Benefits of Using Microsoft Access

Generally speaking Microsoft created Excel and Access to manage local data. Very often Excel is underutilized, and Microsoft Access is not used at all. Underutilizing Excel and skipping MS Access altogether can be a costly mistake for any organization.

What is Microsoft Access? How does it work? What are the benefits of using Microsoft Access? Why choose Access instead of purchasing proprietary software? Following is an exploration of these questions.

What is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access is the most popular desktop database software on the market. There are reasons for this. Microsoft has an entire suite of products designed to manage data. Every product in the suite has a purpose. In addition Microsoft has integrated those products, so it is very possible to move from one data management product to another. MS Access is so popular, because it integrates quite nicely with other products in the Microsoft suite of data management products.

In concrete terms, this means data moves pretty easily back and forth between Excel and Access, or SQL Server and Access (to name just a few examples). The first rule of data management is to honor one reality, data is not static; it is dynamic. Data evolves over time. An end user may start tracking some data in a spreadsheet format. Then over time one spreadsheet becomes multiple spreadsheets and the end user finds him/herself managing data across multiple spreadsheet applications.

MS Access ~ as a desktop database ~ serves as the next step in data evolution. Access is designed to manage and store data in a relational format. So, it is possible to streamline data from multiple spreadsheet applications into a database format. In doing so, users are not required to update information in multiple places. In a relational database setting, once data is updated in one area of the database, these changes are reflected throughout the database.

How does it work?

As a relational database, MS Access stores data in related multiple tables. For example, in a scheduling application, there will be a table to store information about employees and another table to store information about the daily schedule. The tables will be related, so if an end-user updates an employee station assignment in the Employee table, this change will also be reflected when viewing data from the scheduling table. Table relationships allow for cascade update and cascade delete of related records. In the end, Access uses table relationships to streamline data management, so users are not forced to edit the same data in multiple locations.

What are the benefits of using Microsoft Access?

There are several benefits to using Microsoft Access:

1. The data is stored in a streamlined relational format, so users don't have to make edits in multiple places.
2. Access is very user friendly. Someone who is comfortable in Excel, can also learn the basics of Microsoft Access. This makes Access an affordable database option, in comparison to most proprietary database software packages.
3. Access can link to data from many different sources. This benefit makes Access a wonderful option for integrating data from multiple databases, spreadsheets or other applications. Access can link to ~ and edit files from:
   • Excel
   • Outlook Contact Lists
   • SQL Database Files
   • MySQL
   • Oracle

Why choose Access instead of purchasing proprietary software?

In a word, choose MS Access for "control". It should be noted that Access, like any other tool, has its limitations. MS Access is not powerful enough for use in with system-wide software solution. For instance, accounting software solutions are system-wide solutions. Every department in an organization needs to use the accounting database.

But... most data is local... data specific to one subset of people within an organization. If data is local, MS Access is most likely capable of doing the job. Microsoft Access gives you more control because of the following factors:

1. Access can be learned by lay people, you don't have to be a programmer to use Access. If you're comfortable in Excel, you can learn Access.
2. You can develop Access to your specifications, so you're not trying to force data unique to your organization into a packaged software package.
3. You can link to data from other sources. This gives you control over sharing data between different software applications.
4. Data is NOT static, it is dynamic. Using Microsoft Access allows for periodic revisions. Proprietary systems are static; they are built for the general market audience and not for specific customers. As a result, updating software to meet new needs is often difficult, costly and the updates are not done in a timely manner.
5. Choosing MS Access over proprietary also gives you control over your costs. Even if you have to hire someone else to develop Microsoft Access to your specifications, the chances are you will come out ahead financially.

All in all, Microsoft Access is a very valuable tool in the Microsoft Suite of products. In the end Access can give you more control over your costs, what data you collect, how you manage that data, and how you report it out.