Recursive queries in slow database

I am the user of a database, which is ridiculously slow for even the simplest queries. The vendor of the db soes a lot of stuff that I am deeply suspicious of:

• They don't hire staff with SW/dB experience, but general MSc's and give them OJT.
• They have had no resources to provide proper OJT on SW/dbs
• They use one generic db model with a large number of clients
• Because of the generic architecture they use variables to indicate data type in the table, slowing queries down
• They claim to have come up with a particular nifty trick for recursive calls into the db, that they claim to be sole users of

All in all, I suspect these people are amateurs and dillettantes who have no idea what they are doing. I would love to hire pros to re-do the work these people are not able to, but in order to do that I will need to come up with convincing arguments to support a claim that there are severe problems.

Any hints on how to proceed?

DoC Received on Mon Jan 10 2011 - 07:38:27 CST