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New Features and Functionality Enhancements in NetSuite Release 2016.1

As NetSuite begins to roll out the 2016.1 release in late February, we would like to share several features of this release that our experts find particularly relevant.

 

Advanced Revenue Management

With this newest release, NetSuite is providing clients the ability to combine all of their revenue needs into one solution. The Advanced Revenue Management module will combine revenue recognition, VSOE, revenue commitments and forecasting into one strong solution. This module will provide one place to setup all of the rules clients want to track revenue by and then automatically fill in those areas that are impacted. By automating all of these steps and bringing them together, accountants will save time and reporting will be cleaner and faster. This is a very complex setup, so using a knowledgeable partner is strongly recommended.

 

Automatic Assignment of Fulfillment Locations to Sales Order Lines 

This new enhancement is a neat little feature that can streamline the fulfillment process for companies with multiple distributed fulfillment centers. It adds smart logic that is applied when orders are fulfilled by matching the customer's shipping address to the closest fulfillment location. Automatic location assignment rules need to be configured first so the system knows how these locations should be assigned. In turn, this will speed up delivery of products, reduce shipping costs and improve overall customer satisfaction.

 

Enhanced Sandbox and Change Management Model 

NetSuite announced two new interesting features for Sandbox accounts.  The first is Sandbox 2.0, initially being piloted in the Europe datacenters, which provides better performance and accessibility using the Production Login URL.  This feature also affords the ability for administrators to change the Account ID to distinguish Sandbox from Production Roles.  The second exciting announcement is support for a new Development Environment which is never refreshed with Production data and is not tied to Production accounts.  This feature will be highly attractive to customers who work with development partners and would like to guard their production data as well as reduce the risk of overwriting customizations currently being developed. In particular, public companies concerned with SOX compliance risks of exposed production data will be relieved with the introduction of this long-awaited feature.

 

Suite Script 2.0 

In the 2016.1 release, NetSuite is taking the SuiteScript platform to new levels. SuiteScript 2.0 will enhance NetSuite’s customization capacity, both by increasing performance and functionality, and by streamlining the JavaScript syntax used to write code. Experienced JavaScript programmers will find the new format to be a great improvement, giving them increased productivity in writing and releasing scripts into NetSuite. Additionally, the architecture of SuiteScript 2.0 better enables large projects (SuiteApps) to be built.In version 2016.1, SuiteScript 2.0 will be enabled in every account in which SuiteScript is enabled. New features in this release include the ability to make custom plug-ins, as well as support for Portlet Scripts, Workflow Action Scripts, Bundle Installation Scripts, Mass Update Scripts, and form-level Client Scripts.

 

IT Maintenance & Security 

Some NetSuite customers were surprised when NetSuite abruptly dropped support for SSL back in December 2014 with the application of a security patch, which effectively dropped support for SSL v3.0 in response to the infamous POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgrade Legacy Encryption) vulnerability.  Given that POODLE was a design flaw in the SSL/TLS protocol; there was no way to patch and fix the bug. Hence, NetSuite had to drop support abruptly, which meant integration interfaces using SSL were suddenly failing for customers.  With the latest release, NetSuite provides a number of advanced notices for customers to take action on.  In the area of security, customers should take note that NetSuite is dropping support for TSL v1.0 and v1.1, and that they should update their integration interfaces in advance of June 6, 2016 to use TSL v1.2.

 

Browser Deprecation

NetSuite 2016.1 release notes provide advance notice for end of support for a number of popular browser platforms:

  • Internet Explorer versions up to 10
  • Chrome on OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8
  • Chrome on Windows Vista

This comes as little surprise since Microsoft recently announced the End of Life of IE 8, 9, and 10 in January of this year and Google/Alphabet announced the End of Life of Chrome on Vista and older OS X releases back in November 2015. NetSuite is constantly evolving and receiving new features. Many of these features require support for new technology (such as drag and drop or more active security).

The decision to deprecate these browsers becomes clearer when comparing their support [http://caniuse.com/#compare=ie+8,ie+9,ie+10,chrome+48] for emerging web technology. Internet Explorer 8 supports virtually no HTML5 features completely, and even IE 10 struggles to keep up with 10-generation old versions of Chrome [http://caniuse.com/#compare=ie+10,chrome+38].  In addition to missing features, web developers have had to perform uncomfortable patches to use ActiveX in place of pure JavaScript for adequate cross-platform compatibility. Newer browsers have made great strides in conforming to W3C Specifications and a more uniform NetSuite experience across multiple platforms.

These are but a few of the new features and enhancements being introduced. A comprehensive overview of Release 2016.1, is also available here.

Customers are encouraged to take advantage of “Release Preview” accounts made available by NetSuite to become familiar with the new features and test key business workflows to ensure they do not experience unexpected complications as a result of the upgrade.

Our team of functional and technical experts at Techfino are available to assist clients with new feature set up and testing to ensure the optimal upgrade experience.

 

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