Turn bottlenecks into breakthroughs with performance testing

ERP systems like Infor have become the digital backbone of enterprise operations, integrating functions across finance, HR, supply chain, and more. While functional testing ensures that your ERP does what it’s supposed to do, performance testing answers the vital question: How well does it do it, especially under pressure? Performance testing is a software testing method that assesses how well an application functions under expected workloads, network conditions, and data volumes.

For businesses running on Infor CloudSuite, the demand for seamless, high-performing systems has only intensified. Whether you’re onboarding thousands of users or integrating with dozens of third-party applications, performance testing is your insurance policy against system instability and downtime.

In this blog, we will explore why performance testing is essential for ERPs and integrated systems and how early, proactive testing can transform potential bottlenecks such as costly liabilities into performance breakthroughs.

The hidden costs of skipping performance testing

Many organizations overlook performance testing until it’s too late, and the consequences can be costly. A poor user experience often comes first: lagging screens, session timeouts, and delayed transactions frustrate employees, hinder task completion, and erode the confidence of critical business users.

The financial toll is even more staggering, according to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is $336,000- $540,000 per hour, which comes to around $5,600 a minute, while the Ponemon Institute estimates that some enterprises lose up to $474,000 per hour. In cases where customer-facing processes are affected, more than the direct financial losses, reputational damage alone can account for nearly 40% of total outage costs. ERP downtime isn’t just expensive, it disrupts productivity, trust, and overall business continuity, and the damage to one’s brand reputation can be significant.

Performance testing plays a critical role in software development as it enables tech leads, managers, and development teams to identify any issues, optimize resource usage, and enhance user experience. Based on our interactions with businesses, we have seen that comprehensive performance testing:

• Reduces post-deployment issues
• Improves user satisfaction
• Lowers operational costs
• Boosts conversion rates

Common performance bottlenecks in ERP and integrated systems

ERP and integrated systems are complex by nature. Bottlenecks often surface during month-end closing and high-volume order processing, or multi-country integrations. Without performance testing, latent issues remain hidden until real-world use expose them. Key bottlenecks include:

1. User experience and productivity impact

• Slow screen loading
• Transaction process delays
• Session timeouts: Users losing work due to slow system response

2. Critical business process performance issues

• Report generation timeouts or taking hours to generate them
• Order processing experiencing save/update delays
• Purchase order creation and approval processes slowing down

3. Integration & data synchronization issues

• E-commerce integration issues: Online orders not appearing in ERP in a timely manner
• Bank integration problems: Payment processing and reconciliation delays

4. Peak period performance degradation

• Holiday season slowdowns: E-commerce integration failing during peak sales
• End-of-day delays: Closing procedures taking excessive time
• Batch job processing delays

5. Resourcing issues

• Inefficient hardware resource utilization
• Performance degradation with business growth

6. System availability & reliability issues

• System crashes: ERP becomes unavailable during critical business operations
• Database growth impact: Performance degrading as data volume increases
• Performance issues after software upgrades

Performance testing helps you proactively identify and address these issues before they impact users and operations.

Why early identification is critical

Catching performance issues early reduces risks and saves time, money, and business disruption. With well-executed performance testing, you can:

• Pinpoint slow user actions/pages: Know exactly which pages take longer to process and where the bottlenecks occur, from login times to report generation.
• Determine optimal resource allocation: Identify how much CPU, memory, and bandwidth your system actually needs.
• Establish breakpoints: Know your system’s limits and plan for scalability.
• Reveal integration risks: See how third-party apps behave under real-world user loads.
• Simulate peak periods: Understand your ERP’s performance during key business windows, like quarter-end.
• Plan for business growth: Ensure the system scales with future demands without compromising performance.

For Infor users, this might mean simulating load across integrated financials, supply chain, and analytics modules to avoid performance hiccups during cross-functional workflows.

The complete performance testing process

Performance testing isn’t a one-time event, it’s a lifecycle that involves many stages:

• Defining requirements
  This includes setting up the right test environment that mimics production, clarifying goals such as maximum response time, and configuring hardware, software, and network parameters to ensure the system reflects real-world conditions.
• Test planning and design
  Teams create scenarios that mirror actual user behavior, ensuring the tests simulate how the system will perform under real workloads. There are various tests that could be conducted according to the volume, scalability, and load.
• Script implementation
  Test scripts are developed in alignment with business goals, capturing both typical and edge-case user actions to ensure comprehensive coverage.
• Execution
  Test cases are run under realistic loads. Modern practices often leverage automation and CI/CD pipelines at this stage, allowing tests to run frequently and efficiently while catching performance issues early.
• Analysis and optimization
  Results are analyzed to identify bottlenecks, debug issues, and optimize system performance. Re-tests are performed until the system demonstrates stability and consistency under load.
• Ongoing monitoring
  Performance testing doesn’t end at go-live. Continuous validation ensures teams can detect and address any emerging issues as systems evolve with new features, integrations, or higher user demands.

Performance testing as a service: Scaling expertise

Many enterprises now turn to Performance Testing as a Service (PTaaS) to augment their internal capabilities. These cloud-based or consultancy-led services offer specialized expertise and infrastructure, without overhead.

Benefits of PTaaS:

• Access to skilled professionals who understand ERP nuances
• Real-device testing across global networks
• Faster execution and results, shortening go-live timelines
• Cost efficiency, no need to invest in expensive hardware or testing tools

For Infor-heavy organizations, PTaaS is a game-changer. It enables realistic testing of multi-tenant cloud environments and integration with legacy systems, ensuring high reliability and uptime.

Building resilient ERP systems with performance testing

As ERP systems like Infor become central to enterprise success, their performance directly impacts business outcomes. Superior performance isn’t something that happens by chance, it’s intentionally designed early in the process and validated through continuous testing. By understanding its importance, business leaders can protect productivity, ensure user confidence, and future-proof their ERP investments against disruption.

In an era where digital reliability drives competitive advantage, performance testing is crucial to business success. Prioritize it early, embed it into your project lifecycle, and ensure your Infor system performs as well as your business demands. Fortude’s experts can support you throughout this journey, helping you safeguard performance and maximize system reliability.