Best Laid Plans
We are getting very close to launching our first software product. We are very excited as this is just the tip of the plans we have regarding NetSuite.
This first project is a comprehensive interface between MailChimp and NetSuite. By comprehensive, we are looking to support the full API of MailChimp in NetSuite. So while the product will function out of the SuiteBundle in keeping both NetSuite and MailChimp data in sync, it will also offer a full MailChimp API to the NetSuite customer. Very cool stuff.
While it is very easy for us to just support MailChimp API in NetSuite as a JSON data feed, we have taken the time to create an environment where calling the MailChimp API will actually populate the data from MailChimp into NetSuite tables for integrated reporting. This is how it should be done.
There are a few competing products in the MarketPlace which integrate NetSuite and MailChimp. This is not the first, but it will be better than the rest because it will allow the customer to extend the product if they desire. If not, we can offer better customizations than the next company because we already have the work completed.
However, even the best laid plans take a turn. The goal of Office Data & Design is to implement our series of software entirely within NetSuite. Most of these companies who do this kind of integration use middleware for the conversion. This creates a secondary layer for failure, delays real-time updates, and increase the cost of deployment. We were trying to avoid that when NetSuite indicated they do not support an HTML anonymous PUSH method to their service from any User-Agent than those of the top 5 browsers. They support all other methods from anything, but the POST is only from these five. It seems very arbitrary.
So for a short period, we are going to release this software with middleware. We have a work-around which will get us back on track, but we need to launch the product.
Adapt and serve.