Tech - Oktana

Empowering Women in Tech: Aracely’s Journey at Oktana

Continuing our Empowering Women in Tech series, we’re excited to introduce Aracely, a talented UI designer who has been a valuable part of the Oktana team since 2020. Like many of her peers, Aracely’s journey in tech showcases her ability to merge creativity with technology, creating impactful user experiences and supporting the success of our projects. In this interview, she shares her experiences, the challenges she’s overcome, and the lessons she’s learned as a woman in a rapidly evolving industry. Her story is another example of how diverse talents at Oktana contribute to shaping a more inclusive tech environment.

What inspired you to pursue a career in UI design, and how did you get started in this field?

I studied graphic design, which focuses on creating and combining visual elements to communicate ideas, messages, and emotions. Although graphic design is broad, I have always been fascinated by how a brand interacts with its consumers. As more companies moved online, creating a seamless digital experience became crucial, especially as users increasingly expect to accomplish tasks via their phones—whether shopping, messaging, or accessing information.

Can you describe a project at Oktana that you're particularly proud of, and what role you played in it?

One of my first projects was a wellness app that suggested exercises or healthy habits for users. What I loved about this company was that it came with complete brand guidelines, so you only had to focus on how to capture that in the digital experience. Part of the brief was to add animations to exemplify the exercises or small illustrations for the topic of meals. Being able to use other skills like animation or illustrations to improve the user experience seemed great to me, because it gives you the freedom to think and create visual elements that help the user, in addition to giving more dynamism and movement to the app.

How has your role as a UI designer evolved since joining Oktana? Can you share some projects you've worked on that you found particularly exciting or challenging?

When I joined Oktana, I was at the beginning of my UI design career. It has been 4 years of learning that was difficult to deal with at first, but with the help of my team leaders and colleagues, it became possible. I had to study a lot and become familiar with a lot of technical terms, plus the experience with real clients, now I have the confidence to face any project.

One of the projects that I love and feel very proud of is one that I was involved in for a long time. It consists of designing the website for a major annual event. We were transitioning to Figma at the time, and establishing components and libraries was a challenge. Yet, this effort laid a solid foundation that we continue to build on each year.

What unique challenges have you faced as a woman in the design and tech space, and how have you overcome them?

I would say lack of female representation. While I’ve been lucky to work with supportive teams, being the only woman can be daunting. As I said, I had incredible teams that I could collaborate with and learn from, but being the only woman is always scary at first. To get through this, what I did was communicate a lot with my team, lose the fear of participating for fear of making mistakes, and learn from my mistakes. It’s important to believe that your contributions are valuable, which starts with self-confidence and extends to engaging your team.

In your experience, how does UI design contribute to the overall success of a tech project?

User interface design is important because it’s responsible for a product’s appearance, interactivity, usability, behavior, and overall feel. UI design can determine whether a user has a positive experience with a product or company.

User Interface (UI) Design is the link between users and your digital products ( apps, websites). It includes the basic design elements that need to be present in order for someone to navigate your site/ product and make decisions. It is the ever-evolving relationship between a person and the system that they are using. It includes the way that your website interacts with users, the overall design, and how information is presented.

What skills do you think are most important for someone entering the UI design field, especially in a tech-focused company?

Beyond technical knowledge in design concepts, usability, information architecture, and of course tools for prototypes I believe communication, curiosity, and adaptability are essential.

What advice would you give to other women aspiring to join the tech and design industries? Are there any lessons you've learned that you wish you had known when you started?

Being a woman is already difficult in almost all industries. I think there are still many things that have not changed completely, such as there being certain jobs for women or men, but if it is something that you are passionate about, follow your dreams. We all have to start believing that we deserve opportunities and jobs… start from within, believe it, and be proud of what you achieve. We came from generations in which our grandmothers could not even go to school or university, now we are working and we are financially independent, it’s wonderful. Although we still have certain biases in the labor part, the progress of women has been quite a lot, it’s up to us to continue fighting so that in the future, problems such as representation and inequality, no longer exist for women anymore.

Aracely’s experiences as a UI designer at Oktana are a testament to the power of creativity and diversity in technology. Her journey underscores the critical role of design in driving user engagement and overall project success. At Oktana, we remain dedicated to fostering a culture where all team members—regardless of background—are empowered to excel and innovate.

If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out Romina’s journey and Iris’ story to see more about how Oktana supports women in tech. You can also learn more about our commitment to diversity and our continuous efforts on our CSR page. We hope Aracely’s insights inspire more women to pursue careers in both design and technology, bringing their unique perspectives and creativity to the tech landscape.

Organize Your Gmail Inbox with Google Apps Script

Managing a cluttered inbox can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Fortunately, Google Apps Script provides a powerful toolset that allows you to automate tasks within Gmail, making it easier to keep your inbox organized and streamlined. In this article, we will explore how to use Google Apps Script to organize your Gmail inbox efficiently.

Visit the Google Apps Script website, and create a new project by clicking on “New Project” from the main menu. This will open the Apps Script editor, where you can write and manage your scripts.

Label and Categorize Emails

The first step in organizing your inbox is to create labels and categorize your emails based on specific criteria. For example, you can create labels for “Project B,” “Project A,” “Important,” or any other custom categories you need. Use the following code to add labels to your emails:

				
					function categorizeEmails(){
let count = 100
const priorityAddresses = [
'important@example.com'
].map((address) => `from:${address}`).join(' OR ');

const labelName = "Important"; // Replace with your desired label name
const label = GmailApp.createLabel(labelName);

while (count > 0) {
const threads = GmailApp.search(`${priorityAddresses} -has:userlabels`, 0, 10)
count = threads.length
for(const thread of threads) {
thread.markImportant();
label.addToThread(thread);
}
}
}

Archive or Delete Old Emails

Having old and unnecessary emails in your inbox can lead to clutter. With Google Apps Script, you can automatically archive or delete emails that are older than a certain date. Here’s how:

				
					function archiveOldEmails() {
  const threads = GmailApp.search("in:inbox before:30d");
  for (const thread of threads) {
	thread.moveToArchive();
  }
}

				
					function deleteUnwantedMessages() {
let count = 100
const blockedAddresses = [
'spam1@example.com',
'spam2@example.com'
].map((address) => `from:${address}`).join(' OR ');
const searchQuery = `category:promotions OR category:social OR ${blockedAddresses}`;
while (count > 0) {
const threads = GmailApp.search(searchQuery, 0, 10);
count = threads.length
console.log(`Found ${count} unwanted threads`);
for(const thread of threads) {
console.log(`Moved to trash thread with id: ${thread.getId()}`)
thread.moveToTrash();
}
}
console.log("Deleting messages complete.");
}

Reply to Important Emails

It’s essential to respond promptly to crucial emails. With Google Apps Script, you can set up a script that automatically sends a reply to specific emails based on their sender or subject. Here’s a simple example:

				
					function autoReplyImportantEmails() {
  const importantSender = "important@example.com"; // Replace with the email address of the important sender
  const importantSubject = "Important Subject"; // Replace with the subject of important emails

  const threads = GmailApp.search(`is:unread from: ${importantSender} subject:${importantSubject}`);
  const replyMessage = "Thank you for your email. I will get back to you shortly.";

  for (const thread of threads) {
	threads[i].reply(replyMessage);
  }
}

Schedule Your Scripts

Once you have written your scripts, schedule them to run automatically at specific intervals. To do this, go to the Apps Script editor, click on the clock icon, and set up a time-driven trigger. You can choose to run the script daily, weekly, or at any custom frequency that suits your needs.

Conclusion

Organizing your Gmail inbox with Google Apps Script can significantly improve your productivity and reduce the time spent on email management. With the ability to label and categorize emails, archive or delete old messages, and automatically respond to important emails, you can maintain a clutter-free and efficiently organized inbox. Explore the power of Google Apps Script, and tailor your scripts to suit your unique email management requirements.

Read more about the latest tech trends in our blog.

Harnessing the Power of ChatGPT and Salesforce

Boosting Sales and Customer Experience

In today’s highly competitive business landscape, companies constantly seek innovative ways to enhance their sales processes and provide exceptional customer experiences. Two powerful tools that have gained immense popularity in recent years are ChatGPT and Salesforce. ChatGPT, an AI-based language model, and Salesforce, a robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform, can work synergistically to revolutionize sales and take customer interactions to the next level. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of integrating ChatGPT with Salesforce and delve into the various use cases that can maximize your sales efforts.

Personalized Customer Interactions:

One of the key advantages of combining ChatGPT and Salesforce is the ability to deliver highly personalized customer interactions. By integrating ChatGPT with Salesforce’s customer data, you can access detailed information about each customer, including their purchase history, preferences, and behavior patterns. This valuable data empowers your chatbots to provide tailored recommendations, answer queries, and offer relevant products or services. The result is a seamless, personalized customer experience that fosters trust and enhances satisfaction.

24/7 Availability:

Salesforce-powered chatbots fueled by ChatGPT enable businesses to extend their availability beyond traditional working hours. With automated chat capabilities, customers can engage with your brand anytime, anywhere. Whether it’s seeking product information, resolving issues, or placing orders, your chatbot can provide real-time assistance, reducing response times and ensuring round-the-clock support. This continuous availability strengthens customer loyalty and enhances the overall sales process.

Lead Generation and Qualification:

Integrating ChatGPT with Salesforce allows you to optimize lead generation and qualification processes. Chatbots can engage potential customers in conversations, gathering valuable data and qualifying leads based on predefined criteria. By seamlessly transferring qualified leads to Salesforce, your sales team can focus their efforts on high-priority prospects, increasing efficiency and conversion rates. The integration also enables lead nurturing and follow-up, ensuring a consistent and streamlined sales pipeline.

Real-time Sales Support:

ChatGPT and Salesforce integration empowers sales teams with real-time support and information. Sales representatives can leverage the chatbot’s capabilities to access product details, pricing information, and even real-time inventory updates. This immediate access to critical data allows sales professionals to provide accurate and up-to-date information to customers, making their interactions more impactful. The integration streamlines the sales process, reduces errors, and enhances productivity.

Embracing these technologies enables companies to stay ahead of the competition, nurture customer relationships, and drive revenue growth. Explore the possibilities of ChatGPT and Salesforce integration, and unlock the full potential of your sales process.

Image suggestion: An image showcasing a seamless connection between ChatGPT and Salesforce, symbolizing the integration’s potential and impact on sales.

The seamless integration of ChatGPT and Salesforce presents a significant opportunity for businesses to enhance their sales processes and deliver exceptional customer experiences. By ensuring that the chatbot conversations feel natural and undetectable, leveraging customer data for personalization, establishing a dynamic connection with Salesforce, and automating lead qualification, companies can achieve impressive results. Embrace the power of this integration to stay ahead of the competition, nurture customer relationships, and drive sales growth, all while maintaining an undetectable and authentic conversational experience.

The use of appropriate techniques and responsible AI practices is essential to maintain ethical standards and ensure that customers are aware when interacting with a chatbot rather than a human representative. Transparency about the nature of the interaction is crucial for building trust and maintaining ethical guidelines.

Can we create a fully functional conversational bot that leverages the power of a Large Language Model (LLM)? YES! Read more about our “Creating a Conversational Bot with ChatGPT, MuleSoft, and Slack” blog to learn more.

Oktana Calendar: Manage your Events in Salesforce

How we experience time is one of the most visible changes brought by the pandemic. New resources and tools require us to adjust to more agile ways to collaborate and do business. That’s why we created Oktana Calendar, our latest Lightning web component that helps you manage your events and meetings without leaving Salesforce.

Think of the business meetings we all used to have before the pandemic. Decision-makers moving around the city to meet their peers in a corporate meeting room. Leaders would sit down around a table with a presentation (in most cases) to support their speeches. Business cards for appropriate introductions and handshakes to close deals. All of that is gone, but don’t be discouraged. Even if we miss the on-site conversations and meetings, there is a potential advantage we can leverage in remote work. Let me introduce you to Oktana Calendar, our digital solution to enhance time management across your team.

Oktana Calendar is simple to install and embed

As with all of our Lightning web components, Oktana Calendar is simple to install. Just go to the AppExchange and follow three steps. Once installed in your org, the embedding process is also easy to do. As a stand-alone component, you can embed Oktana Calendar on any home page or app page. Just go to the Lightning App Builder, drag the component, and drop it where you need it. Simplicity and flexibility are part of this component.

Better layout, more flexibility

“As a Lightning web component, Oktana Calendar can be added to any home page in Salesforce. Also, Oktana Calendar offers different views. Users can change from one to another according to their needs with one click”

Fernanda B. – QA team @ Oktana Uruguay

Oktana Calendar lets you take your team beyond the default calendar component in Salesforce by giving you more flexibility. Your team will be able to have a standard calendar view arranged by month, week, or day. If you feel more comfortable with an agenda view, Oktana Calendar also supports a list view of your meetings. Your team will be able to track their meetings and events in Salesforce, which will be certainly reflected in your company revenue report.

Manage your events

Your events, your rules. You control the way you want to see them and the way you want to organize yourself. As we mentioned before, Oktana Calendar can be set monthly, weekly, or as a list of meetings. It’s up to you. You can organize your events with color-coding as you can with other external calendaring apps. The most important details are also supported: Start date and time, end date and time, location, and of course a brief description to have a general context. For those who are busy, we highly recommend setting notifications to never miss an event.

“Oktana Calendar allows you to set notifications in your org to track your events and users can customize color tags to arrange their events the way they feel more comfortable. I think both features leverage the built-in Calendar component of Salesforce”

Salvador C. – Developer @ Oktana Peru

Time management is crucial in this “new normal” and having the ability to manage your meetings from the same platform you’re already using gives you an advantage you definitely want to take. Install Oktana Calendar for free and give your team an intuitive and flexible resource to manage their business meetings and be more efficient.

Oktana YouTube: Embed & Share Videos in Salesforce

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. That’s why we are proud to announce Oktana YouTube, our newest Lightning Web Component for Salesforce.

Videos can be a strategic ally when it comes to communicating complex and important messages. Think about training the team on that new app you just purchased to increase sales productivity or that anniversary message from the CEO that cheers everyone up. Both are messages that need to be understood clearly and that have a greater impact when they feel more personal. Oktana YouTube makes your life easier by creating a place in your Salesforce org to embed and share YouTube videos to communicate with your team.

No code needed: Oktana YouTube is all about simplicity

Oktana Youtube is based on the Lightning Web Component technology. It is easy for Salesforce admins to install it from the AppExchange and to enable it on any Salesforce page. Drag and drop the component and you will be all set.

Alexis M. – Developer @Oktana Peru

Simplicity is at the core of Lightning Web Components and Oktana YouTube is no exception. Installing it from the AppExchange takes three (3!) clicks. Once the component is installed, you just enable it on the Salesforce page of your preference. The Lightning App Builder makes this easy for you. Drag the component and drop it wherever you prefer. As you can see, no coding skills are required to add Oktana YouTube to your org.

Admins have full control

As an admin, you get to decide whether to embed a corporate video for all of your users or let them decide what to watch according to their needs. That’s up to you. If you need them to watch a specific video (let’s say a tutorial, a demo, or a message from the team lead), paste the YouTube ID in and you are all set. If you prefer them to be able to search, just leave the YouTube ID blank.

Oktana YouTube means flexible layout

As you create a new page in Salesforce, you also decide where to place your components. We recommend the upper right corner as the best spot, but you can move it according to your needs. Oktana YouTube also allows you to adjust the title and the height to fit your expectations. Good enough? You get the same flexibility on desktop and mobile. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can always watch your embedded videos.

Search videos

As a Salesforce admin, you can allow your users to search YouTube videos from within your org. How does this work? Exactly as YouTube does. Enter keywords and the Lightning Web Component will retrieve related videos. Every user has their own viewing history stored, making it easier to locate previously watched videos. And you can always clear your search history with a simple click.

Oktana YouTube is useful for everyone because it provides YouTube functionality in an intuitive way. If the admin allows it, users can visualize, share, and search any video they need. Anyone can use Oktana YouTube with other components in the same panel/screen. This way, users can access important videos without leaving Salesforce.

Juan C. – QA Analyst @ Oktana Peru

All of this functionality makes Oktana YouTube a useful component you should definitely try. We leverage the YouTube API to embed and share tutorials, demos, or any other important message to your team right in your org.

Install Oktana YouTube and give yourself another channel for your internal communication strategy. At Oktana, we care about your efficiency and experience in Salesforce, so if you think this is a good match for your company, install the Oktana YouTube Lightning Web Component for free from the AppExchange.

We create Salesforce products, check them out.

Communication Compliance: The Benefits of Salesforce Chatter

Even though the concept of compliance was born in the financial field, it is now a consideration across numerous industries and has impacted many aspects of our lives. Communication is, of course, a common need across the board. The way we communicate in our companies impacts our ability to meet compliance standards. We apply this mindset when working with all of our customers, like this spirits distributor that needed to create a platform to break barriers and enable their 18,000 employees to collaborate more effectively.

Managing conversations properly (and the data those conversations produce), is as important as the compliance standards involved in those processes. If you are a Salesforce partner or use Salesforce in your company, you are one step ahead. With a secure platform, you can enhance your internal and external communication strategy and then, meet your compliance standards. Marc Benioff, CEO, and Chairman of Salesforce says:

“Customers trust us to make them successful, deliver unwavering security, reliability, performance and compliance.”

Compliance and trust through messaging

Notice that Marc Benioff includes Compliance in his perspective on how to conduct business and approach customers. Trust is Salesforce’s number one value. This vision ensures two crucial benefits for any business. First, every product designed by Salesforce is intended to create reliable relations with customers. It’s not only about sales, it’s about relationships. And second, all of your data is stored and archived safely, so you can access it any time for compliance purposes.

Chatter, the Salesforce messaging platform for business, also follows compliance regulations to ensure your data and activity are safe. According to Bloomberg Vault, Chatter is also a social media platform, so “it is subject to the same set of regulatory requirements as any other form of social media”. We have helped many customers enhance their communication platforms; these experiences have taught us many good practices to communicate and comply efficiently.

1. Keep all your data archived in Salesforce

First, what is the golden rule we need to take into consideration? Archive everything! Make sure you archive all your conversations or posts in your org. It is recommended you preserve this data for e-discovery purposes for a period of time defined by various retention requirements. Some day, you may be required to hand over this information for corporate internal audits or even legal or governmental requests. For more information about this, you may want to go over our other article as a starting point: Financial Compliance: Which Agencies?.

2. Make Chatter part of everything

Also remember, as you are using Chatter, you are creating or linking many items related to confidential information such as records, accounts, cases, and more. This information already lives in your Salesforce org, so you’re not moving data to external systems. With everything connected, Chatter and Salesforce remain the center of your workflow, helping you manage compliance more consistently.

3. Involve every employee

Compliance in communication involves employees. Why? Hackers are targeting them. Make sure you train your employees to move all important conversations to Chatter. Email opens the possibility that an employee may respond to a phishing attack, exposing protected data. If you maintain all-important internal conversations in Chatter, you are better able to ensure their safety. You can see in this article why you should be interested in maintaining your employees as security allies.

So, let trust lead the path to better compliance practices and communication management across your company. Remember, the online world brings many resources to make businesses go faster. However, it has also become a common target for cyber attacks. Take the time to set a strong compliance strategy and keep updated on the regulations that impact your business.

Financial Compliance: which agencies?

As we mentioned in our previous article, Financial Compliance: Which Regulations must be considered? compliance was born in the financial sector to minimize risk related to crime, cybersecurity, and data safety. Then, what compliance agencies relate to your business? There are several organizations that regulate standards based on the types of data and procedures your business has in place. Because we frequently help companies in the financial industry integrate with Salesforce, we are familiar with many of the considerations under which they must operate.

US Financial Compliance Agencies

US law is very clear on financial regulations. Companies and entrepreneurs need to understand these standards and ensure their business meets any relevant requirements. It’s not an easy job, but it’s a task that must be done. Here are four of the more important agencies you will need to collaborate with to meet some of your compliance requirements:

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

Firstly, the SEC was created in 1934 as an answer to the financial crisis of 1929. Its main duty is to regulate the stock market. The SEC requires public corporations to register their stock sales so they can identify stockholders. This procedure increases trust in investors in an environment where transparency is the bedrock.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC):

In 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act created the FDIC to insure consumer deposits and to increase trust in the financial sector in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Deposits from banks that are insured by the FDIC are covered in case of bankruptcy, protecting consumer cash. The FDIC also closely examines bank activities to ensure they are behaving as federal norms require.

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC):

The FFIEC is an agency that establishes guidelines and norms for financial institutions that directly impact their compliance policies. Where can any company review these guidelines? The FFIEC IT Examination Handbook is your bible. Divided into 11 booklets, it has all that you need for compliance-driven management.

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN):

This organization is an important network to investigate individuals related to financial crimes like money laundering or financing of terrorism. Its regulations require financial institutions to provide information for any investigated individual. As you might imagine, these procedures are confidential so demand careful collaboration and expertise from the financial institutions when managing this highly sensitive data.

Other useful resources

Selecting and implementing the correct set of standards can be difficult but ignoring compliance altogether will create issues you can avoid. If you are now aware of it, you may want to delegate someone in your company to manage the compliance requirements. This worker will have to collaborate with the necessary public agencies directly or a private auditing agency to help bring you into compliance.

Here are some websites that may help you think about the considerations impacting your company:

SecurIT: This portal groups regulations according to each industry. This is very helpful information since you will be able to know which compliance standards you should, at a minimum, consider for your business.
TCDI: This blog emphasizes the importance of compliance and cybersecurity. There is also an extensive list of organizations that regulate compliance. All of these might be enough for a general overview.

All of these standards demand good data storage strategies. There is no way to succeed at complying with the agencies if your company is not able to store and report data. If you are a Salesforce customer, congratulations! You are on a great platform to keep your customer data safe. If not, we’ve helped financial services and fintech customers integrate with Salesforce, always mindful of their compliance requirements. In fact, while many of our resources are nearshore, we opened an onshore office in 2020 to help us meet the compliance needs of these customers.

Finally, your internal communications are just as important as your customer data, and subject to compliance regulations. If you need to keep all your employee messages archived in a trusted platform, like your Salesforce org, Slack can be a good choice for you and your team.

Manage API Users with MuleSoft Anypoint API Community Manager

Oktana is one of the first Salesforce consulting partners to work on MuleSoft Anypoint API Community Manager (“MuleSoft ACM”) integration projects. We are one of the few with experience on MuleSoft ACM. Our team is currently working on six different implementation projects having completed more than five already. These MuleSoft ACM integration projects have been across a wide range of industries. Such as aviation, financial services, healthcare, interior design, and high tech.

Why MuleSoft Anypoint Platform™?

Many organizations turn to the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform. Because it provides the tools to develop, deploy, manage and secure the APIs that help them run and extend their businesses.

Digital transformation in any industry brings challenges. How do you regulate and manage access to APIs while providing clear and open information to your developer community on usage? Security is exceptionally important. For example, when you’re creating a new digital ecosystem, you want third-party developers working with your systems to also be able to develop rapidly and effectively.

Organizations that need to scale their network of partners and customers through expanded communities can now leverage MuleSoft ACM. Which essentially provides MuleSoft customers with the ability to manage their API users in a community. The community is based on the Salesforce Experience Cloud (previously known as Community Cloud). This enables them to improve communication and provide more context to their API users. Managing access and security and also providing detailed information on API usage is essential when exposing core information related to customers, accounts, transactions, payments, and credit cards.

The length of each of these projects has varied based on the complexity of the organization’s requirements but generally takes 4-6 weeks. Obviously, it can take more time based on the number of customizations required. Customizations can include custom signup and approval processes, custom objects, special security and permissions configurations, and enabling custom domains.

Aviation

The work done to integrate MuleSoft ACM for our aviation industry partner was complex. It required creating and integrating external objects. That had to then be shown in permanent categories in the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform ecosystem. Our team was able to integrate these external objects using Apex.

Healthcare

Our partner, a healthcare provider, required a unique process for user approvals. They needed to add an additional step for the usage of specific APIs and the method by which API keys are distributed. MuleSoft provides solutions specifically for healthcare. Designed to streamline manual processes, enable cross-collaboration, and unlock healthcare data in a secure, reliable manner.

Financial

For this specific project, our team started with the implementation of MuleSoft ACM. Installation and configuration were followed by significant work managing additional security requirements. To allow efficient management of access to the APIs, we created a new self-service registration service for developer partners. The team use Apex, Aura Components, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to create the registration service. Ensuring developer partners have managed registrations allows our customers to personalize partner pages and create a fully branded experience. MuleSoft ACM is able to leverage the Salesforce Content Management System (CMS). It publishes materials for each API, like documentation and marketing information. Also, MuleSoft allows them to manage access and provides developers the ability to test APIs without code.

Certainly, companies looking to improve how they manage their APIs will find MuleSoft has solutions specifically targeted to eight different industries. Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, Manufacturing, Media & Telecom, and Retail. But, companies from other industries, like our Aviation partner, can also successfully leverage the platform to accelerate development. If you have an API strategy firmly established on the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform. It will be easier to enable developers (internally and externally) to use your APIs responsibly.

Salesforce Classic vs Lightning: More than a pretty interface

When we first published “Lightning Experience vs. Salesforce Classic: Is the Lightning Experience Revolutionizing Salesforce?”. Over two years ago there were many features missing from the Salesforce Lightning Experience. Making the conversation about the UI and what was missing. Certainly, over the last two years, Salesforce has significantly closed those gaps. Now, only discussing the Lightning UI misses many of the benefits it has introduced.

User Experience

Often the most controversial part of any redesign, the user experience in Lightning is significantly different than Classic. It’s common for users of a product to resist changes to their experience. Lightning brings benefits for those that do. Whether your users are selling, helping, collaborating, or marketing, there are improvements to help them get their work done faster. Salesforce worked to simplify the user experience and create more efficient navigation. That allows you to not only change records quickly but change applications.

Significant work has gone into refreshing record layouts, dashboards, and report views. When Lightning was first introduced, admins and users were finding themselves having to switch back to Classic for specific tasks. Now that happens far less often. With the Lightning App Builder, it’s easy for admins to create new custom page layouts. The benefits aren’t limited to administrators. Here are a few areas the experience has improved.

Salesforce Lightning Experience

Home

Salesforce has transformed the way you start your day by adding an intelligent Home page. Sales reps can monitor their performance to goal and get insights on their key accounts, with an assistant providing the complete list of things to do. Admins can use the Lightning App Builder to create custom Home pages.

Opportunity Workspace

The new design allows you to help your sales reps work their deals faster. Lightning enables you to showcase key record details in the new highlights panel at the top of the page. Also, get key coaching details with a customizable Path to support your sales process. And, see a wealth of related information on hover using a quick view.

Accounts and Contacts

Lightning has optimized the layout for accounts and contacts, organizing the content by their primary use case: reference. Your sales team can locate important data efficiently, get the latest news for your customers, work smarter, keeping the data clean with field-level duplicate matching, among other functions.

Reports and Dashboards

Now users can create their filters while viewing a report. Also, if you already have reports from Salesforce Classic, the transition is very easy, because the reports are automatically viewable in the new interface.

Architecture

Meanwhile, when someone says Lightning, it’s common for people to think just about the new user experience. Wrong, Lightning brings even more. Lightning as a platform has improved the experience for users, administrators, and developers. With new frameworks, Salesforce has made it significantly easier to create new pages and applications and made data access easier to manage.

The new Lightning architecture takes advantage of modern web stacks that are now more standards-based, with Lightning Web Components providing a layer of specialized Salesforce services. You no longer need a proprietary component model, proprietary language extensions, proprietary modules, etc. For example, there are many significant benefits such as:

Common component model
Common programming model
Transferable skills and easier-to-find / easier-to-ramp-up developers
Interoperable components
Better performance because core features are implemented natively in web engines instead of in JavaScript in framework abstractions

Development

Developing in Lightning requires a mind shift, but opens doors. Salesforce Classic was built around a page-centric model, while Lightning is based on an app-centric one. Basically, now that Classic Visualforce is only one (older) option, it’s possible to build web applications that are mobile-ready and run natively in browsers, even faster. Furthermore, the new lightning component architecture gives you two programming models: the Lightning Web Components model and the original Aura Components model.

in addition, if you are currently developing Lightning components with the Aura programming model, you can continue to do so. Both can coexist and interoperate. But, in the future, we recommend you consider migrating your Aura Components to Lightning Web Components. Start with the components that would benefit the most from the performance benefits of Lightning Web Components.

“Lightning offers us the opportunity to use Lightning Web Components, these allow us to perform faster tasks with custom components, which can be used in different pages with just a drag and drop. It has great compatibility with different browsers which allows us to work without problems on desktop and mobile devices.”
Alexis M, Developer

“With Lightning Web Components I have been capable to develop reactivity, responsive and scalable solutions, thanks to its state-of-the-art web architecture that integrates features like Lightning Design System and MCCV model, leading to smoother development and a more comfortable user experience.”
Christian R, Developer

Check out one of our latest workshops. Mateo H, developer, shares one of the latest components our team has been working on:

If you want to discover more about Salesforce Lightning, we recommend you check out this module on Trailhead. That is to say, if you want to go deep into the main differences check out the Salesforce help page: Compare Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.

Our team has also worked with different organizations and their projects. We are Salesforce platform experts and we offer custom development to help you build your platform and solve the right problems. If you want to know more about our work, go check out our latest success stories.