Exact System Information application: Why should you use it?

This is my third blog post about the Exact System Information application. In the first 2 blogposts I introduced the reason of the Exact System Information application and what kind of information is retrieved by the Exact System Information application. In this blogpost I will explain why you as valuable customer should start this application on your SQL Server.
With the information we received from your Exact databases, we are able to improve our software. However improvements in the software based on this data will cost time and you will not directly benefit of it.

So the question is: What kind of improvements are directly possible for you to implement?

I will give some examples to:
SQL Server configuration improvements:

Example: Database configuration improvement scripts:

Example: Not used Exact functionality: Clean up historical journal records to save database size.

These are some examples. To experience all possible improvements, please start the application on your SQL server. The application is available on : ftp://ftp.exact.nl/Software/ESI/ExactSysInfo.zip. Extract the zip file on your SQL server and start the ExactSysInfo.exe

After we have received your data we will analyze the data. Via the support department you can request the improvement report. In the future we will distribute this improvement report via our portals.

Thank you already for your cooperation and trust in Exact Software.

Exact System Information application: Which information is retrieved?

In my previous blog I introduced the Exact System Information application. The goal of this application is to retrieve statistics how customers are using our software. With this information we can improve the software. We do NOT want to know how a customer is doing their business. Company sensitive data is not useful for us to improve the software. We want to minimize the valuable time of the customer to get this information in a consistent way. This blog post will explain what kind of information is retrieved:

 

1. Index usage statistics. Every table can have multiple indexes. SQL Server stores information how these indexes are used. This information is useful to optimize the index structure of the database.
2. Index suggestions. Every database is used in a different way. Exact is a standard package which can be used in different ways. Sometimes the standard index structure is not good enough and can be optimized. SQL Server stores information how the index structure can be optimized. The combination of index usage statistics and index suggestion will enable Exact to improve the standard index structure.
3. Logged errors. This information is useful to fix errors in the software.
4. Number of times an application is started. This will give inside in the most used applications and which functionality is used.
5. Number of records per tables. This will give inside in the most used applications and which functionality is used. No information is retrieved about the content of the individual records. In combination with the hardware statistics we can make better hardware requirements for the customer situation.
6. Background processes which are started in the last 60 days. This information will be used to give feedback if all necessary background jobs are configured.
7. Installed Exact software package
8. Size of the database and log file.
9. Configured Exact settings. This information is useful to know which functionality is used.
10. Hardware statistics like Amount of Memory, Number of CPU's, SQL Server edition etc..

The information which is send to Exact is also stored as a CSV file on the desktop of the user who has started the Exact System Information application. It can also be seen in the menu Logs, View CSV file.

In a later post I will describe the advantage of this application for the customer on the short and long term.
If you are interested to take part of the controlled release phase of this application, please send an email to me

Introduction to the Exact System Information application.

As described in the blogpost Surveys? First find out how customers use your ERP system of Ronald Voets, we as Exact Software wants better understand how our customers are using the Exact Software. This information will be used to improve the software. Surveys via the web, letters or via the phone can be used for this. However surveys via the web, letters or via the phone have some disadvantages:

1. It will take time of our customers to answer these questions. Small surveys will take at least 5 minutes or more. Time is money.
2. Answers are not always consistent. Does person X and person Y of company Z provide the same answer to your question?
3. Who is going to answer the questions? Not all users are aware about which functionality is used by their company. For instance people from the order administration have no idea what payroll functionality is used.
4. Statistical information can be difficult to answer. For instance: How many employees are using Globe? I have, within my company, no idea how many people uses Globe in all different administrations we have. To retrieve this information it will cost me a lot of time to get that answer.

Image: Robyn Gallagher

Questions which are difficult to answer are not reliable. Most answers on these questions are stored in the Exact Databases of the customer. To answer these questions, we have made an application which will answer these questions. This application will avoid the disadvantages of a survey. Starting the application will cost less than one minute and all answers are consistent. We do realize that the customer is the owner of the data and should 'approve' the data retrieval. Customer can do this by pressing the agree button in the terms of agreement window. If customer does not agree, NO data will be retrieved and the application will close. If the customer agrees, the data will be retrieved and automatically uploaded to Exact Software.

In a later blog posts I will describe:

1. What kind of information is retrieved.
2. What the advantages are for the customer.

If you are already interested to take part of the controlled release phase of the Exact System Information tool, please send me an email to me.