Maybe I overwhelmed with detail, so I'll try to restate my question more simply:

Process B is running a big select. Process A is inserting data in a transaction. ...

Thanks - good to have a name to identify the problem with. Suprising that the DBA's at the MS tech conferences (PDC, local TechFest, etc) I have been to...

I've had a similar problem that I have been unable to 100% identify. In my case, they are all parameterized quries that will be running subsecond in prod for...

One small detail to add that might or might not be relevant....the stored procs used in the "collection" phase of Process B is using a "select top 5000", which is...