The Salesforce Summer ‘23 Release is upon us, and the updates included for the manufacturing, energy, and utilities industries are impressive and noteworthy. These changes can help business leaders manage everything more efficiently with data backing them up, from warranties and assets to ship-and-debit and optimized energy usage. With this article, we’ll give a deeper overview of each feature: 

Warranty Lifecycle Management

The new Warranty Lifecycle Management feature allows users to monitor and revise the entire end-to-end lifecycle of their warranty programs. Frameworks for managing rules, eligibility requirements, entitlements, etc. at multiple product levels are all included. The key functionality involved is listed below, and you can watch a demo of the feature from Salesforce here. 

• Claim adjudication and service planning for warranty managers
• Deeper details on warranty terms to specify parts of products or labor services included
• Ability to capture claim details from partners and track incurred expenses
• Use of a single-page view and process automation to decrease claim adjudication and processing time with greater speed and productivity

Applicable Cloud: Manufacturing Cloud

Complete View of Asset Management

Customer service for your manufacturing business just got even easier. Agents can now be empowered to manage an asset’s entire lifecycle with the Asset Service Console. This gives users a complete look at any asset activities, alerts, milestones, and services provided to the asset. The Asset Service Console also allows users to capture asset details (account and contact associations, serial numbers, sales backgrounds, warranty actions, work orders, etc.). These features can be accessed through the Service Console for Manufacturing app, Asset View, and selecting the asset you wish to manage. 

Applicable Cloud: Manufacturing Cloud

Ship-and-Debit Process Management

The new Ship-and-Debit Process Management feature is a powerful tool for manufacturers to incentivize and collaborate with partners on competitive price points for products and services. Key functionalities of the tool include…

• Ability to create, specify details of, and enroll partners in compelling ship-and-debit programs
• Ability to protect partner margins by compensating for reactive pricing, offering special discounts or prices, etc. 
• Collaboration with partners on proofs of sale and claims
• Automated processing and scalable templates to get started quickly

Applicable Cloud: Manufacturing Cloud

Optimized Energy Usage for Utility Customers

Finally, for our energy and utilities customers using their industry cloud, the latest release includes an exciting update for encouraging optimized energy usage. The Utility Self Serve Portal allows your customers to peruse and sign up for energy-saving products and programs you’re offering. Registering for these demand-side management technologies or services is a value-add for customers that can now better reduce their energy demands and support sustainability efforts while also saving your organization from added strain on energy distribution. This feature can be accessed by requesting the Utility Self-Serve Portal through the Energy & Utilities Process Library.

Applicable Cloud: Energy and Utilities Cloud

Simplus has helped countless manufacturers unlock the value of cloud technology on Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, from Komatsu and Holcim to Mitsubishi and Grace. Your organization could join that list—reach out to start an exploratory discussion today.