With the first sunny signs of Spring  this week, Salesforce is also brightening up our days by rolling out the Spring ‘15 release the following weekend. Here we have collected our favorites from the new release. Some of the features are automatically available but some require admins to enable the features. Also, don’t forget to read the Salesforce release notes and Marketing Cloud release notes  for more great new features and feature enhancements!

Simple Features that Improve Effectiveness

• Standard Address Fields Show Google Maps. You can see a Google Maps image based on standard address. If an address field is missing any of the required information, a map won’t display.

• Macros for Agents. Macros enable users to perform multiple actions on the Case Feed with one click. You could for instance have a macro that selects an email template, sends an email to the customer and updates the case status, all in a single click.

• Chatter Question to Case. Chatter Questions are now generally available.

• Turn Posts into Tasks.Enhance the feed with a new action that lets users create tasks directly from a post.

• Use Thanks and Skills for free. This a great way to show appreciation of coworkers and who doesn’t love to be appreciated? You can also share your skills so it’s easy to figure out who to ask for help.

• Importing Account and Contacts. Import your accounts and contacts into Salesforce from e.g. Gmail, Excel, LinkedIn.

Mobile enhancements

• Salesforce1 allows you to see up to 200 list views for an object directly from an object’s home page.You can view and apply dashboard filters that were previously configured in the full Salesforce site.
• You can choose running user for dynamic dashboards that are configured to run as a specified user.

New Possibilities for Setup and Security

• Assets and Orders. Control Your Users’ Access to Orders with Sharing Rules. Previously, orders inherited the sharing model for accounts, which is typically shared widely. In Spring ‘15, also the Assets object has been redesigned as a standard object and has the same features, including a tab, sharing settings and record types, as a standard object.

• Field history tracking is now available for Products.

• Files Support Record Types and Page Layouts. Administrators can now set both of these for Files, using the Record Types and Page Layouts Setup pages in the new Salesforce Files node.

• Configure a Google Authentication Provider. Let users log in to a Salesforce organization using their Google accounts.

• Microsoft Exchange/outlook server side sync. Beta release.

• Community Builder. This function is not completely new, but many new features have been added and it’s a great way to quickly get a self-service community going.

• Person accounts are now supported by communities

New features that help building processes in adoption

• Data.com Duplicate Management. Control whether and when you allow users to create duplicate records inside Salesforce, customize the logic that’s used to identify duplicates, and create reports on the duplicates you do allow users to save. Set up duplicate rules that tell Salesforce what action to take when users attempt to create records that might duplicate existing Salesforce records. Use matching rules to determine how two records are compared and identified as duplicates.

• Process Builder. Lightning Process Builder is a workflow tool that helps you easily automate everything from daily tasks, like follow-up emails, to more complex processes, like order renewals and new-hire on-boarding. In just a few clicks you can automate business processes and help your organization operate more efficiently. The Process Builder allows you to create your whole process in one place rather than using multiple workflow rules and automate simple tasks without using Apex.
• Sales Path. Make it easy for sales reps to follow your organization’s sales process and get deals closed! Sales Path is a visual assistant that guides reps through each of the stages required to complete a sale. This new tool is available in all versions of Salesforce1.
• Salesforce Adoption Manager. You can turn your users into power users with Salesforce Adoption Manager. If this feature is enabled, users receive customized suggestions based on how they work in both the full Salesforce site and the Salesforce1 mobile app.
• Do More with Enhanced Goals (Pilot). If you’re signed up for the Goals pilot, your teams can use additional features such as metric weighting, goal progress roll up, and linking metrics to Salesforce data. Your users can assign weights to different metrics to precisely track the completion of a goal. Additionally, progress for individual metrics roll up to the goal they are associated with.

New features for marketing 

• Branding changes as ExactTarget Marketing Cloud is now called the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. You will notice the name change and updated look and feel inside the application.
• Brand new cross-channel editor called Content Builder. Once Content Builder becomes available for your account, you will view the opt-in banner appearing in the Email channel application. With this new editor, you can e.g. create professional emails without knowing HTML.

• Email Triggers for Salesforce — you can now send one to one communications to contacts or leads using triggered sends  in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.