A Business Case for Micrsoft Access

I read the following article some years ago and just recently ran into it again. It details how Access can be used as a part of an organization's over-all business strategy.

Database Evolution: Microsoft Access within an Organization's Database Strategy
by Luke Chung, President of FMS, Inc.

Here's a part:

Abstract

There has been a lot of confusion over the role of Microsoft Access within an organization. Sitting between the power of Excel and client server databases, Access extends from simple end-user tasks to mission critical operations. This paper hopes to cover the issues surrounding Access:

• Why it's become problematic in large organizations including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
• Where it's appropriate to be used, and
• Where it's not

It also focuses on the overall principle that most Access applications that become mission critical did not start out that way, but evolved into that role.

Software applications share many similarities with biology and Darwinian forces. Some applications evolve and survive, while others go extinct. Anticipating, rather than fighting, the inevitable process of database evolution and natural selection is the key to using Access effectively within an organization.

Read the rest of it here: http://www.fmsinc.com/MicrosoftAccess/Strategy/index.asp.

It's well worth it.

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