists, as custom fields won’t work until you have completed this prerequisite! Once that has been set up, and you have activated your custom Address Fields, note these cannot be disabled.

Creating a Salesforce Custom Address Field:

1. Setup > Object Manager > [Object] > Fields & Relationships. Click New.
2. Give it a Field Label, Description, Help Text, and assign it to the relevant profiles and page layouts as required.

Note that there are many considerations to take into account with Custom Address Fields – see the full list?here.

6. Salesforce Platform Events: Explained

Have you ever wondered how Salesforce can reduce dependencies between complex systems? Platform Events would be the answer. These?broadcast when there have been changes?that the event consumer needs to know about. The integration exchanges event data in real-time between Salesforce and external platforms.

I’ll use Priscilla’s example to explain: You and your partner are on a trip with a group of friends and your partner is this weekend’s designated chef. Around dinner time you and your guests intermittently pop into the kitchen to ask the chef when the food will be ready.?

He’s getting annoyed as he’s been asked the same question over and over, and offers a solution: instead of five people popping in at different times asking for the status, he sends out a link to join a WhatsApp group so he can broadcast when dinner will be served to?everybody.

Well, Salesforce Platform Events do the same thing – instead of different channels asking for the same information separately, Salesforce can now distribute the message to them all simultaneously to unify the information.?[Read More]

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