AimBetter Boosts Priority ERP Performance

Priority is the leading ERP Vendor in Israel, and AimBetter has been working closely for several years with Priority customers to provide comprehensive systems and database management tools.

How AimBetter helps

Priority’s senior manager for operations, Roni Shoshani, says about their usage of AimBetter, “…we assimilate the system, enjoy absolute control over the corporate computing environment, and can quickly locate and understand faults, solve failures easily, save human hours and significantly improve the quality and productivity of employees and information systems alike. ”

Over years of providing expert DBA services for companies whose core system is Priority, we at AimBetter have accumulated detailed knowledge about how Priority databases work. Leveraging this knowledge, we have developed intelligent analytical tools that can collect all the required information directly from the customers’ system environment and produce simple and meaningful visual reports that help various IT professionals, from highly-trained database specialists and experienced managers to IT beginners who need to provide first tier support for the system’s users. Having the unique ability to compare current patterns with historical performance, AimBetter presents trends that can be used to predict pending problems, allowing corrective measures to be taken BEFORE the problem is manifested.

Knowing what can go wrong is the way to prevent problems. To do this, it is best to adopt a holistic approach—you cannot know too much! AimBetter has taken this to the ultimate level—it watches everything inside the whole database environment 24×7 and applies unique and advanced technology to analyze the whole picture to highlight any issues needing attention.

Business Impact

• Eliminate Data Loss- Identify and alert potential issues before they result in data loss. Verifying the integrity of backups also reduces the risk of data loss due to corrupt or incomplete backups.
• Enhance Security –  Tracks and logs all user activities, helping to detect unauthorized access or suspicious behavior.
• Reduce Downtime – Alerts about potential issues before they escalate into problems that cause downtime, allowing preemptive action. Identifying and helping to resolve performance bottlenecks ensures that databases run smoothly and reduces the chances of downtime.
• Improve Response Times – Analyzes SQL queries and offers suggestions for optimization, leading to faster query execution and improved response times. Monitoring resource usage, AimBetter helps in efficient resource allocation, ensuring that the database can respond quickly to queries.
• Reduce Administrator Workload – With detailed diagnostics and clear, actionable insights, system administrators can resolve issues more quickly and efficiently.
• Reduce DBA Workload – AimBetter provides automated alerts and performance recommendations, reducing the need for constant DBA oversight. It also assists in SQL tuning by identifying poorly performing queries and suggesting optimizations, making the DBA’s job easier.
• User Satisfaction – Improved database response times and reduced downtime allow end-users to experience a more reliable and faster application, leading to higher satisfaction.
• Expert support – AimBetter offers the support of our Expert Support team, which comprises experienced Database Administrators who specialize in every aspect of our product and can resolve database-related issues identified by the AimBetter platform.

Here are some common challenges in Priority environments for which AimBetter brings significant value.

• Pritempdb Inflation: Pritempdb inflation occurs when temporary database tables grow excessively large, consuming significant storage and affecting system performance.
  AimBetter continuously monitors database usage, identifying and alerting about excessive growth in temporary tables. It provides insights into which processes or queries are causing the inflation, allowing for targeted optimizations and cleanup efforts.
• Query Locks: Query locks happen when one database transaction locks a resource that another transaction needs, leading to delays and potential deadlocks.
  AimBetter tracks query performance and locks in real time, identifying which queries are causing locks and providing detailed information on the locking chain. This helps database administrators (DBAs) resolve conflicts quickly and optimize transaction handling.
• Multiple Programs Competing for the Table Schema: When multiple programs try to modify the table schema simultaneously, it can cause conflicts and degrade performance.
  AimBetter monitors schema changes and access patterns, highlighting conflicts and high-contention scenarios. It helps prioritize schema changes and manage deployment times to minimize impact on performance.
• Identifying the User Running the Query on the Web Application: Tracking the specific user responsible for running a query can be difficult, especially in Priority web applications where the database user is the same one—”tabula”—for all users.
  AimBetter provides the client process and actual user responsible for running the query.
• Use of CROSS JOIN: Several Priority queries use CROSS JOINs, producing large result sets by combining all rows from two tables. This can be extremely resource-intensive and slow down the system.
  AimBetter detects inefficient queries, including those using CROSS JOINs, and provides recommendations for rewriting queries to use more efficient joins or filtering techniques, thereby improving performance.
• Functions in WHERE and JOIN Clauses: Functions in WHERE and JOIN clauses are common in Priority queries and can prevent the database from using indexes efficiently, leading to slower query performance.
  AimBetter analyzes query structures and flags the use of functions in performance-critical sections of queries. It offers suggestions for refactoring queries to enhance index utilization and overall efficiency.
• Complex and Lengthy Queries that are Difficult to Analyze: Complex queries with multiple joins, subqueries, and conditions can be hard to analyze and optimize.
  AimBetter breaks down complex queries into simpler components, providing visualizations and detailed performance metrics for each part of the query. This helps DBAs understand the query execution plan and identify specific areas for optimization.

With AimBetter, Priority customers can enjoy a more efficient, faster, and cost-effective system.

Here is a screenshot from a Priority client showing how it is possible to understand, with a click, which login is blocking others, its code, and its details. In this case, the database login is the web generic user “tabula.” The Client Process on the bottom right of AimBetter displays the real user and from which screen he activated this query.

About Priority

Priority is a comprehensive, integrated business management system widely used by industrial and commercial-based companies and organizations.  Priority is designed for companies of varying sizes, offering tailored systems that meet the requirements of a wide range of companies that depend on ERP for their day-to-day operations. ERP  manages primary business functions including finance, manufacturing, logistics, human resources, time and attendance, business intelligence, project management, CRM and customer service, and support.