Additional thing you can try

SET @sSearchVal = 'sun%'

select myFields from myTable where myFirstField like @sSearchVal or myFirstField LIKE '%' + sSearchVal
union ....

>I have a table called AlertData with 500,000 records in it. This query is taking 11 seconds, which is too long for the client.
>
>

>DECLARE @sSearchVal NVARCHAR(50)
>SET @sSearchVal = '%sun%'
>
>SELECT RowId, ContractNo, SystemId, ItemNumber, Description, Price
>	FROM AlertData
>	WHERE ContractNo LIKE @sSearchVal OR
>		   ItemNumber LIKE  @sSearchVal OR
>		   Description LIKE  @sSearchVal
>
>

>
>There are indexes on all 3 fields.
>
>Thanks
>
>Kevin