Africa’s Largest Bank with 5x More Releases and 500 User Stories Monthly

‍The Challenge

Banking on Manual Processes and Security Concerns

‍

Faced with a rapidly growing need to enhance their digital capabilities, Standard Bank had to rethink its entire approach to development and deployment. As Africa's largest financial institution, the bank was determined to leverage Salesforce as their core client engagement platform across 20 countries in Africa and seven international markets.

‍

“We needed to drive our platform business strategy forward with Salesforce, which meant expanding our capabilities across all markets and segments,” says Merise Synders, Group Center of Excellence Lead for Salesforce at Standard Bank.

‍

Before implementing Copado, Standard Bank relied on manual deployment processes that were time-consuming and prone to errors. This manual approach created significant inefficiencies and frequent merge conflicts, causing frustration among team members and hampering productivity.

‍

“Everyone was doing manual deployments and overriding each other's code. There was no consistency, and it was extremely frustrating,” recalls Sheldon Lazarus, DevOps Architect, Standard Bank.

‍

The bank also faced critical security and compliance challenges. With a vast array of cloud capabilities to manage, ensuring secure and compliant releases was paramount. The lack of automated processes left the team vulnerable to potential security breaches and compliance violations. “We needed to ensure safe, secure, and high-quality deployments to maintain our reputation and meet regulatory requirements,” says Merise.

‍

The high demand for frequent releases further strained the developers, affecting their work-life balance. The manual, labor-intensive process of deploying changes was not sustainable, especially with the bank's ambitious goal of becoming a leader in digital banking innovation.

‍

“The demand on the Salesforce program in the bank was absolutely enormous. We needed to bootstrap this entire program and set it off at pace in a short period of time,” says Sheldon.

‍

The Solution

Cashing In On Automation for Faster Releases

‍

Standard Bank teamed up with Copado to switch from manual to automated processes, making their Salesforce DevOps way more efficient. Copado's training resources and professional services equipped Standard Bank’s teams with the skills to maximize the DevOps tools. This support encouraged continuous improvement and innovation.

“Copado has transformed our release process, enabling us to go from monthly to bi-weekly releases across three orgs,” says Merise. This change boosted their deployment rate by 500 percent.

‍

Fitting seamlessly with their current Salesforce processes, Copado offers a centralized version control, which helps to cut down merge conflicts, improves team collaboration, and ensures compliance with regulatory standards through robust security features. “They provided the unified solution we needed, integrating seamlessly with our version control and lifecycle management tools,” says Sheldon.

‍

Copado’s automated testing capabilities enhanced Standard Bank’s quality assurance. By implementing quality gates and automated regression tests, errors are caught early, minimizing defects and rollbacks and significantly improving their release quality.

‍

The Outcome

Profiting from Better Salesforce Deployments 

‍

With Copado, Standard Bank transformed its deployment processes, increasing from once a month to a twice weekly cadence. This rapid pace enabled them to deploy over 500 user stories each month, quickly adapting to market needs and enhancing their services.

‍

Before Copado, the bank's QA teams faced slow, error-prone manual deployments, often resulting in code overwrites and inconsistencies. Merise recalls, “It was painful. We needed to make a major shift.” Copado's automated testing and quality gates significantly reduced deployment failures by 80%, ensuring high-quality releases and maintaining customer trust. Automation replaced many manual tasks, boosting team productivity and allowing developers to focus on innovation.

‍

Copado's compliance and security features ensured all deployments met regulatory standards, enhancing security and data integrity. The development team's stress levels dropped, improving their work-life balance and overall morale.

‍

With full visibility into the DevOps pipeline, Standard Bank could effectively monitor and manage deployments, maintaining a competitive edge in the fast-paced financial sector. By integrating Copado, Standard Bank accelerated its deployment cycle, improved software quality and security, and streamlined its development workflow.

‍

The Future

Investing in Innovation with Mobile Testing & AI

‍

Standard Bank's next step in their DevOps journey is leveraging AI and enhancing mobile testing. By integrating Copado’s self-healing AI, the bank aims to prevent regression tests from breaking with each application change. They also plan to utilize Copado’s all-cloud mobile testing, eliminating costly infrastructure and ensuring rapid, reliable updates.

‍