9 Steps to a Successful Salesforce Lightning Rollout
It’s unlikely that you haven’t heard, but to be safe, here’s a reminder: the Salesforce Lightning rollout is starting in Winter ‘20. If that fact has left you bewildered (or starting to panic), let’s clarify a few things before we get to the 9 steps to a successful Lightning rollout:
First, know that with the Winter ‘20 release (which happens in October 2019) you will still get to control who gets access to Lightning in your Salesforce instance. That means, yes, Classic will still be accessible to your users. But the fact that Lightning will be turned on in all orgs also means that you shouldn’t ignore Lightning very much longer. It’s important to begin the transition to Lightning… today. Start by educating yourself – and your team – about what Lightning is and beginning to make a transition plan using the resources available to you.
Be sure to know… Salesforce is not forcing customers to switch to Lightning. However, the future of the Salesforce user experience and platform is Salesforce Lightning. Moving forward, that means all innovations will be in Lightning Experience, so it just makes good sense to get on-board fast.
Focus on These 9 Lightning Rollout Steps
Once you have committed to switching your company’s Salesforce org to Lightning Experience, it’s time to create a rollout plan. Sure, you’ll want to customize your plan based on your specific company’s goals – and bandwidth – but focus on these Salesforce-suggested steps to make your Lightning rollout a success:
1. Run the Readiness Check. Check the Lightning Readiness Report to see which profile is the readiest.
2. Pick a “Champion.” Elect someone on your staff who uses Salesforce the most and can offer recommendations to improve the experience.
3. Give Access to Your Champion. Create a permission set with the Lightning Experience User permission and assign it to your champion. Then turn on Lightning Experience.
4. Train Your Champion. Prepare your champion to work in Lightning and remember to resolve issues quickly. Remember Trailhead is a great resource for learning.
5. Give It a Week. Ask your champion to do their job in Lightning Experience for a week. (Important: Assure your champion there’s no risk as they can always switch back to Salesforce Classic).
6. Get Feedback. Get your champion’s input on what’s good and what needs attention.
7. Fix Priority Issues: Focus on business-stopping issues from your champion and the Readiness Report mentioned in Tip No. 1.
8. Demo & Go Live! Have a Salesforce Lightning rollout celebration by inviting everyone to watch a demo and learn the cool things they can now do with Lightning. Consider these ideas for generating some excitement. Then, grant everyone else with the same profile access to Lightning Experience.
9. Rinse and Repeat. Rinse and repeat with other profiles, working your way up to the most complex cases.
Bonus Tip: Once you have granted everyone access to the Lightning Experience, create a place where you can all work together. Create a “rollout” Chatter group and invite in all of your team members involved. Using Chatter, you can share files, collaborate in context, and share relevant updates with the whole team.
It’s Not All or Nothing
Remember, moving users to Lightning Experience does not have to be an all-or-nothing process. Consider implementing your rollout in phases, leveraging feedback from your Salesforce champions as you go. But do get started today! For more guidance, check out Salesforce’s Lightning Experience Transition Assistant. You can also download their free guide, “Roll Out Lightning Experience to Your Company.”
But, if after thinking about it all and you feel you need more guidance and consulting help with moving your org from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience, or implementing Salesforce with Lightning Experience for the first time, Ad Victoriam, recognized for our Masters Level expertise in Lightning by Salesforce, is ready to assist. Reach us, today.
