If you start to notice that your ERP system has the tendency to be slow, that can threaten the company’s productivity. There can be many reasons for ERP’s slow work, so there are several solutions to this problem. You can take specific actions that will optimize the program, improve performance or test the speed. This article will examine the main reasons for ERP systems’ slow work and reveal the best practices of making them work faster.
Why speed up ERP?
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an automated system created to integrate and automate an organization’s business’s main processes systematically. Such systems are usually large and complex, and if you use and support them improperly, they can run very slow.
Imagine the situations: an employee prepares a report, puts the data on upload, and leaves for coffee, or you are a new system administrator, and everyone is complaining to you about the system’s slow work, or you are the chief accountant, and you are continually experiencing the slow operation of the system. All these can affect the productivity and speed of the company.
ERP system allows you to store and process the company’s data. The problems can be local and appear on local servers or be based in the cloud. The speed is determined by how the system works with the databases, particularly on how much work is done by the server and its computing capacity. As it is always a complex system, it is impossible to predict everything in advance. In almost any implementation, something can go wrong, and you will have to find and fix the issue.
What factors affect the speed of ERP?
Main reasons for the low speed of work
The first thing to check is your database with all the data and rules that are the basis of your ERP system’s work. If a database has been set up improperly, it can be the reason for the ERP slowdown. Thoroughly examine the performance reports and try to spot the most vulnerable areas that need your special attention. Then, make changes to the configuration to help mitigate some of these issues. The main thing that you need to keep in mind is speeding up your system’s overall performance.
Server speed
When checking the server speed, there are some of the main questions you can ask to diagnose the issue:
- How long does it take to log in?
- How long does it take to open a screen?
- How long does it take to process a customer record?
- How much these results differ if they run directly on the server and or workstation?
- Are all workstations speeds consistent?
After scrutinizing every figure, fix the issue and test it again to find out if the same performance problem occurs again.
Problems in database
ERP systems are built on databases. That’s why it’s not a surprise that one of the most frequent reasons for slow work is the database’s problems. If they aren’t clean, the ERP system may undergo a slowdown. It’s always essential to manage your database code and the data as clean as possible. You may use the database reports for troubleshooting.
Network slowdowns
If you didn’t discover any pitfalls in your database, but ERP still works very slow, you need to check up the network. The network performance diagnostics should show if there are any issues. Maybe that’s the lack of bandwidth, or on the contrary, the ERP system is bandwidth-intensive, you need to pay special attention to its work.
Insufficient and weak hardware
If previous checkups showed that network, speed, and database have no specific issues, it’s time to check your hardware. Insufficient hardware can be the problem of your slow ERP work, and it usually one of the most expensive issues to fix. It’s essential to check the server’s storage space and every workstation’s processing capabilities to run the software. You need to investigate the hardware and find the weakest spot in the system that can’t operate at its full potential.
How to make ERP run faster?
First of all, we need to diagnose the problem. There are several parameters that can determine the probable cause of ERP slowdown. It is often impossible to fully simulate the operation of an entire system. But at least some of the parameters can be tested. Once the diagnosis has been made, you can proceed with changes to the system, for example:
- Change the network topology
- Change the network equipment
- Change the network system setting
- Make changes to the ERP code
- Change the ERP setting
- Increase the server capacity
- Check the logs after the system began to slow down
You can perform some relatively simple actions without diagnostics.
Despite the fixes that you are going to apply to your ERP systems, this should be done by an expert, the person who knows the databases like the back of their hand. Before they start the speed up process, make sure they know what they’re doing. Here are some of the main pieces of advice that we can highlight for speeding up a slow ERP System:
- Test your speed. It is helpful to respond to the arisen problems immediately.
- Optimize the performance of third-party extensions and integrations. Some solutions can be rarely used or do not work at all, but they can load the database.
- Avoid custom code. It adds complexity, maintenance, and problems in all stages.
- Automate testing. Manual testing can be too time-consuming, while automated testing saves time and cost.
- Find a trusted vendor or consultant. FiduciaSoft can be a trusted partner who can evaluate your ERP database.
FiduciaSoft provides ERP services by involving certified Acumatica consultants, developers as well as PMs. We have extensive experience with customized development of successfully completed ERP projects for small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises.
We demonstrate our competence in delivering customized and high-quality ERP software, including Acumatica, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, MS Dynamics AX, and MS Dynamics 365. You can read more about our experience of customizations for Acumatica in the «cases» section on our website. And if you have similar projects, let’s discuss them and find the best solutions for the cooperation!