“Test drive before you go live” is NetSuite’s standard pre-release mantra and good advice which you should take seriously. NetSuite is a cloud-based ERP platform. As such, upgrades do not require any installation on your end. However, you should be informed of what’s coming your way by carefully reviewing the release notes. You should also properly assess the impact on your environment by testing using the Release Preview environment.
The release preview environment is a free, on-demand environment made available to all customers during the upgrade cycle to enable them to test new features and make sure everything works well. The release preview is similar to your Sandbox environment in that it includes a snapshot of your Production environment but, in this case, with the NetSuite version applied it to.
Release Preview testing is very important because, no matter how carefully NetSuite tests the new features, each account has customizations and integrations that make it unique. As such, there is always a risk that new features or changes might “break” something in your environment. NetSuite even provides you with a test plan template to get you going.
Instead of crossing your fingers and simply hoping for the best the upcoming release, make sure you properly evaluate the impact of the upgrade on your account by testing in the Release Preview (RP) environment.