A system for enhancing the performance of a relational database management system is provided which consists of a computer (10) running a relational database management system (16) (RDBMS) with a data storage device (12) containing a database (14) under control of the RDBMS (16). The RDBMS performance enhancement system utilizes a computer memory (22) to store certain data from the database (14). A pre-processor (20), which is part of an application (18) program, executes the performance enhancements which include staging data into memory (22), creating memory-based alternate indexes, and deferring updates until the application (18) terminates. The performance enhancements reduce data access requests to the RDBMS (16) and eliminate unnecessary RDBMS (16) operations.