During Dreamforce 2014, Salesforce announced the launch of Salesforce lightning – which was created to revamp the user experience. This led to a significant increase in the number of companies switching from Salesforce Classic to Lightning.
Four years later, this number continues to grow. According to a Salesforce survey in August 2017, Lightning users experienced a 41% increase in productivity. Many organisations are now switching to Salesforce Lightning to improve their performance.
What is lightning?
Salesforce Lightning can be defined in two ways:
- It is the new and improved user interface that helps sales representatives sell faster. This is also known as the Salesforce Lightning Experience
- It is a collection of tools and technologies that help developers or business administrators to easily customize the Salesforce organisation by using fewer codes. Some examples of the tools integrated with Lightning include Process Builder and Visual Flow among others.
Why use Lightning?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to include all of the Salesforce Lightning new features in a single blog, as they are numerous. Luckily, a list comparing the classic edition with Lightning has been provided by Salesforce Help.
Nevertheless, as Salesforce experts, it is our duty to recommend the best solutions. That said, we have compiled a short list of reasons why you should join the wave and switch to Lightning:
Switching to Lightning is free.
Yes, that’s right! You will not pay any additional fees to switch to Salesforce Lightning. All the functionalities are automatically accessible with their release and completely free to use. Lightning can be enjoyed with no hidden cost
It is recommended by Salesforce
Salesforce recommends the best for their users as they are always looking to provide better support. By switching to Lightning, not only are you benefiting from all the functionalities developed by Salesforce, but you are also aligning yourself with their vision so you can keep growing together.
It is easier to use
According to the Salesforce 2017 Lightning adoption survey, respondents have reported that they are more productive on Lightning. We asked our own clients for feedback, to compare, and they confirmed that once they got used to the new layout, the lightning experience increased their sales conversion rates. The Salesforce survey recorded a 44% conversion rate and a 23% time reduction to close deals.
It has a nicer look and feel
The new interface looks modern compared to the previous one which is very appealing to users. In fact, a prospect of ours insisted on having the new Lightning layout because they prefer to work with a modern interface.
In the new interface, the reports contain more information and the items are well distributed on the screen. Creating pages is also much easier in Lightning as the use of Visualforce pages that was always required in the classic interface is reduced. In Lightning, creating a page can be done with drag-and-drop and does not require any codes.
It provides a safe solution
Salesforce made great strides to improve security. They focused on assessing what was originally done in Javascript and replacing it with Lightning components. The idea behind this procedure was to reduce the codes needed to customize and provide safer solutions.
For instance, with the introduction of lightning components, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks have been greatly mitigated.
A whole module on Lightning security on Trailhead.
Einstein Analytics
We kept the best for last. In Lightning, users have access to Einstein Analytics reporting. Einstein Analytics relies on its own database that is automatically updated every hour from live Salesforce data. Lightning dashboards have the ability to display more reports than the classic ones. Moreover, your dashboard can now be exported as a picture. Also, users can drill down and see all the data behind a specific metric just by clicking on it.
Ready to switch to Lightning?
If you are ready to move to Lightning, follow these simple steps.
Step 1: Verify if your org is eligible
The first step in moving to Salesforce lightning is to check whether your org is eligible for the move to Salesforce or not. Below is the list of supported and unsupported Salesforce Editions and Salesforce User Licences:
| Supported Editions | Unsupported Editions |
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| Supported Licenses | Unsupported Licenses |
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Please note that it is possible for an org to have some users on Salesforce Classic and some on Salesforce Lightning.
It is important to know which license is being used when working with Salesforce or doing customizations so the functionalities are operational for all the different users. ,
Step 2: Check that your functionalities will still be supported
You will need to verify with your Salesforce implementation expert will still be available on Lightning. Once you get the green light, you can assess the eligibility to switch to Lightning by doing the Salesforce Readiness Check by yourself. To do so:
- From the Setup page in Salesforce Classic, click Get Started in the Lightning Experience Migration Assistant tile at the top of the menu (1).
- From the Setup page in Lightning Experience, enter Lightning in the Quick Find box, and then select Lightning Experience.
- On the Check Readiness tab in the Migration Assistant (2), click Check Readiness (3).
Step 3: Trailhead for more information
Once again, Trailhead remains the best place to learn anything you want to know about Lightning. To understand how Salesforce Lightning works, it is strongly advised to complete the module on shifting to Lightning. It will give you the best resources and the information you need to know to successfully migrate to Salesforce Lightning in a fun interactive way.
The module can be found here.
Step 4: Make the switch!
From this point on, switching to Lightning is just a click away:
- Click on Switch to Lightning Experience (next to your name).
You are now ready to go and can start benefiting from all the advantages of Salesforce Lightning.
It is important to bear in mind that some functionalities are only in beta in Salesforce Lightning and others have not yet been released for Lightning. Since this is ever changing, we recommend taking a regular look at the release notes (available three times per year) to check on all the new features that Salesforce makes available.
If you need more assistance, Big Bang ERP has a group of certified and highly qualified experts to help you through the process of migrating to Salesforce Lightning.
