While Salesforce is easy to update, it’s hard to fully understand the impact of your changes and deploy releases safely without the right solutions in place. This is where test automation fits in.
I was lucky enough to sit down with Provar CEO Geraint Waters to talk about the importance of Salesforce test automation, their recent funding announcement and what’s next for Provar.
Q&A with Provar CEO, Geraint Waters
B: Hey Geraint, thanks for chatting with us and congratulations on the funding announcement.
G: Thanks for having me. Yes, I’m pleased to announce that Provar closed $17 million in Series A funding. This growth investment supports our ongoing mission to help teams capitalize on their Salesforce investment with a robust and scalable solution designed to improve agility, drive down system errors and advance innovation. We’re excited about what’s next.
B: Can you give us an overview of why test automation is so important in the world of Salesforce?
G: Salesforce has grown up from the days of just being a CRM and is now vastly more complex and business-critical. Salesforce is easy to update but it can introduce risk if you don’t have a full understanding of what you are about to impact. That’s why it’s important to build a comprehensive library of tests to protect your business-critical processes to find and fix bugs early in the development process.
B: What are the primary benefits of Provar?
G: As I mentioned earlier, businesses love Salesforce since it’s easy to deploy new functionality and features. But after a few serious cycles of change, it introduces unnecessary risk to operate without a rigorous set of test cases. You might be delivering brilliant changes and new functionality but breaking other parts of the org on deployment. Provar provides you with a safety net, which means you can expect to see fewer issues in production.
One of Provar’s primary differentiators is that our tests are metadata-driven. In contrast to rigid testing frameworks, Provar tests can naturally adapt to changes introduced by Salesforce. This means that you can build tests today that won’t break with a Salesforce release tomorrow.
Another huge benefit is the speed of change. With the confidence that Provar is running well-planned, risk mitigating test cases, you can continue to get things into production as fast as possible.
B: I’ve watched Provar grow from a small startup to a well-established company over the years. What trends are you seeing in the Salesforce space that have enabled you to grow so rapidly?
G: Back when I founded Provar seven years ago, my background was in QA testing and it was brought to my attention that Salesforce needed a solution like this. There used to be a lack of understanding around test automation and DevOps processes, but there is so much more awareness now about how dangerous it is to not have the right systems and processes in place.
What has also enabled us to grow so quickly is that Salesforce is constantly innovating. The user interface is under continuous change and new functionality is constantly being introduced. This means that our customers rely on us to ensure that we are always plugged into the next release and what is coming along in the roadmap.
Since we have a laser focus on Salesforce, we can ensure that Provar always supports the needs of the Salesforce ecosystem.
B: How does Provar fit into the overall DevOps lifecycle?
G: Test automation isn’t an isolated event in the overall DevOps lifecycle, and you really can’t support DevOps or proper Application Lifecycle Management without it. We ensure that the different layers of testing are completed so you can also use Provar alongside Salesforce release management tools such as Copado, Gearset, AutoRABIT, Flosum, Blue Canvas and analysis tools such as Elements.cloud and code-scanning tools such as Clayton and CodeScan.
B: Are there any industries where test automation is essential?
G: It’s vital that companies in all industries have a well thought out strategy, especially as companies are going all in on Salesforce. Companies just can’t afford to make mistakes.
The majority of our customers are enterprise, and we have had huge success in the finance, pharmaceutical and software industries. These industries have a substantial amount of regulations where test automation is not an option but a requirement.
Pharmaceutical companies, for example, may be required to test their weekly patches. For those customers, Provar runs their tests overnight and then delivers reports and screenshots for the regulators by morning. This means that the project managers for these companies can sleep well at night.
In addition, we have a vibrant Salesforce partner network where we support regional and global system integrators to ensure their projects are running smoothly, especially in the industries mentioned. We also recently launched the University of Provar to help enable our partners and customers even further by getting them certified.
B: What’s next for Provar? What are your plans for the Series A investment?
G: At its core, Provar will remain the same company and the same product you trust, but it will help us put more resources behind what makes Provar special and help us scale. Our unique offering combines three elements: our Salesforce testing expertise, our great support offering and a uniquely usable product. This funding will help us invest further in our core product and the great ideas that come from our customers and our product team. This is a tipping point for the entire company. We’re going to be able to take good ideas and put them into action without hesitation.
B: It all sounds very exciting and I wish you the best of luck.
G: Thank you, Ben. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
Discover more
To learn more about Provar’s closing of $17 million in Series A funding led with an investment from Kennet Partners, you can read the full press release here.
