From Workload to Workflow: Why the Move to Enhanced Omni-Channel is a Critical Step for Your Business

There's an important event happening in the Service Cloud world that you need to be aware of. As of the Summer '26 release, Salesforce is officially phasing out its "Standard Omni-Channel" functionality. This isn't just an "End of Life”; it's an important nudge for a  transition to the much more powerful "Enhanced Omni-Channel." This Salesforce announcement is the reason for this blog post, as it presents both for existing Omni-Channel users an urgent need to migrate as well as a massive opportunity for every one else to fundamentally transform your service, sales, and other operations. Now is the time to act.

The Core Value: More Than Just Routing

Before we dive into the specifics of the upgrade, let's recap why Omni-Channel is a game-changer:

• Intelligent Work Distribution: Omni-Channel acts as the director for your team. It automatically distributes work (cases, chats, leads, etc.) based on agent availability, skills, and capacity. This puts an end to "cherry-picking" from queues and ensures an efficient and fair workload.

• A Single Engine for All Channels: The real power lies in its uniformity. Especially when combined with Service Cloud Voice, Omni-Channel becomes the central routing engine for all interactions. Emails, chats, social media messages, and phone calls are all distributed using the same logic and priorities. Your agents work from a single interface with a single presence status.

• More Than Just Service: Think bigger than just service! Omni-Channel can route any Salesforce object. Consider Leads for your sales team or Custom Objects for your back-office or finance department. This makes it a valuable tool for boosting efficiency across your entire organization.

The Command Center: The Omni-Channel Supervisor Console

One of the most powerful components you activate is the Supervisor Console. This is the real-time cockpit for team leads and managers. From a single view, you get immediate insight and control:

• Real-time Information: See live which agents are online, what their current workload is, and which channels they are handling.

• Control Over the Backlog: Get a clear overview of the queues (Queues Backlog) and the work waiting for specific skills (Skills Backlog).

• Direct Insight and Action: See exactly which work items are assigned and how long customers have been waiting. As a supervisor, you can intervene directly: manually assign work, change priorities, or adjust an agent's skills and queues on the fly.

• Visual Monitoring: With the Wallboard, you have a large, visual overview of your contact center's key KPIs, perfect for a real-time display on the work floor.

The Evolution: Why Migrating to Enhanced Is a Must

The 'Standard' version was a great start, but the future is 'Enhanced.' All new innovations, especially in AI and flows, will be developed exclusively for this version. Sticking with the old version means falling behind.

Features Exclusive to Enhanced Omni-Channel:

The migration to 'Enhanced' unlocks a suite of powerful capabilities you simply don't get with 'Standard':

• Omni-Channel Flows: Go beyond simple routing. With flows, you can build complex and dynamic routing processes. For example, check a customer's status before routing a case, or route work based on the content of an email. This also includes using AI actions in those flows!

• Route to Bots (AI): A crucial link to the future. Let Einstein Bots handle the initial triage and then seamlessly route the conversation to a human agent with the full context.

• Interruptible Capacity: Prioritize time-sensitive work. An agent working on a back-office task can be 'interrupted' for an incoming live chat, improving the customer experience.

• Status-Based Capacity Model: Workload is calculated more accurately based on the status of the work item, not just the number of open tabs.

• Pause Work: Agents can pause work items (for example, while waiting for customer input) without it blocking their entire capacity for new work.

• Works in Standard Apps: Enhanced Omni-Channel is no longer limited to console apps, making it available in apps with standard navigation (like the Sales app).

• Take it to the road: Omni-Channel users now can complete work from their mobile device. With Omni Mobile, a mobile version of Omni-Channel, a service rep can set their status and handle work requests from all enhanced channels, with the exception of Voice 

The Migration Effort: What to Expect

"A migration sounds like a big project." Fortunately, in this case, it's not as daunting as it seems. The technical switch from "Standard" to "Enhanced" is relatively simple and can be activated with a single setting in Salesforce Setup. Another element to consider is an upgrade from the standard service channels, including Chat (Live Agent) and standard messaging channels, to enhanced. 

The real effort isn't in the technical migration itself, but in leveraging the new capabilities. Designing and configuring Omni-Channel Flows, setting up the Supervisor Wallboard, and training your teams to use the new features optimally—that's where the value, and therefore the effort, lies.

Conclusion: Its Time for Action

The phase-out of Standard Omni-Channel is a clear and timely signal from Salesforce. The move to Enhanced is not just an upgrade; it's a strategic necessity to keep your operations efficient, scalable, and future-proof.

Feeling a bit daunted by the transition, or just want to make sure you're getting the most out of your investment? That's what I'm here for. I can help you with strategic advice on the value of Omni-Channel for your specific business, guide you through a smooth migration, and help you activate and master all the powerful new functions that Enhanced has to offer.

If you're ready to take the next step, just give me a shout!

Need more information? Have a look at the following resources:

• All about the upgrade to"Enhanced"

• All about Omni Channel by Service Cloud

• Comparison between "Standard" and "Enhanced"