All About...Salesforce: April 2021

Happy Spring, friends 

The sun is shining, and things are humming here at Fíonta. In this month’s email, I am going to call out a few changes that are important to know about.

The first is the enforcement of the ‘Require Verification When Experience Cloud (Community) Users, Partners and Customers Change Their Email Address’ change. This change requires Experience Cloud users to verify their new email address if they change the email associated with their Experience Cloud credentials. This is an additional step that requires your users to check the new email address for a verification email and click on the email to complete the change of email verification process. This change was scheduled for the Spring ‘21 release but was postponed until the Summer ‘21 release. Since this impacts your supporters if you are using Experience Cloud, it is important to put together and execute a communication plan to explain the change.

The second is the impending enforcement of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for internal users. MFA is “an effective way to increase protection for user accounts against common threats like phishing attacks, credential stuffing, and account takeovers. It adds another layer of security to your login process by requiring users to enter two or more pieces of evidence — or factors — to prove they’re who they say they are. One factor is something the user knows, such as their username and password combination. Other factors are verification methods that the user has in their possession, such as an authenticator app or security key. A familiar example of MFA at work is the two factors needed to withdraw money from an ATM. Your ATM card is something that you have, and your PIN is something you know.” Salesforce will be enforcing MFA for all Salesforce products, including partner solutions, on February 1, 2022. While this may seem far in the future, it is important to start planning now. Salesforce provides a high-level Quick Reference Guide for Admins on how to set it up and roll it out, as well as a more detailed hub for referenceable supporting documentation for your MFA implementation. Hint, since this may be a major change to your users if you are not using Single Sign On (SSO), get in front of it and roll it out to your super users first. Reach out if you want additional information on MFA; I would be happy to talk further about it.

It feels like every month, I am providing an update on the next release; this month is no different. The Salesforce Summer ‘21 release is just around the corner. Depending on your Salesforce instance, the key release windows are May 15, June 4, and June 11 to 12. Salesforce has a handy release readiness graphic that highlights not only the release window itself but also the important Sandbox previews that, when used correctly, provide you or your system administrator with ample time to test your existing features against the new release. Plan ahead and take advantage of that time.

I also wanted to take a moment to share a webinar that my colleagues will be hosting tomorrow (4/22 at 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET) about preparing for a website upgrade from Drupal 7 or 8 to Drupal 9. If your organization is on either 7 or 8 and you’re wondering what “end of life” really means or what an upgrade project entails, there are still spots available. Register online. (Note: this is now an on-demand webinar – register and watch at your convenience).

Lastly, are you at the Nonprofit Summit today? Can’t wait to share stories about it next month.

Jordan Berger, Senior Salesforce Consultant