​Microsoft Listens To Their Customers and Gets Behind MS Access

One of the biggest misconceptions business folks have about Microsoft Access is that it is going away. Many people are under the impression that Microsoft no longer supports Access, or that Microsoft plans to jettison Access altogether. This is simply not true.

I do understand the hesitation. For some years Microsoft had been lukewarm in its development and promotion of MS Access. In fact, in June of 2014 I wrote a review of MS Office and expressed my own frustrations over Microsoft’s treatment of Access.

But in the last 3 to 4 years Microsoft has really changed course. Not only is Microsoft now fully behind Access with support, they have invested in adding new capabilities.
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Access has always been a top-notch data management product. There isn’t a better tool on the market for managing that unique in-house data that doesn’t quite fit into an organization’s major software applications. My clients like Access for many reasons:

• Access is the best RAD (Rapid Application Development) desktop database on the market. This means it’s possible to build an in-house data management solution quickly and within budget.
• End-users can learn how to do basic things in MS Access, so they aren’t required to call an Access expert for every little thing.
• Access is a fantastic integration tool, making it the go-to desktop tool for integrating data from multiple sources.
• Access has historically been part of the Office Suite. So, it has been built to work fluidly with Excel and other Microsoft products.

Since Access has such a loyal following, many of my clients were frustrated with Microsoft’s seeming disregard for their operating needs. Folks truly wondered how long MS Access would be around and if they needed to start searching for other solutions, knowing full well that other solutions would be costly and that they would lose control over their own data.

But Microsoft really has listened to the frustrations of their customers and stepped up to the plate with new capabilities. Specifically, Microsoft took to heart the need for more data connectors. Data connectors are extremely important in data integration projects.

MS Access is often used to manage data that doesn’t quite fit into an organization’s main software systems. This means users need the ability easily move data back and forth between their main software systems and their supplemental Access database. The new data connectors Microsoft developed makes the job of data integration and communication much easier. Some of Access data connectors include:

• Excel
• ODBC
• Outlook (Integration with Outlook is one of my most common data integration requests)
• Sharepoint Lists
• Dynamics CRM
• Salesforce
• SQL Server
• dBase

These data connectors are exciting because they are concrete evidence that Microsoft understands one of most important roles Access plays in an overall data management strategy.

If you need a cost effective way to integrate data, MS Access is the best tool out there. Microsoft's commitment to new data connectors is not only a technical upgrade; it is also an announcement that they finally “get it”. Microsoft finally seems to understand just how important MS Access is to business’ and organizations world-wide.

Since the 1990s Microsoft has done an exceptional job of creating an integrated Office Suite. Organizations world-wide depend on the Microsoft Office Suite to run their organizations. And, very often, MS Access is a pivotal piece of the puzzle.

When Microsoft started to diminish the role of MS Access in their Office Suite products, they made a lot of their own customers very nervous. With the addition of new data connectors in the 2017 role-out Microsoft signaled to the world that MS Access isn’t going anywhere. Microsoft is investing in a future with MS Access. This should ease the minds of many, many professionals who depend on MS Access to do their job.

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For more information on using MS Access as a data integration tool, the following two articles may be of interest:

• Case Study: Integrating Microsoft Outlook and Access
• Microsoft Access and Data Integration
• Do you have questions about your own data management project? Contact Michelle.