Introduction

Many NetSuite Administrators know the pain of manually migrating customizations from one NetSuite environment to another. It can be time consuming, error-prone and adds little value compared to the actual development of the customizations.

These are known challenges and top of mind for those managing the migration process for their company day in and day out, but are business stakeholders thinking about these same challenges and if so how are they thinking about them?

In this blog post we are going to explore a simple methodology business stakeholders can use to determine the expected cost of manual deployments. We will see that instead of focusing on the manual effort from the NetSuite Administrators (and the challenges mentioned above), they should instead focus on the potential impact of an error made as a direct result of manually migrating changes from one environment to another.

Before we do that, let’s take a look at a common NetSuite deployment example that is error prone and perhaps more so than other customizations.

NetSuite deployment example

NetSuite workflows are notoriously painful to migrate change to production, whether this be the deployment of a new workflow or the modification to an existing workflow. Each workflow state, action and transition can have complex logic and criteria associated with them making it a challenging prospect to migrate NetSuite workflows with 100% accuracy.

Let’s think about a scheduled workflow that executes on NetSuite sales order transactions. Following a significant overhaul of an existing workflow, we need to migrate changes from our Sandbox environment to our Production environment. As part of this migration we need to update the saved search filter referenced in the workflow. Unfortunately, the NetSuite Administrator completing the migration selects the wrong saved search (with a very similar name) in the drop down. The result is that this workflow will now execute on the wrong population of sales orders and to make matters worse, this particular workflow triggers an email that is sent to customers every hour if they have a sales order that meets the saved search criteria.

The incorrectly selected saved search includes a list of all sales orders (all time) and does not include criteria to restrict sales orders already processed by the workflow. In other words, the workflow will inadvertently trigger emails to all customers every hour until the issue is located and changes rolled back. Not good news for this company or its customers!

Screen shot of NetSuite workflow “Saved Search Filter” field available for scheduled workflows

This is but one example of the countless things that can go wrong when deploying changes manually from one NetSuite environment to another.

Thinking about the cost of things going wrong

As we said above, business stakeholders will think about the cost of deploying customizations manually compared to the team completing those deployments. In some cases, the business might not be thinking about this at all and the team managing the deployments think about it too much (because of how painful it can be).

The reality is that business stakeholders should be thinking about this cost, because the cost of things going wrong can be severe especially if it has a customer-facing impact.

In this sense, the cost can be linked to the risk of error and the business impact should such an error occur. With some basic assumptions we can attempt to quantify this cost. Let’s take a closer look.

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Expected cost of manual deployments errors

The formula

We can create a formula to assess the monetary impact of potential errors during a manual NetSuite solution migration. Here is one such approach we can take:

Expected Manual Deployment Error Cost = 

Potential physical cost: Error Rate  * Cost per Error + 

Potential customer impact: Error Rate * Number of Transactions * Average Transaction Size

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The variables

This formula consists of the following variables:

• Error Rate: This is the likelihood of human error occurring when a manual migration takes place. This can be estimated based upon historical data/experience. For NetSuite workflows, this % would be higher compared to other customizations.
• Number of Transactions: Total number of transactions that will be impacted by this migration to Production.
• Average Transaction Size: The typical size (in monetary value) of the transactions processed via this particular solution.
• Cost Per Error: The estimated cost incurred for each deployment error that occurs, such as rework time, data correction and even changes to system controls.

By incorporating these variables, this formula produces a preliminary estimate of the expected financial impact resulting from the potential errors that occur during manual migration from one NetSuite environment to another.

Example values

Let’s take a look at how we can leverage this formula, with reference to our above workflow example.

• Error Rate: 2%
• Number of Transactions: 500
• Average Transaction Size: $2,000
• Cost Per Error: $5000

Expected Manual Deployment Error Cost = 

Potential physical costs: 2% * $5,000 = $100

Potential customer impact: 2% * 500 * $2,000 = $20,000

$100 + $20,000 = $20,100

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In other words, based upon the assumptions made for each variable, the expected cost associated with potential errors during the manual migration process is somewhere in the region of $20,000 for a single Production migration error.

The assumed error rate of 2% is low. Some migrations are more error prone than others based upon the objects you are migrating and the complexity of those objects. Migrating complex changes to an existing workflow in NetSuite is arguably one of the most risky migrations that can be performed manually, as there are so many moving parts.

If our workflow executes for all customers in your NetSuite environment then you would need to adjust the number accordingly. You need to understand any criteria applied to the workflow that may naturally limit the population of customers impacted by a change to the workflow.

We are considering the average deal size to account for the order of magnitude should this error have an adverse impact to customer relationships. This will need to be estimated, but shouldn’t be too difficult to arrive at a reasonable number.

The cost per error is more challenging to quantify. You need to consider the impact for every error that occurs in the population. You should make assumptions for rework time, data corrections, communication to customers, additional controls to avoid a repeat, etc. For example, if we assume our workflow erroneously executed and it will take roughly 50 hours to resolve all said and done, this would equate to around $5,000, assuming an hourly rate of $100/hr.

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Important considerations

While this formula can be a good indicator of the impact of deploying NetSuite solutions manually, there are a few things to consider before relying upon the output.

The formula produces an estimated value. The actual cost of such errors will vary depending upon the specific circumstances of each particular NetSuite migration.

When considering the values to assign to each variable, it is important that you assign realistic values to achieve a realistic estimate.

The calculation only considers the monetary impact of migration errors. In many cases there can be additional consequences like reputational damage and/or customer dissatisfaction that are more qualitative and therefore more difficult to quantify.

By using this formula and considering the limitations, NetSuite customers can gain valuable insights into the potential financial risks associated with manual netSuite migrations and make informed decisions that support both resource allocation and risk mitigation strategies.

If you’re looking for some ways to mitigate this risk, keep on reading.

Beyond Manual Deployments: Streamlining your NetSuite Migrations

While manual deployments offer a baseline approach to migrating NetSuite solutions, NetSuite provides a variety of tools to streamline the process and minimize errors. Let's explore some options to consider:

SuiteBundler, Copy to Account and SuiteCloud Development Framework (SDF) 

These built-in NetSuite solutions offer varying levels of support for Production migrations. It is important to assess the capabilities of each solution against the complexity of your custom solution and your internal team’s skillset. This is crucial for selecting the most suitable migration option.

Salto

This third-party solution empowers NetSuite Administrators and NetSuite Developers by facilitating faster and error-free deployments. Here are some ways a SuiteApp like Salto can benefit your NetSuite migrations:

• Reduced deployment time - Salto streamlines the deployment process, ensuring quicker migration to your Production environment.
• Enhanced accuracy - Streamlining deployments minimizes the risk of human error, leading to more reliable NetSuite migrations
• Simplified rollbacks - This SuiteApp allows for effortless environment comparisons, making it easier to identify and revert any inadvertent changes when migration changes to your Production environment. This is especially valuable when rollbacks become time sensitive due to unforeseen issues following migration.

By leveraging these tools you can significantly reduce the risks and complexities associated with manual deployments.  Don’t forget that a well planned rollback process is vital when deploying NetSuite customizations to Production!

For more information on expanding your NetSuite toolkit and how to think like a NetSuite Pro, check out Salto’s blog posts that explore some of the things that NetSuite Developers and NetSuite Administrators should be leveraging within the NetSuite ecosystem.

Final thoughts

If you’re still migrating NetSuite customizations manually today then hopefully this blog post will give you pause next time you need to deploy a change to Production. Migrating changes manually is not only time consuming, tedious and error-prone, but can have far reaching implications as we saw in the above workflow migration example. Don’t make this mistake - instead consider all your options when it comes to migrating changes from one NetSuite environment (such as Sandbox) to another (typically Production). Once you have streamlined your deployment process you won’t look back!