Steering CLAAS Toward Agile Salesforce Development and Secure Metadata Mastery

The Challenge

Overcoming Digital Hurdles with Salesforce DevOps

German manufacturer, CLAAS, isn’t your run-of-the-mill tractor company –– they're a global powerhouse in agricultural machinery with offices and sales companies in over 100 countries and six continents. 

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Since 1913, CLAAS has been committed to building innovative farming equipment for the global agricultural industry. But when it came to the company’s Salesforce development process, CLAAS’s  legacy systems and siloed teams made digital transformation as difficult as trying to plow a field filled with rocks.

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Before Copado, CLAAS was relying on an external partner to handle Salesforce releases through a custom-built pipeline that operated outside their infrastructure. Without support for handling manual or data related tasks, big deployments were often tedious, especially when having to exclude specific changes from deployment. In the worst case situations, missing or erroneous steps resulted in software defects or missed changes. 

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To comply with internal regulations, reduce risk, release faster and gain tighter control over their development process, CLAAS set out to bring all Salesforce development in-house. CLAAS needed to solve a multitude of technical hurdles in their release management process, ranging from slow deployments to persistent errors and metadata management woes. In response, they turned to Copado’s DevOps platform to engineer a comprehensive remedy.

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Deployment Frequency and Change Management Improvements
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Before implementing Copado, CLAAS typically managed around two major releases per year and hotfix releases every two weeks. While this general structure has remained, the flexibility Copado provides has allowed CLAAS to also deploy specific features on demand. This capability is crucial for timely bug fixes or smaller feature bundles that were previously more complicated to handle.

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Moreover, with Copado, the incidence of change overrides, which occasionally disrupted operations, has significantly decreased. Although hard to quantify, the visibility Copado offers into the deployment process has substantially reduced the percentage of overrides, ensuring a smoother and more secure release management cycle.

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The Solution

Harnessing the Power of Copado — The Catalyst for Change

By automating CLAAS’s deployment pipeline, Copado eliminated the need for manual intervention, drastically reducing Salesforce release times and minimizing the risk of errors.

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Copado enables CLAAS to precisely control exactly what user stories go into each deployment. Previously, they relied on an external partner to manage deployments outside their infrastructure, leading to complexity. Copado replaced this with an internal CI/CD pipeline, empowering CLAAS to cherry pick specific changes or user stories from deployment as needed to bolster security, quality and velocity.

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Leveraging Copado’s Salesforce-native, user-friendly interface, CLAAS was able to automate previously-complex and manual tasks across all stages of their Salesforce delivery workflow. Furthermore, because Copado provides a comprehensive view of the progression of user stories, CLAAS experienced an enhanced ability to monitor development activities more precisely at a granular level. This resulted in a significant improvement in efficiency and clarity in managing their DevOps processes.

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Beyond the DevOps platform’s technical capabilities, Copado aligned seamlessly with CLAAS's strategic objectives and Salesforce roadmap. By bringing the deployment pipeline in-house, CLAAS gained greater control over compliance and security, ensuring adherence to regulatory standards and mitigating potential risks.

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The Outcome

Reaping the Benefits with Copado

At CLAAS, the integration of Copado has sparked a digital revolution, redefining how they approach deployment processes and collaboration within their development team. Here's a closer look:

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• Effortless Deployment: Previously limited to about two major releases annually, Copado now allows CLAAS to deploy specific features on-demand when needed, including timely bug fixes or smaller feature bundles. This flexibility has eradicated the need for weekend deployments, allowing for more strategic and less disruptive updates during regular working hours.
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• Agile Release Management: Copado has helped CLAAS become more flexible in their software release management. Now, they can quickly react to unexpected changes and easily adjust their development process to meet the evolving demands of their business.
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• Empowered Development Teams: Copado provides intuitive conflict detection and on-demand deployment capabilities. This newfound autonomy has led to improved work-life balance and higher morale among team members.
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• Enhanced Collaboration: Real-time insights into the development process have fostered greater collaboration among team members, resulting in more efficient workflows and faster time-to-market for products.
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• Heightened Security: By securely integrating with their git repository, Copado ensures that all changes are tracked, audited, and can be reverted, providing CLAAS with peace of mind as they continue to integrate while adhering to compliance and regulatory standards.

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The Future

Nurturing Future Growth with Source Format Pipelines 

CLAAS is gearing up for some exciting changes on the deployment front. They're eyeing more automation and AI integration to streamline their processes. 

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They're also considering a shift to source format pipelines with Copado to optimize their Salesforce delivery workflows for better efficiency and control. In a nutshell, CLAAS is getting ready to level up their deployment game. By harnessing advanced tech and refining their strategies, they're paving the way for a more agile and effective approach to software deployment.

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