To improve the Salesforce experience and meet users’ needs, Salesforce asked users for feedback on the customer relationship management system. Many users agreed on one thing: They wanted a better and more modern user experience.

Instead of tweaking a few things here and there, the company revamped Salesforce. The change is equivalent to upgrading from a computer running Windows XP to one that runs Windows 10. Salesforce Lightning Experience contains a completely redesigned interface, user experience, and platform.

“This launch is not just about new fonts and colors and icons. And it’s about much more than a refreshed user interface,” writes Mike Rosenbaum in Welcome to the Future of CRM. Welcome to Salesforce Lightning. “Lightning Experience is a completely new Salesforce and a completely new way to sell.”

Benefits of Moving to Salesforce Lightning Experience

Why should companies consider making the move to Lightning? As a CRM, Salesforce’s most important function is helping sales manage their data and interactions with prospects and customers. Lightning contains new everyday tools and features that will help sales teams sell faster, smarter, and from anywhere.

Here are more reasons to migrate to Salesforce Lightning:

• Adds Activity Feed that reports on what happened on an account and what to do next
• Implements customizable dashboards to support up to nine columns, the most requested feature
• Shows more information about a customer without requiring users to jump from page to page
• Works with mobile devices via the Salesforce1 Mobile App integrated with Lightning
• Makes and receives voice calls from within Salesforce through Lightning Voice that can be logged
• Has more than 150 “Lightning Ready” third-party apps in AppExchange to enhance Salesforce to better fit your company’s needs
• Integrates customer support in company’s apps and webpages with Snap-Ins

Convinced that it’s worth exploring Lightning? Here are the things to consider before making the move.

What Are the Standard Things You Can Migrate to Salesforce Lightning?

When a company migrates from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience, it retains all of their data and compatible functionality. Users should expect the transfer to be very similar to upgrading from an older operating system to a new one. All the underlying data will still be there and they gain new powerful features.

Most of the features available in Salesforce Classic are supported in Lightning. However, some features don’t appear in Lightning Experience yet. For a list of these features, please see Features Not Available in Lightning.

Organizations can find out which of their key implemented features and customizations are ready for Lightning Experience. To do this, run the Lightning Experience Readiness Check in Salesforce.

Be aware that the readiness check does not evaluate everything. View What’s Covered in the Lightning Experience Readiness Check. After running the check, make a list of features you need that aren’t available. Use this list to seek alternatives.

Can We Just Use Migration Assistant to Migrate from Classic to Lightning?

Migration Assistant is a feature that will help users to migrate from Salesforce Classic to Salesforce lightning experience. It gives you resources that will help you learn about Lightning Experience to decide if it’s right for your organization. After the organization decides to migrate, the assistant guides them through the steps to set it up and turn on key features.

Remember, Lightning doesn’t support some features. Instead of using Migration Assistant, organizations will take a different approach to implement the missing features, which include JavaScript buttons, home page components, and record navigation URLs.

As a first step in Migration Assistant, users will run the Lightning Readiness Check Report to identify concerns or issues. If there are no issues, then the organization can use Migration Assistant. Another option is to work with a Salesforce professional who can help the organization migrate Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience. A Salesforce pro will know how to handle missing customizations and unsupported features.

What Else Should We Consider Before Migrating to Lightning Experience?

Before moving to Lightning Experience, review these four important factors.

• Verify all the standard out-of-box features used in application and product development are available in Lightning Experience.
• Check whether installed packages have Lightning-ready certification. If the app does not have certification, then some of its features may not be available or work as expected.
• Make sure all major functionality works as intended without breaking while doing the preview.
• Replace all hard coded URLs with current Salesforce instance URLs. The instance URL will change in Lightning Experience because of domain creation.

How to Get Ready to Migrate to Lightning Experience

Here are three steps to take to help you prepare for migration:

1. Evaluate: Run Lightning Experience Readiness Check to receive a PDF Readiness Report by email. It will offer recommendations on how to prepare the organization for migrating to the Lightning Experience.
2. Compare: Review the comparison checklist of Classic and Lightning features to see how it affects your organization’s Salesforce implementation.
3. Preview: Test-drive Lightning Experience before migrating the entire organization to see what it will look like for the organization after implementation.

Between the Readiness Report and the pilot team doing the preview, you’ll gain insight on what’s working and what’s not working. Make a list of everything that needs changing and add a column to report the status of each one. Prioritize the list to determine easy items and the ones that require more time and resources.

After making a few modifications, run the Readiness Check again. You’ll most likely run it multiple times as you gradually migrate to the Lightning Experience. Plus, Salesforce continuously updates the readiness check.

Migrating to Salesforce Lightning Experience doesn’t require doing everything at once. A successful migration involves multiple iterations on a smaller scale. Doing this helps the organization implement all their Salesforce requirements and get Lightning ready for an organization-wide rollout.

Related posts

• How to Increase Salesforce Adoption in Your Company
• What You Need to Know about Salesforce CRM to See If It’s Right For You
• How to Budget for Your Salesforce Implementation

If you’d like to have an experienced team coach your organization through the process, please email customersuccess@appshark.com or use the chat option on the bottom of this page.