One topic we’d like to discuss is performance. Have you ever had CRM performance issues?
It could be excessive database locking, tens of thousands of workflows executing at the same, real-time data integrations, etc. We have seen our fair share of these over the years and would like to explain just one feature in North52 BPA which helps reduce potential performance bottlenecks.
One of the core benefits of North52 BPA is our 200+ functions and the one function we would like to highlight is called the FindValue() function. It’s a simple but powerful function that allows you to look up any value in any record in any entity. It’s very similar to the VLookup function in Excel. Below is an example of where we have a configuration entity which stores simple name/value pairs of configuration data for Greetings. The example below shows how you would look-up the text for the Monday Greeting.
FindValue(‘new_config’, ‘new_name’, ‘MondayGreeting’ , ‘new_value’)
That’s pretty easy stuff but one non-obvious feature of this function is that behind the scenes we cache the returned value so any further calls to lookup this value will be served out of the cache rather than hitting the database . It does this within the context of a single pipeline (i.e. a single action like saving a record or executing a workflow).
A good example of where this really helps performance is that if you have a multi-step workflow and need to reference this value multiple times, with North52 BPA there will only be one database query instead of many queries to the database. If required you can override this caching mechanism by specifying false as the last parameter. And if you are wondering what the ‘true’ parameter does it issues a no-lock on the query to further boost performance and the ‘Hello’ indicates the default value if no data is found.
FindValue(‘new_config’, ‘new_name’, ‘MondayGreeting’ , ‘new_value, ‘Hello’, true, false)
It’s these little things, that we call our ‘Depth’ that continuously helps our customers to reap huge benefits in terms of deploying tricky business requirements with world class performance and reliability. If you would like to know more or have any questions please drop us an email at info@north52.com
About North52
North52 is a leader in the creation of software products for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. As a Microsoft partner, North52 has an impressive and rapidly growing list of customers benefiting from its products. Headquartered in Cork, Ireland , North52’s core values of the right Technology, the right People and the right Partnerships ensures delivery of great products for their customers.
For more information, visit www.north52.com or contact info@north52.com