Ask HN: How many of your clients still use MS Office Access? - tuyguntn
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Spooky23
We have a business unit that gave up on IT writing mobile apps for them.

So they made an Access app with giant buttons that would run on vdi. They
figured out how to automate 4-5 key business functions on iPad, which saves
them a ton of time in the field.

The brass found out about it, and has spent $400k writing a "proper"
replacement, but have been 75% complete for 3 months.

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mike22
I'm doing QA on a replacement for a VB6 / Access application for a large and
slow-moving utility company. Funny thing is that the consultants building the
app on the hot, super-awesome BPM platform move at the same pace, and each
build includes more bugs and fewer new features to test than the last.

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WorldMaker
I've been working with several applications that are Access-based in one way
or another. Most of these apps are "ancient". Some of my job is to migrate
these apps to modern solutions, but a lot of that depends on project budgets.

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ptype
What are the modern alternatives to Access? Web frontends?

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zhte415
When departments have been abandoned from an IT budget, the most common
replacement I've seen has been SharePoint.

Not a bad replacement.

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kfullert
A better replacement in my opinion is Dynamics CRM (biased as I'm a Dynamics
CRM consultant) ... speed of development is quick, runs everywhere with just
one set of code (web, desktop app, mobile app, mobile web) and if you need to
do something outside the standard functionality it's really quick and easy to
write a C# plugin or custom workflow activity to do what you want.

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WorldMaker
Fascinating. I've not before this comment seen someone mention Dynamics CRM as
"quick development" (and at one point that included knowing actual Dynamics
CRM devs, but that was back before .NET integration and the worst excesses of
X++ were still plentiful).

From my perspective across a number of jobs and project clients, SharePoint
installations are rare (and often out-of-date and equally often loathed) and
I've never actually seen a Dynamics CRM install in the wild. (I know they
exist, I've just never seen one/worked with one.)

I admire your use of Dynamics CRM as a hammer for all nail-like objects as a
means of job security.

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conrmahr
We converted an Access front-end connected to a SQL Server instance and
rebuilt the front-end with Rails to have a internal website for data entry and
Tableau to automate reports. Highly recommend.

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nslindtner
One of my large client is dependent on it with 100 access systems. SQL server
is the backend though.

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twunde
We have a consultant that specializes in the industry and she runs everything
off of Access.

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edimaudo
A lot of large corporations.

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a_shiri
I didn't get you by Ms Access

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tuyguntn
Updated title

