Salesforce is a dominant force in the enterprise applications industry, with over 150,000 companies using the Salesforce platform to manage their businesses and serve their customers. Along with its customer relationship management service, Salesforce also owns a complementary suite of enterprise applications focused on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.
Provar is a leading test automation solution for Salesforce enterprise customers. As a Salesforce-first solution, Provar’s mission is to support companies that have built their mission-critical apps on Salesforce.
The Beginning
Salesforce’s tri-yearly release cycle means the platform is constantly being improved to help customers work better and innovate faster. With this rapid rate of change, businesses need to stay on top of each new releases’ features and potential impacts to ensure their users get maximum value and minimum disruption.
In addition, companies are under increasing pressure to deliver software faster and more frequently. This speed of delivery comes with the risk of introducing system issues and corrupting essential business data. This brings a high reputational risk for large enterprises if their changes are not thoroughly tested for quality.
Realizing the immense opportunity to transform testing within the Salesforce community, The Company was officially launched. Originally founded in London, Provar has since expanded to now include offices in Gurugram, India and Nashville, Tennessee.
The Journey
Provar’s mission is to help customers keep up with the new pace of innovation. When The Company was founded, the team’s expertise was built in testing Salesforce’s then-current ‘Classic’ interface. When Salesforce suddenly introduced their innovative new UI, the Lightning Experience, Salesforce customers began thinking about how to upgrade.
Provar had to adapt quickly to come to terms with the new technology and develop the Lightning expertise that customers needed.
Our customers rely on us to support them through change and help them prevent user disruption.
Geraint Waters, Provar CEO & Co-founder
With the advent of Lightning, The Company realised a change was needed to stay ahead of the Salesforce roadmap. In 2014, soon after the introduction of Lightning, The Company changed their business model to work more closely with Salesforce and stay aligned to the strategic roadmap. That meant investing more heavily in R&D to find unique technical solutions, such as a dynamic DOM [a way of reliably locating fields for testing purposes]. Salesforce’s technology changes inspired those changes to Provar’s business.
“We’re proud to say that Provar has grown organically to this point with a consistent growth rate of 60% year on year.”
The Provar Solution
“We put Salesforce at the center of our solution and we are critical to the success and velocity of those solutions.”
Provar’s testing solution is the leading test automation solution for Salesforce enterprise customers.
As a simple no-code product it’s designed to be usable by manual testers and Salesforce admins without a steep learning curve. At the same time it works for the most expert technical user as it solves the maintenance headache that comes from open-source testing solutions.
In addition, Provar understands that their customers aren’t just testing Salesforce, so they help their customers test solutions outside of Salesforce as well. Finally Provar’s product integrates with a number of other essential platforms such as Salesforce deployment tools and reporting platforms, making them a straightforward addition to their customers’ DevOps strategy.
We’re committed to being the best at Salesforce testing and that means constant innovation to meet customers’ requirements.
The Team
In Provar’s early days the team was very customer-led in terms of their product development and the technical roadmap. Now they have a strategic roadmap to anticipate their customers’ requirements based on their experience in the QA space and knowledge of the direction that Salesforce is going in. The team has come a long way since Provar’s inception but they always keep their customers in mind.
“Our customers have become trusted advisors who consult on and validate our roadmap. We always aim for an honest and transparent approach with our customers in terms of what we promise.”
As a global company, Provar has given each office the flexibility to have fun, socialize and relax in the ways that suit its people. Whether that’s Zumba in the office, away weekends, fun Fridays or bringing your dog to work, Provar has tried to create an inclusive culture that celebrates their cultural differences as well as uniting them in their common values. As a result of this approach, Provar’s employee retention has always been excellent and the staff are very passionate about what they do.
The Leadership
Provar’s philosophy has always been that looking after its employees needs to be number one. This has never been truer than now, in the wake of the global pandemic.
Before the pandemic, The Company had already given their employees the option and tools for remote work when they needed it. That meant that when they decided to close down their offices as a result of the pandemic, everyone was ready.
Provar is only as strong as the team we assemble and a good leader needs to bring everyone along for the journey. Together we’ve built a company that’s achieved recognition in the enterprise space and the industries we serve. That’s the thing I’m most proud of.
