Use the 'Database Speed' report in Reports > System to give an indication of speed across the network.  If the average speed is:

• less than 1ms - very good
• 1 - 2.5ms - okay
• 2.5 - 4ms - slow(ish)
• more than 4ms - slow, needs attention 

Check these:

• Printers.  
  
  • Delete any printer drivers that are not used. 
  • Make sure you can do a 'Test' print at the Windows level.
  • In SPM/PHM
    Because the text editors in the program use the fonts that are provided by the printer, if these are not available it can slow down the program while it searches for alternate fonts to use.
    
    • make sure the correct printers are selected in Setup > Workstation > Configuration.  If the font colour is red it means the printer is offline or is unavailable.
    • check the trays are selected in Setup > Printers and that you can do a test print using the 't' button.
      
      
• Windows updates
  
  • Check there are not any Windows updates waiting to be applied or waiting for a restart of your computer.
    
    
• Network
  
  • If you are using a wireless connection, make sure you have the full four-bar connection signal (wireless will always be slower than using an ethernet cable)
  • Replace the network cable (it's surprising how often this fixes the problem)
  • Connect to a different network switch
  • Change the network adapter to use IPv4 ahead of IPv6 IPv4 before IPv6 network configuration

• Virus-checker. 
  • Make sure the Incisive program directory is excluded from real-time virus scanning
  • Configure the virus-checker for the SQL Server according to Microsoft's recommendations How to choose antivirus software to run on computers that are running SQL Server (microsoft.com)
  • Exclude scanning of the .tif and .pdf files in the file repositories used by the program.  You can find these locations in Setup > System > File Locations.
     
• SQL Server Transaction log file is very large.  This should seldom need to get over 1GB.  Check the SQL backup script includes a function to Truncate the Transaction Log.
  
  
• Are you using Hyper-V virtual machines and does the server(s) have Broadcom network cards?  If yes, there is a known problem caused by the Virtual Machine Queues (VMQ) function that is known to cause significant network speed problems and turning it off instantly Improves the performance. 
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2902166
  
  
• Technical - On-premise installations.
  
  • Using Notepad, open the spm.ini file in the Incisive program directory and find the entry starting "mdb=" and make sure the path to the shared directory does actually exist and that the User has 'Modify' permissions for that directory.

If a network and SQL Server is not correctly configured to use IPv6 there can be speed related issues while the IPv6 settings are found not to be available and the IPv4 settings are used.  Microsoft have implemented the IPv6 before IPv4 sequence for many years.

Rather than disable IPv6 it is preferable to set Windows to prefer IPv4 over IPv6. This can be done at a computer level or as a Group Policy

Key:  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters

See information in the following link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929852/guidance-for-configuring-ipv6-in-windows-for-advanced-users

Occasionally a message may appear when you go to start SPM saying that the database could not be found, or there is no database connection or perhaps even the message just says timeout-expired.

For Advanced connection trouble-shooting view this Knowledgebase article.

There are a number of problems that can cause this to occur.

1. It is possible after a restart of a server, especially after a Windows update, that one of the SQL Server services has failed to restart and so cannot provide a connection to the Incisive application.
   
   Follow these steps
   a. On the server/computer where the SQL server is installed, open the SQL Configuration Manager application and check that the SQL Server Engine is running correctly.  If it has stopped you will need to use the option to Start the service.
   
   b. If you are using SQL Browser to allow the workstations to connect to the SQL Server database you will need to check that this service is running.
   
   We have seen that a service can become disabled and therefore will not start from within the SQL Server Configuration management tool.  If this is the case you will need to start up the Services snap-in (run services.msc) and set them to start Automatically.
   
   If you do not have a IT technician who is able to manage this please call the Incisive Helpdesk.
   
   
2. The workstation may not be finding the DNS server and therefore can't resolve the Server\Instance name of the SQL database.  
   
   Change the DSN (ODBC) setting to use the IP & Port address of the SQL server.  Using a Port address will negate the need to use the Instance name.  Don't use IP\Instance name.
   
   
3. If used, the SQL Browser service on the server may of stopped. 
   
   Use Services.msc on the server to restart the SQL Browser service.
   If this fails to start, configure the SQL Configuration on the server and also the local DSN settings to use a Port number e.g. 1433.  Configure Firewalls to allow port access
   
   
4. Firewall on the server may be blocking port access.
   
   Turn off the Firewall on the server,  Test - if connection is successful enable access to Port 1433 TCP and Port 1434 UDP - retest after turning on the firewall.
   
   
5. It's possible to have Classic SPM running ok, but Integrated SPM comes up with a connection error when trying to start.
   The ODBC settings can be correct, and a re-install of the application will not resolve the problem.
   
   Possible solution - Disable IPv6 in the Network settings of the workstation.