Impact analysis is a process that helps businesses understand the potential consequences of changes to their systems or processes. This analysis is critical for businesses because it helps them evaluate the potential impact of changes before they are made, allowing them to make informed decisions and mitigate risks.
Strongpoint impact analysis is powered by NetSuite's industry-leading best practices. It combines comprehensive dependency information with practical insights into potential risks. Each change request is evaluated for potential risks based on your established policies. Changes that are deemed safe are automatically approved, while those with higher risk are escalated to the appropriate resource for further review.
One of our most popular impact analysis tools is the Entity Relationship Diagram (the ERD) — a visual tool that helps users see the impact of a potential change. Below, we’re exploring the ERD and how you can use it to work smarter in NetSuite.
Why is Impact Analysis So Important?
Impact analysis helps businesses understand the potential consequences of changes they intend to make to their systems or processes. By using impact analysis when making a change, businesses can evaluate the risks and benefits before they’re implemented — which can help them make informed decisions and mitigate any potential negative impacts. Impact analysis is especially important for businesses that operate in highly regulated industries where compliance with laws and regulations is critical.
What is Strongpoint's Entity Relationship Diagram Tool?
The ERD is a visual representation of NetSuite customizations and their dependencies. The tool provides businesses with a graphical view of their data flow, and the relationships between them. The tool itself looks like a flow chart, making it easy to use and easy to understand. The ERD helps businesses make informed decisions about the customizations in their NetSuite account.
How Does Strongpoint's Entity Relationship Diagram Tool Work?
With Strongpoint installed, simply navigate to the ERD module and select the desired Object, Field, or Customization you want to analyze. The tool then scans your NetSuite account to identify every field associated with the Object you selected and creates a visual representation of the relationships between them.
Benefits of Strongpoint's Entity Relationship Diagram Tool
Improved Data Understanding
The ERD provides businesses with a graphical view of their data and how they relate to one another. This helps users understand the dependencies and connections between different entities in their account, which can improve data accuracy and reduce errors.
Better Risk Decisioning
The ERD makes it easy for users to identify potential risks associated with changes to their systems or processes. For instance, we recommend using the ERD when doing a cleanup project as it will ensure that you aren’t archiving a customization that has a hidden (or unknown) dependency that might cause your processes to crash if deleted. By understanding the potential risks in advance, you can take appropriate steps to mitigate them and reduce the likelihood of negative consequences.
Efficient Communication
The ERD tool provides a visual representation of the data relationships, making it easier for different stakeholders to understand and communicate complex information. This can help improve collaboration and decision-making within a business.
Time Savings: The ERD helps businesses save time by eliminating the need to manually map out data relationships. Users can quickly and easily generate an ERD and use it to optimize their data workflows.
Strongpoint's Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) tool is a powerful tool that provides businesses with a visual representation of the relationships between different data entities within their NetSuite account. By improving data understanding, identifying problematic areas, enabling efficient communication, and saving time, the ERD tool can help businesses optimize their data workflows and improve their overall data quality.
