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Epicor Prophet 21 Performance – Real-World Issues

Epicor Prophet 21 Performance – Real-World Issues

Recently, I met with an Epicor Prophet 21 customer on a discovery call to review the issues they were encountering in relation to some ongoing P21 web UI slowdowns. ERP system performance is a common challenge across the ERP community, and in the Prophet 21 community, the subject of P21 performance is similarly of great importance. Coming out of the call, I thought I’d collect a few of the talking points and add a few additional P21 system performance considerations that can impact the speed and responsiveness of your Prophet 21 web UI.

Epicor Prophet 21 Performance Distribution Industry

Epicor Prophet 21 system performance can be a maze to navigate.

We had originally characterized the issue as a problem with the P21 API loading, and we began looking more broadly. As you might know, the Prophet 21 sits on top of Microsoft’s Internet Information Services web server platform, known colloquially as “IIS”.  There are several things to consider if your P21 web server is slowing down throughout the day, and with an ERP system like P21, the issues actually affecting the performance of the Prophet 21 web interface may reside many layers below the P21 web server.

Background:

It might be helpful to initially review the composition and operation of websites. Websites are comprised of both static and dynamic pages. A static page is pre-defined on the web server and is ready to be served up. A dynamic page is generated at run time and may dynamically differ each time it is generated. In terms of HTML pages that comprise the P21 user interface, generally speaking, the P21 application pool can only respond to a certain number of requests at a time. If it is busy responding to requests for dynamic pages, then it may not have any threads left to serve the static pages. For this reason, a code problem on a dynamic page can create the illusion that the static pages are being served “slowly”. My point is, don’t rule out code or SQL. As an example, if you have 100 pages all hitting a database or API at the same time, and all 100 await a response, request 101 may be blocked until one of the first 100 requests completes.

Diagnosing the Degradation:

Beyond explicit issues like request load, there are plenty of things that you can do to help you diagnose performance problems with your Prophet 21 web application:

Load Profiles: What does your load profile look like normally? This makes a big difference – it may be that you always have an issue, but you can’t see the impact until your site receives load. You could try to test this (in staging) with something like JMeter.

Reviewing your logs: Does your application have logs? If not, you should consider adding some logging. If you already have logs, what do they say? Are there exceptions being thrown by your application? Is there something that is consistently failing?

IIS Logs: Enable IIS logs if you haven’t already. Reviewing your P21 IIS logs can help you see which requests are taking the longest. You can use something like Microsoft’s Log Parser to run SQL-like queries against your logs. You may even want to dump your logs into a SQL database if that makes your P21 logs easier to review. Once you know which pages are taking the longest, you can focus some of your attention on them.

Memory: How much memory is your application pool using? A memory leak is an obvious candidate but should be quite easy to see. Use Windows’ inbuilt Performance Monitor to track memory consumed by your application pool over the day and see if this increases as the day goes on.

SQL Performance: The performance of your P21 SQL database may be an underlying cause of poor Prophet 21 user interface performance. SQL server provides a series of query structures called Dynamic Management Views, or DMVs, that can provide details about server and database health and performance. These can be very helpful in diagnosing performance issues at this level. One common DMV, sys.dm_exec_requests, can help you understand query properties such as wait_type, wait_time, blocking_session_id and the total_elapsed_time.

P21 Application Pool Connections: Check how many connections your application pool has open – using something like Microsoft’s TCPView. Your application pool will try to re-use connections where possible, but you’ll probably see a lot of open connections to your application pool. One interesting thing you can see from this is how many connections you have open to your SQL database or any external APIs your application is using.

Use an Application Performance and Monitoring Tool: Performance monitoring tools, like AppDynamics, will be able to help pinpoint slow performing parts of your code. Unfortunately, there’s a little bit of a learning curve to be able to use these tools effectively, but they can be very powerful in helping to diagnose problems with your applications.

SQL Server AutoGrowth Property: Review the property in your SQL database pertaining to AutoGrowth. You may encounter issues if the following are occurring:

1. If the database is a super-busy database, transactionally speaking.

2. If AutoGrowth is enabled.

3. The AutoGrowth default is a smaller MB amount. This may cause random slowdowns on the database engine, which could impact the API application pool response time. 

One thing to test would be to set that AutoGrowth size in MB to a very large number. That way, the AutoGrowth will only happen periodically.

Look for Memory Leaks: Once I had a customer experiencing IIS performance degradation issues with a custom web application we had built that was using asp.net and Crystal runtime integration. Ultimately, the issues with IIS and the web app related to memory leaks that were not obvious at all until we started doing some deep-dive testing. You will want to consider the possibility of internal memory leaks when building a support case against the application having performance-related issues that may or may not have been resolved in minor version changes. I know IIS also plays a part in this and how it manages internal garbage disposal with application pools, so this may be an area that you need to explore as well.

As you can see, Epicor Prophet 21 system performance can be a maze to navigate. To find your way through the P21 performance maze, there are many potential paths to take, and depending on the ultimate source of the problem, many might be dead ends. But in understanding the directions one might take in navigating the many potential Prophet 21 performance issues, P21 users can hopefully find themselves at the maze’s end – and moving on to bigger and better things.

Prophet 21 Cloud Migration Steps for Managed Hosting of P21
Going for the Gold at P21WWUG CONNECT 2023

Going for the Gold at P21WWUG CONNECT 2023

EstesGroup is proud to be a gold sponsor for the P21WWUG CONNECT 2023 conference in Dallas, Texas.

That’s metal! This year, Estes is going for the gold as Gold Sponsor of the ultimate educational and networking event for anyone in the distribution industry! Are you attending the P21WWUG CONNECT event this year? “The WWUG” is the annual event for the Prophet 21 Worldwide User Group, and offers a veritable goldmine of information and assistance for Epicor P21 users.

Gold Sponsor Dallas P21WWUG CONNECT 2023

P21WWUG CONNECT 2023 at the Sheraton Dallas

Sunday August 20th – Tuesday August 22nd

Why should you attend P21WWUG CONNECT this year?

If you’re digging for P21 information, the P21WWUG is the place to be – the Epicor Prophet 21 user group has a heart of gold, and their members are famous for sharing their treasures.

“The user group hates to be sold to, but loves to be helped.”

Are you tired of coming to a trade show booth only to have someone try to sell you something? Come check out our booth. We’re not gold diggers. We bring our most knowledgeable Epicor Prophet 21 consultants to our P21WWUG CONNECT booth each year. This allows us to help your company right from the start, as we hope to be the ERP consultancy that brings great value to your team, whether you need a little help fine-tuning your system or full implementation and deployment services, on-premise or in a cloud environment. 

 

EstesGroup is bringing a goldmine of assistance to P21WWUG CONNECT 2023 in Dallas.

Is reporting a concern? Whether you’re looking to know more about SSRS, Crystal Reports, business intelligence or data mining, we can help you dig out your information and find a veritable mother lode. Gain valuable insights into your ERP software and its underlying technology while networking with peers, meeting new vendors, and enjoying Dallas, TX, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Do you need custom solutions for Prophet 21 ERP? Dynachange? Business rules? Do you need a well-wrought solution to a rare problem? We can help talk you through it – our technical knowledge is as good as gold.

Are you panning for answers to your P21 functional issues? Sales orders, inventory management, purchasing & receiving, finance? We can promise many nuggets of information. But all we ask is that you don’t kill the golden goose (visit our P21WWUG CONNECT booth to learn more!). 

Are you in need of a safe place to stash your treasure? EstesGroup is the gold standard when it comes to Epicor Prophet 21 hosting. Our customers give us a gold star. Ask us to introduce you to the distribution companies that we have helped during our 20+ years as one of the leading ERP consultancies in the nation!

So come find us at this year’s most significant event for companies in the distribution industry: P21WWUG CONNECT 2023 in Dallas, TX.

It’s a well-known fact that all that glitters isn’t gold. But we’re not peddlin’ iron pyrite – we have some genuine value to offer. We won’t give you the shaft.  And this gold ain’t no dye job – this bad boy goes all the way down to the roots!

Our expertise has been forged over many years as technicians, end users, system administrators, ERP consultants, and IT managers. Ask us about IT – we’re worth our mettle.

P21WWUG CONNECT 2023

See you at P21WWUG CONNECT 2023! 

We highly recommend that you do. It’s worth its weight…in gold… If you’d like to see the pot o’ gold cloud hosting solution for enterprise resource planning software now, please fill out the form below, and we’ll create a custom demo for your company. EstesGroup is a leader in merging enterprise resource planning consulting with cutting-edge technology, including everything from cybersecurity and backup and disaster recovery to full-service management of private and hybrid clouds.

How to Use Technology to Manage Freight Costs

How to Use Technology to Manage Freight Costs

Freight costs are more important than ever in our turbulent times. With ongoing inflation, and the possibility of a recession looming, runaway freight costs threaten to take distributors’ profit margins for a ride.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions often lack proper tools within the base software for managing freight costs and often must rely on third-party applications and web sites to manage and execute carrier pricing. With a potential recession on the horizon, it is more important now than ever to recover costs and protect profits. Companies go to great lengths to negotiate freight rates with carriers but often fall short on execution of the rates resulting in paying higher costs. A better solution is needed, especially in light of the challenges that a recession will bring.

Freight Costs business concept: Small cardboard boxes with a plane flies above world map. Concept of transportation, international freight, global shipping, goods or services remotely. overseas trade, regional
ShipSource

November 30th @12PM – 1PM (EASTERN)

ShipSource: Using Technology to Manage Freight Costs During a Recession

On November 30th, at Noon (Eastern), Ron Cope of ShipSource will discuss the techniques necessary when using technology to manage freight costs during a recession. The session will focus on things you can do to improve freight execution and become more efficient to control spending.

Companies spend significant time, resources, and money to license and install shipping software. Efficient and fully-functional shipping solutions are a must in the distribution industry in general and in the Epicor Prophet 21 community, in particular. Moreover, there is a need in the P21 industry for custom platforms that meet clients’ needs, that are integrated immediately, and can go live within days.

ShipSource is an authorized distributor of the ShipVia multi-carrier transportation management system, and has been providing Prophet 21 shipping solutions since 2005. ShipVia was created to meet the Prophet 21 shipping needs of the P21 distribution community, by providing a robust rating engine that can be deployed quickly at affordable pricing.

Tailored to fit the corporate growth initiatives and financial strategies, the solution supports a robust solution and a rapid implementation. If you are looking for a solution that supports rating for all your carriers and can be fully implemented within days, then ShipSource has the system for you.

Meet Ron Cope of ShipSource at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Ron Cope has more than 35 years of experience with transportation management. Currently, Ron is the President of ShipVia, the manufacturer of the ShipVia transportation management software program and ViaDUCT integration software. Ron is also the Managing Partner of ShipSource that is licensed to distribute the ShipVia software products.

Ron Cope

Ron Cope, ShipSource

Ready to keep your freight costs in your control?

ERP Integration Software Event
Boosting P21 Sales Through CRM

Boosting P21 Sales Through CRM

If you’re in the distribution industry and planning for 2023, you might be asking, “How do I land more accounts and close more deals?” Leveraging CRM as the customer-facing side of your ERP system can help answer these questions. But ERP systems routinely fall short when it comes to natively providing best-in-class CRM capabilities.

Successful Prophet 21 CRM processes are most often supported by a best-of-breed third-party solution. White Cup’s solution for P21 is one such system, that can help extend the capabilities of your Prophet 21 ecosystem. But successful Prophet 21 CRM is best paired with Prophet 21 Business Intelligence, and White Cup complements their CRM offering with a robust BI platform, allowing users to mine the sales funnel with precision.

Prophet 21 Sales CRM
White Cup logo

Within the context of P21 BI and P21 CRM, just what does a “day in the life” look like for a P21 salesperson?

On November 30th, Steve Hesson of White Cup will be presenting at 1:00 ET, on the subject of Driving P21 sales using White Cup CRM and BI. White Cup can take your P21 data to a new level of sales success.

Drive more sales from your P21 data with White Cup. In this session, White Cup’s Steve Hesson will cover the tactical ways that P21 integrates with White Cup CRM and BI (formerly MITS BI) to help create more sales opportunities and close more deals.

  • Increase existing customer sales using business intelligence
  • Speed up sales cycles with automated CRM workflows
  • Win new customers by responding to opportunities faster than the competition

White Cup turns a distributor’s sales pains into profit gains. Their CRM, Business Intelligence (BI), and Pricing software make it easier for you to sell more, keep more profit and beat the competition. With over 20 years of experience, White Cup is trusted by more than 1,000 customers globally.

Meet Steve Hesson at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Steve Hesson is White Cup’s Regional Sales Manager. He’s worked with distributors and manufacturers for the last six years and is passionate about selling technology that makes it easier for sales reps to crush their quotas and grow businesses.

Steve Hesson
White Cup EstesGroup 2022
ERP Integration Software Event

How to Prepare Your Supply Chain for 2023

How to Prepare Your Supply Chain for 2023

Over the last few years, I’ve seen companies perform every possible inventory management tactic to mitigate the supply chain challenges that afflicted the nation as a function of the pandemic. Some strategies proved to be detrimental, with manufacturing and distribution companies burdened at times with massive quantities of low-turn product. 

That is to say, if you are a distributor recovering from stressors due to the pandemic, optimally managing your Prophet 21 inventory levels is of utmost importance as you head into the new challenges of 2023. COVID-19 and other recent global events are testing the resilience and flexibility of supply chains. 

Supply Chain Challenges International freight or shipping service for online shopping or ecommerce concept : Paper boxes or carton put in circle around a clear crystal globe with world map on a computer notebook keyboard.
slimstock logo

How Can You Prepare Your Supply Chain for 2023?

Slimstock is one company that can show you how to be ready for the possible supply chain rollercoasters of the new year. Slimstock’s forecasting, planning, and purchasing solution integrates with the P21 application to bring you to the next level of P21 efficiency and P21 optimization.

Slimstock is the market leading AI-powered inventory optimization software. Slimstock helps companies using Epicor Prophet 21 by enabling the delivery of the right stock to the right place at the right time.

Slimstock does this by all-in-one P21 integration of Inventory Forecasting, Demand Planning and Purchase Optimization, with machine learning capabilities.

Over the last 25 years, Slimstock has helped thousands of companies to boost profitability and unlock working capital by improving availability, increasing efficiency, and eliminating waste with guarantee on ROI within a year. 

Since their inception in 1993, they have worked in collaboration with business leaders, domain experts and academics and the P21 user community to develop their award-winning inventory optimization platform, Slim4.

Join Jeff Steinecker, Dennis Weir, and Ryan Shanks, on November 30th at 4:00 (Eastern), as they work to help Prophet 21 companies in supercharging their P21 supply chain strategies and practices.

Slimstock Supply Chain Prophet 21

Meet Slimstock at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Jeff Steinecker  (Strategic Accounts Executive at Slimstock): Jeff has an extensive experience in helping customers realize gains in productivity, efficiency, and fun. He is a knowledge expert in supply chain and can align, lead, and grow supply chains with assured returns.

Dennis Weir (Business Development Executive at Slimstock): With a strong background in supply chain, Dennis is your Knowledge Partner for Demand Planning and Inventory Optimization. He is excited to represent Slimstock and answer any questions you may have.

Ryan Shanks (Pre-Sales Demonstrations & Solution Architect at Slimstock): Ryan has a background in Supply Chain, primarily focusing on Logistics, Distribution, and Sourcing.  He enjoys sharing knowledge with others and thus is delighted to be a part of the webinar.

ERP Integration Software Event
Bringing A/R Innovation to Life in Prophet 21

Bringing A/R Innovation to Life in Prophet 21

Epicor Prophet 21 and automation go hand-in-hand: successfully integrating your P21 ERP system with a best-of-breed solution can help automate manual and paper-based processes that burden organizations.

Accounts Receivable AR Innovation Cloud
Unified AR Innovation Logo

When it comes the challenge of automating your P21 Accounts Receivable processes, Keith Carman, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at Unified A/R, summarizes it simply as a matter of “convenience, convenience, convenience.” Today, more than 70% of B2B payments are still completed with a paper check and a paper invoice.

What is the impact of paper processes to P21 customers?

The absence of Accounts Receivable technology and increasing interchange rates for credit card transactions can result in longer DSO, fraud risks and manual posting/reconciliation. The net result: higher costs, lower accuracy, and hits to your cash flow.

Unified A/R improves Prophet 21 payment processes by simplifying B2B Accounts Receivable and Payment Acceptance with best-in-class solutions and ongoing consultation from payment industry experts.

How Can Unified A/R Bring Your A/R Innovation to Life?

Unified’s cloud-based A/R solutions help clients get paid faster and easier at less cost while improving their customers’ experience. Unified’s Executive Team brings more than 150 years of combined management success from the Payments and ERP Industries and has partnered with many of the nation’s largest Trade and Professional Associations, Financial Institutions, and Technology Firms. Unified A/R is headquartered in Franklin, TN.

On November 30th, Unified’s Keith Carman and Brittany Rodgers will be discussing Accounts Receivable automation for P21. They’ll explore how P21 AR Automation improves near-term margin, order-to-cash processes and customer experience, including:  

  • Digital tools to accelerate cash flow, improve client satisfaction and support non-remote and remote work environments.  
  • Best practices to reach desired financial outcomes, maintain PCI Compliance and improve efficiency.  
  • How to recognize and resolve barriers to customer adoption of digital workflows.  

The team will also provide a live demo of P21-integrated process for invoice/statement creation and delivery, payment acceptance, and automated cash application.  

WHEN: November 30th at 3PM – 4PM (EASTERN)

WHERE: ESTES INTEGRATE 2022 (A Digital Gathering of Prophet 21 Leaders, Thinkers, Innovators)

WHY: Unified A/R Offers the BEST Cloud-Based A/R Solutions Available to the Distribution Industry

AR Integration Unified A/R
Keith Carman AR Automation Expert

Keith Carman, Vice President of Enterprise, leads Business Development, aligning product solutions and internal expertise to client needs to deliver streamlined implementations, go-live events, and ongoing success for our clients. He holds degrees in Economics and Finance from Indiana’s Hanover College.

Brittany Rodgers Accounts Innovation Receivable Expert

Brittany Rodgers, Integration Engineer, manages new client onboarding and integration activities, providing a personal approach as the liaison between enterprise clients and Unified A/R’s IT, Implementation and Quality Assurance Teams. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Operations Management from the University of Cincinnati.