NineIron (4/18/2014)
if the underlying table(s) is not indexed or poorly indexed (I have little control over this), will an indexed view work to speed up performance?
Yes and no. The problem is that an indexed view uses cached data. So in that respect, yes. But when you have to refresh that data, it's still relying on the underlying tables. Plus it depends on what indexes you put in the view. There are lots of ways to screw up an index and make a query worse. I've done about half of them over the years. @=)
Of course, the best way to know the answer to any "performance saving solution" for sure is to test this in a Dev or sandbox server. See for yourself.