Granicus is set up for success across the entire Salesforce DevOps lifecycle
Granicus is a leading provider of cloud-based civic engagement technologies that help governments connect with their communities more effectively. Serving over 7,000 public sector organizations worldwide, Granicus powers digital communications, website management, and service delivery for local, state, and federal agencies.
With over 2,000 employees and a growing global presence, Granicus continues to scale its impact through strategic acquisitions — making a DevOps platform like Gearset essential to supporting the complexity of its Salesforce development.
Grappling with serious tech debt
When Stirling Smith, Senior Manager, Business Systems, joined Granicus through an acquisition, he inherited a Salesforce environment weighed down by tech debt, limited tooling, and inefficient processes.
The team was still deploying manually using change sets. Stirling recalls:
“It was wild. We had no idea we were living in the dark ages. There was no real ownership of deployments. Everyone just kind of jumped in and hoped for the best.”
Deployments were time-consuming and unreliable, often taking several hours late on Thursday nights — forcing Stirling and his team to work after-hours just to get changes into production.
“My wife hated it. I’d finish my normal day around 5pm or 6pm, have dinner with the family, but then by 8pm, I’d say, ‘Sorry, honey, I’ve got to jump back online for the weekly deployments.'”
CPQ deployments could stretch well over three hours depending on complexity. At one point, a consultant mistakenly pushed some CPQ configuration, causing 6 weeks of restoration work.
“We had to manually roll everything back. It was hell”.
The lights have been turned on
Gearset was initially introduced to Granicus by a consultant. After they left, the Granicus team continued using the platform — and everything changed. Stirling said it was like “suddenly having the lights turned on!”
“We expanded from a team of 4 to 13. Now we’re doing more product releases and we’re well-regarded across the company because of our newfound ability to move faster and do more with less.”
Stirling worked closely with Gearset’s customer success team to re-onboard and adopt the platform fully, starting with Compare & Deploy. The impact was immediate.
“I’m not even joking when I say we got hours back in our lives. Literally 3 to 5 hours a week — just for me personally. Deployments could take up to 5 hours every Thursday night. Now, deployments that took hours can be done in minutes.”
Supporting the whole DevOps lifecycle
Since adopting Gearset, the Granicus team has expanded its usage to cover almost the entire development lifecycle: Compare & Deploy, CPQ, Sandbox Seeding, Backup, Archiving — and soon, Gearset Pipelines.
“The platform is well-built, onboarding is quick, and most features are plug-and-play.”
After acquiring a number of businesses, Stirling says that Granicus are now at a place where they have a “repeatable playbook for acquisitions — and Gearset is key to migrating Salesforce data cleanly and quickly”.
After reaching 104% data storage in Salesforce, the team needed to take immediate action. Gearset’s Archiving solution made the difference.
“I’ve never been in an org that hit 96% data usage… and then a year later we were at 104%. Now, thanks to Gearset, we’re down to under 90% — and that’s even after a major acquisition.”
We’ve got a safety net
With Gearset now woven into almost every aspect of their DevOps workflow, Stirling and his team have a new level of confidence in their Salesforce development. For a team that once dreaded deployments, the transformation is clear.
“Gearset gives me confidence that if anything goes sideways — we’ve got a safety net,” Stirling says. Whether it’s unexpected overwrites or deployment mishaps, the team knows they can fall back on reliable backups.
“When something crazy gets deployed or we overwrite something meaningful, I don’t worry — I’ve got last week’s data, so I just restore.”
That peace of mind is priceless in a complex and growing environment like Granicus. Hitting over 100% data storage capacity was once a crisis, now it’s a manageable part of their business operations.
“Having a backup system is like a security blanket — you hope you never need it, but if you don’t have it, life gets uncomfortable fast.”
A platform to grow with
For Stirling, Gearset isn’t just a DevOps tool — it’s a trusted platform that reduces friction, simplifies processes, and scales with the business.
“I don’t want more vendors than I need. Maintaining contracts, renewals, budgets — it’s just annoying.”
From Compare & Deploy to Pipelines, from Backup to Archiving, Gearset has allowed Granicus to consolidate their tooling and streamline their workflows. The ability to do more with less — and do it with confidence — has won Stirling over completely.
“I’m a raving fan. Gearset is one of those tools where if I went to another org and they didn’t have it, I’d panic.”
Best-in-class support
As Granicus continues to grow, Stirling knows he’s not alone in making Gearset work across his teams. The support he’s received has been a standout part of the whole experience.
Whether it’s troubleshooting a tricky deployment or getting up to speed with a new feature, Gearset’s team has been there every step of the way — making the platform not just powerful, but easy to adopt and use.
“Your support team is second to none. I haven’t worked with another vendor where I’ve been this happy.”
