Improving ERP System Performance through SQL Server Optimization

Based in Richmond, Virginia, Winebow is a leading, national importer and distributor of fine wines and spirits from around the world. Offering an extensive portfolio, the company serves customers as an importer in all 51 U.S. markets, and as a distributor in 18 markets which comprises 60% of all U.S. wine consumption.

For over 40 years Winebow has been dedicated to providing restaurants, retailers, and bar owners with exceptional experiences through their diverse and expansive selection of international brands, and their passion for connecting customers with talented producers who craft distinctive and authentic wines and spirits.

Challenge

Winebow uses Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to manage their operations, and while the system itself was a good choice for the company’s needs, they were experiencing performance issues with their databases. These problems were consistent, and severely affected their team’s ability to work efficiently, causing slowdowns across all areas of business activity.

Winebow partnered with our team to identify the underlying causes of the performance problems and then to develop a solution to improve their ERP system efficiency and enhance the security, accuracy, and stability of their data.

Project

Our goal was to develop an application that allowed the sales team to order water quality tests through a digital submission process to the lab and to store the data for each water sample and test request in a database. The new system would allow for the collection of important data including the sales representative, requested tests, customer information, date and time of sample collections, and location of sample collection with photos and geolocation. The application would also allow the sales representative to print labels with bar codes for each sample container that, when received by the lab, could be scanned and the specific test order would automatically be displayed within the lab software.

Solution

Our team executed an assessment of the current system leveraging monitoring tools to analyze the database activity. Through these audit reports, we discovered several improvement opportunities, starting with revisions to their database configuration settings. Additionally, we were able to implement modifications to their database index statistics rebuilding maintenance jobs, and working with the development team, we were able to refine portions of the database architecture for increased availability.

Results

The Winebow team saw immediate and noticeable improvements in the overall performance of their ERP system. There was a marked increase in the number of orders processed, and warehouse and shipping operations were running consistently.

Our DBA team continued working with development to further enhance and optimize performance, expanding our improvement process to encompass other databases in their environment. This integrated approach resulted in a unified and reliable SQL Server database ecosystem for Winebow’s ERP system, allowing for streamlined operations and workflows that helped their employees get tasks completed efficiently and effectively.

After the successful outcome of this initial database remediation project, our team remained as Winebow’s trusted DBA partner. We are proud to provide on-going monitoring, maintenance, and support for their databases, keeping their systems online, secure, and operating at peak performance.