Understanding Scalability | Find A Scalable CRM For Your Business

If you’re a proactive entrepreneur, a key aspect of your vision should be growth and ongoing development. In this digital era, your growth should be supported by the technologies, platforms, and tools you use to streamline your business operations. In other words, your digital infrastructure should support your growth and adapt to your evolution, rather than holding you back. That’s where scalability enters the game.

Even if it’s often perceived as a buzzword, scalability is actually truly important. For a business, it means that an application can quickly adapt to the changing needs and requirements of the business. It refers to the system’s ability to handle increasing workloads without compromising performance or user experience. In this context, scalability becomes a strategic imperative and plays a crucial role in ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of your software solution. Choosing a scalable CRM system can give you the freedom to expand as much as you can,  in this context our Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution can be the best option to future-proof your business.

Growth, Performance and Processes

Scalability isn’t just about having the right tools and technology stack to manage data and load increases—it also involves a crucial human element. While tools ensure the system remains responsive and reliable, your team is essential for addressing any scalability issues that arise.

The performance aspect of scalability is managed through tools and stack updates, but the human element involves the processes used to tackle scalability challenges. As data and load increase, critical issues can emerge. Your team must know how to identify these problems and apply the correct processes to resolve them.

It’s important to note that growth isn’t just about the excitement of new users and increased revenue; it also introduces significant technical uncertainties. Therefore, before selecting a solution for managing scalability, ensure it can handle critical scenarios such as:

• • • • • Sudden changes in your sales methods

      • • A substantial increase in user numbers

      • • The need to introduce new technologies

By preparing both technologically and procedurally, your team can effectively manage growth and navigate the challenges of scalability.

Essential Scalability Factors

Several factors significantly impact the scalability of software, but the following 6 factors typically have the most substantial effect:

1. Architecture

Reason: The architecture of a system determines how well it can handle growth. A well-designed architecture enables horizontal and vertical scaling and can make a system inherently more resilient to increased load.

• • • • Monolithic Architecture: Traditional model for designing software applications, where all the components are interconnected and interdependent;
    • • Microservices Architecture: Allows individual components to be scaled independently, making it easier to manage and scale the system;
    • • Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Supports modularity and loose coupling, enhancing scalability;

  Example: A CRM system like Dynamics 365 that uses a virtual microservices architecture can scale individual services (e.g., authentication, customer data management) independently based on demand, ensuring better resource utilization and performance. The system is broken down into a collection of independently deployable services (In the case of horizontal scaling, different segments from CRM are deployed on separate machines), each one corresponding to a specific business capability.

2. Technology Stack

Reason: The choice of technology stack can dramatically influence the scalability of a system. Some technologies are better suited for large-scale operations and can handle horizontal scaling more efficiently.

• • • • NoSQL Databases: Technologies like Cassandra or MongoDB are designed for horizontal scaling and can handle large volumes of data and high traffic loads;
    • • SQL Databases: Technologies like PostgreSQL, known for its extensibility and support for advanced data types, suitable for vertical scaling or MySQL, popular open-source database, often used in web applications, supporting horizontal scaling through clustering and replication;
    • • Scalable Frameworks: Using scalable frameworks and platforms like .NET Core or Node.js can improve the system’s ability to handle growth;

  Example: Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 suite leverages a tech stack with the following key components: Microsoft Azure, Common Data Service (CDS – now known as Dataverse), Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps and more, aimed at automating workflows). 

3. Infrastructure

Reason: The underlying infrastructure must support both horizontal and vertical scaling. Modern cloud platforms offer elastic infrastructure that can automatically adjust resources based on demand, providing a scalable foundation for software applications.

• • • • Cloud Services: Platforms like Azure, AWS or Google Cloud offer tools and services that facilitate easy scaling, such as auto-scaling groups, load balancers, and distributed storage solutions.
    • • Physical servers: To expand a physical server environment, you need to buy additional hardware components, which can be very expensive to build, maintain, and secure.
    • • Elastic Compute: The ability to dynamically add or remove compute resources in response to load changes is crucial for maintaining performance during peak usage.

  

While the above factors are crucial, the following also play significant roles in scalability:

• • • • Load Balancing: Effective load balancing ensures that no single server becomes a bottleneck by distributing traffic evenly.
    • • Caching: Proper caching strategies reduce the load on databases and improve response times, contributing to better scalability.
    • • Design Principles: Adherence to best practices in software design, such as modularity and loose coupling, also supports scalability.

Scaling And Its Colors (scalability types)

Functional Scaling

Functional scaling refers to the ability to adopt or divest software functionality.

For instance, Dynamics 365 is modular and allows organizations to start with core functionalities (like Sales and Customer Service) and add more along the way (whether it’s Marketing, Finance or Field Service). Moreover, within a single company, you can create separate CRMs for multiple functional divisions of the organization. It also allows several customizations and integration with other applications or Microsoft products (Office 365).

Administrative Scaling

Administrative scalability speaks about the ability to increase or decrease access to software tools for users or organizations.

Bringing Dynamics as an example, it allows to to manage user access and roles, adjust user licenses as needed and support multi-tenancy. Imagine your company experiencing growth and expanding its human resources, with our CRM you can quickly onboards new employees, granting them access to the necessary tools. Another example is when, geographically, a company’s operations are conducted in the same region but in different administrative areas. In this situation, there can be a single scaled CRM that contains multiple business units.

Geographic Scaling

Geographic scaling hints to the ability to expand operations from a local area to a larger region or the downsizing or withdrawal of operations from specific regions.

For example, you can deploy Dynamics in multiple regions, create region-specific dashboards and reports, and customize it to support multiple languages and local business practices. You can start by deploying it in your home country and then, as your business grows, expand in other regions.

Load Scaling

Load scaling refers to the ability to extend or contract computing power to accommodate various workloads.

Regular monitoring, system performance optimizing, auto-scaling capabilities, are all possible within Dynamics 365. For example, during a marketing campaign, our CRM solution can handle a sudden increase in traffic and workload by scaling out additional resources automatically. In the context of increased loads or growing demands, there are two primary types of scalability: vertical and horizontal. Each approach offers distinct advantages and is suited for different scenarios based on the nature of the workload and the specific requirements of the business.

Vertical versus Horizontal Scalability

Scale Up! (Vertical Scalability)

With vertical scalability, you increase the power of the existing server or infrastructure in order to handle more data or users. As you manage sales, customer interactions and support, software systems can slow down due to a growing customer base. In this case, you can vertically scale by:

• • • • Adding more RAM (you can upgrade to improve data processing speed);
    • • Increase Storage (Expand the disk space to store more customer records);
    • • Upgrade the CPU (replace the existing CPU to handle more transactions);

  Vertical scaling is suitable when two or more processes run in parallel and there are concurrent orders. In this case, vertical scalability is more suitable because a single server processes the information – for instance, in the case of an online store, where inventory needs to be managed simply. Another example is in the banking sector, where you should not be able to make a payment and withdraw money simultaneously when you have limited resources.

  In this way, you replace or upgrade the hardware of your existing server. In other words, it’s like adding more chairs at the same table.

Scale Out! (Horizontal Scalability)

While scaling horizontally, you add more servers to the infrastructure, allowing the system to distribute workloads across multiple servers, thereby improving performance and reliability. It’s similar to delegating workload among several employees instead of one.  In this case, you cand horizontally scale by:

• • • • Adding more instances (instead of upgrading the existing server);
    • • Load balancing (load balancer distributes user requests evenly across multiple servers, to avoid bottlenecks)

  Horizontal Scaling is relevant when there is a high flow of users and you don’t need to check for transaction uniqueness. In this situation, you can add more servers and you should also decide which machine does what and how your new machines work with your old ones. In other words, you’re adding more chairs and more tables.

  

Linksoft’s Best Practices for CRM Scalability

1. Approach: Outsource your software development!

Outsourcing can be done strategically to scale up your product. Hiring an experienced software development company is the fastest way to enhance your in-house team with relevant skills. Moreover, it eliminates expenses on training, retaining, and renting office space for your employees.

At the same time, when outsourcing custom software development, you can get a one-of-a-kind product that serves your specific needs. Because outsourcing projects were frequently customized for a particular customer, outsourcing SLAs were often drafted to govern a specific project. LINKSOFT can help you achieve a scalable and efficient solution for CRM and ERP software, involving competent teams and valuable experience achieved over time.

2. Service Level Agreement: Initiate regular SLA updates

Service Level Agreements are formal, negotiated agreements between a service provider and a customer that define the expected level of service. They are critical in ensuring both parties have a clear understanding of the performance standards and responsibilities. SLAs typically include details about service performance, availability, and responsiveness.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) should be regularly updated to reflect current performance metrics and customer expectations. Regularly updating SLAs for Dynamics 365 ensures that the service meets evolving customer needs and performance standards, maintaining trust and satisfaction.

3. Architecture design: Adopt a microservices architecture

A CRM system like Dynamics 365 that uses a virtual microservices architecture can scale individual services (e.g., authentication, customer data management) independently based on demand, ensuring better resource utilization and performance. The system is broken down into a collection of independently deployable services (In the case of horizontal scaling, different segments from CRM are deployed on separate machines), each one corresponding to a specific business capability.

For example, separating the customer management, sales, and marketing modules into individual microservices ensures that an increase in load on the sales module can be handled by scaling just that module without affecting others. A scalable system architecture is more of an art than a science.

4. Infrastructure: Choose cloud storage

Our Dynamics 365 solutions are primarily hosted on Microsoft Azure, leveraging the cloud platform’s scalability, reliability, and global reach. This allows for dynamic scaling of resources based on demand. Cloud-Native Architecture ensures auto-scaling, high availability, and global reach, and as your CRM user base grows, Azure can automatically scale up resources to handle increased demand.

5. Enable auto-scaling

Auto-scaling dynamically adjusts the number of active servers or resources based on current demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency. During peak usage periods, auto-scaling in Azure ensures that additional resources are provisioned to handle the increased load, maintaining smooth operation.

6. Tech stacks: Try database sharding

Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 suite leverages a tech stack with the following key components: Microsoft Azure, Dataverse, Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps and more, aimed at automating workflows). The Data is distributed into smaller shards, each handling a subset of the data to parallelize processing and improve performance. For example, customer data might be sharded by region, allowing queries and transactions to be processed in parallel, reducing latency and improving response times.

At LINKSOFT, we’re using the latest Azure technologies based on .NET 8 and Azure Cloud Services as frameworks and Dataverse as our database, which allows us to create scalable and efficient software solutions.

7. Set Up Load Balancers

Load balancers are used to distribute incoming requests across multiple servers, preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck. When multiple users access the CRM simultaneously, a load balancer ensures that the requests are distributed across several servers, maintaining performance and preventing server overload.

While Software Load Balancing involves the redistribution of network traffic using software applications, Hardware Load Balancing utilizes physical devices designed specifically for managing and distributing network traffic.

8. Caching strategies

Caching involves storing frequently accessed data in memory to reduce database load and improve response times. For example, caching customer profiles and frequently accessed data in memory ensures that repetitive requests are served quickly, improving the user experience.

9. Set Up Message Queues

Message queues handle asynchronous processing by queuing tasks and processing them in the background, preventing system overload. In Dynamics 365, a message queue might be used for processing bulk email notifications, allowing the CRM to remain responsive while handling these background tasks.

10. Implement fault tolerance

Fault tolerance ensures the system remains operational even in the face of failures. This involves redundancy and failover mechanisms. Implementing fault-tolerant mechanisms in Dynamics 365 ensures that if a server or service fails, others can take over without disrupting the overall service, providing high availability and reliability.

11. Agility Practices: Our Approach

Implementing agile methodologies ensures continuous improvement, quick adaptation to changes, and iterative development cycles. Constant monitoring and optimization involve tracking system performance, identifying bottlenecks, and making necessary adjustments. Regularly checking the performance of Dynamics 365 can help identify slow queries or underperforming modules, allowing for timely optimizations. For this, you no longer need local IT, because we handle the maintenance, and in the cloud, you can be truly worry-free. Find out more about our agility practices here.

Using agile practices, the development team can quickly respond to new feature requests or changes in business requirements for Dynamics 365, ensuring the CRM evolves with the company’s needs.

To scale or not to scale?

The decision to scale is pivotal in adapting to the dynamic landscape of modern business. The ability to tailor scalability strategies based on real-time insights and performance metrics is essential for staying agile and responsive. In the article, we covered multiple types of scalabilities: vertical and horizontal on one side, and administrative, functional, and geographical on the other. The good news is that LINKSOFT is ready to support your business with any scalability challenge it may face.

Whether providing direct scalability recommendations for on-premises solutions or leveraging cloud services with Microsoft for seamless scalability, we ensure your systems operate optimally. Through Telemetry data, we pinpoint and resolve scalability issues swiftly, ensuring your operations remain efficient and uninterrupted. Integration with external systems is equally crucial and our expertise guarantees efficient CRM integration, enabling seamless data sharing and operational synchronization across platforms.

Scaling CRM software like Microsoft Dynamics 365 demands collaborative efforts across our Solution Architects, Developers, and Business Consultants. In the end, we ensure a cohesive approach that aligns with your requirements and business objectives, delivering a scalable solution that supports your growth and operational excellence.

Are you ready to scale?

Get in touch with us now, and let’s craft the perfect strategy for your business!

About Linksoft

Right from the beginning, we set out to build a Microsoft Dynamics Centre of Excellence that reunites the best specialist and the most efficient platforms in order to implement high performing and easy-to-use CRM solutions. We impose the most demanding standards of excellence on our processes, in order to ensure we are able to fulfill our mission and respect our values.