Access Benefits
Microsoft Access provides users with one of the simplest and most flexible relational database management system (RDBMS) solutions on the market today. For a small group of users, Access should be your database of choice, especially if Microsoft Office is your preferred office software suite.
| Cost | Access Database comes packaged with the Microsoft Office Professional and Ultimate suites and may already be part of your standard operating environment. If not, it is easily obtained as a stand-alone product and does not require any other program to run or use. |
| Ease of use | Access Database has a user-friendly interface, similar to the other programs in the Microsoft Office Suite, as well as many other Windows based software products. Version 2007 has a new "ribbon" interface. |
| Multi-User | Access is designed to operate on local networks with numerous concurrent users, allowing for data manipulation by many users at the same time (unlike Word and Excel). We recommend a limit of 15 to 20 simultaneous users. |
| Rapid Application Development | Access' object oriented model allows you to build attractive, functional, and easy-to-use applications. It is fast, consistent, and reliable. Rapid development speed means lower project cost. |
| Integration | Access has been designed to work seamlessly with other products in the Microsoft Office suite. |
| Scalable | In the future, if performance suffers from an ever increasing number of users or records, you will be able to upgrade to a SQL Server back-end, thus retaining your user-friendly Access front-end. |
| Legacy data | Access can import data from numerous formats, saving you many, many hours by transferring your existing data. |
| Ad-hoc reporting | With proper Access training, the advanced user can go beyond the designed application to do ad hoc reporting |
| Access is not required to run the database | Your customized solution can be packaged in a "Run Time" environment, thus negating the need to have Access Database installed on your computer. |

