Why is my Infor CRM (Saleslogix) so slow?

Why is my Infor CRM (Saleslogix) so slow?  There are many possible answers, and it is most likely a combination of several factors.  Here are a few possible causes worth looking at:

Is it my machine?  Probably not, unless everything is slow on your machine.  Speed issues are generally server-side.

Is it my network?  Once again, not the most likely cause.  Infor CRM client does not use a ton of bandwidth.  Networks can be the cause of CRM connection issues, but are much less likely to be the cause of speed issues.

Is it my browser?  If you have a choice of browsers, Chrome or Firefox tend to load Infor CRM pages faster that Internet Explorer.  Not a lot faster, but even a few seconds faster can feel good when you are waiting for a page to load.

Do I have too many groups?  When you open a page in Infor CRM, it will load all the ad-hoc groups that have been created for that page.  These groups can build up over time, and loading a large number of groups can really slow down page loads.  You can use the Group Analyzer tool to get rid of unneeded groups.  This issue is much less important if you are in Infor CRM 8.3.06 or later.  Starting with that version, each page loads only a maximum of 30 favorite groups, not all the ad-hoc groups it can find.

Is my software too old?  Infor is always looking to improve performance with updates when they can.  They made some noticeable speed improvements in version 8.3.05, and made the previously mentioned improvement in how groups are handled in 8.3.06.  I don’t know if it is worth the trouble of upgrading just for the speed benefit, but it is one benefit of upgrading.

Do I need a faster server?  Infor CRM is a fairly resource-intensive program.  It is important to make sure that the servers involved have plenty of processor power and memory.  The simplest setup that should be in use in a production environment would be a CRM application/web server, and a separate SQL server.  The way SQL handles memory, you should always use dedicated SQL servers for any production uses of SQL.  However, it is fine to put multiple SQL databases on the same SQL server.  Larger operations (think hundreds of users) may want to split the app and web CRM servers, or even user multiple servers with load balancing.  CRM queries its SQL database quite often, so the SQL server needs a lot of memory.  How much will depend on how many users you have, and how many of them tend to be on simultaneously (as also on how busy any other databases on that SQL server are).

Do I need to adjust IIS settings?  Enabling Http keep-alive on the IIS server can improve performance of the Infor CRM web client.  This is generally more noticeable for remote users.  Here are the settings we have found to work the best in most circumstances: In IIS Manager, expand the Saleslogix site, and expand SlxClient.  Select the CSS folder, and doubleclick HTTP Response Headers.  On the right side, under Actions, click Set Common Headers.  Make both Enable HTTP keep-alive and Expire Web content are checked, and set the web content to expire after 365 days.  Now do the same thing for the images, jscript, and Libraries folders under the same SlxClient site.