Likelihood to Recommend Microsoft Access can be easily implemented with training. It doesn't require expert level skill for basic reporting functions - but can be scaled to a complex database with sophisticated users. Its appropriate to consider if excel needs to be used to create reports, or if there are data entry needs - with corresponding reports.
Read full review It is appropriate for database application development supporting data driven processes, online transaction processing, BI/reports/analytics ... for addressing about any business data processing need I can think of. Oracle Application Express is fantastic for creating beautiful rich user interfaces with support for all major browsers rendering well on a range of devices. It is less appropriate for applications requiring native low level access to device peripherals and is less appropriate for applications that must execute offline without network/internet connection to supporting application and database servers.
Read full review Pros Very easy to create entity-relationship diagrams for various tables and designing mock layouts. Really easy to navigate as it hold[s] the classic Microsoft UI. Another good thing is that it comes with the complete MS Office Suite. It is really fast when joining multiple tables no matter what type of join. Works on pretty much same SQL scripts so no need to learn a new language! Read full review Easy upgrade path from Forms, allowing reuse of code and a low learning curve for Forms developers. Very quick to develop in. Ideal for prototyping or iterative development which is how we usually work. Comes with cross browser and mobile compatibility out of the box. Easy to incorporate other web technologies. Development environment runs straight from a browser. This has proved to be a life saver when issues crop up on a weekend. Read full review Cons Microsoft Access has not really changed at all for several years. It might be nice to see some upgrades and changes. The help info is often not helpful. Need more tutorials for Microsoft Access to show how to do specific things. Be careful naming objects such as tables, forms, etc. Names that are too long can get cut off in dialog boxes to choose a table, form, report, etc. So, I wish they would have resizable dialog boxes to allow you to see objects with long names. I wish it could show me objects that are not in use in the database for current queries, tables, reports, forms, and macros. That way unused objects can be deleted without worrying about losing a report or query because you deleted the underlying object. Read full review Perhaps is our problem, since we haven’t explored it deeply, but I think that a better portability to mobile devices would help the adoption of APEX. Applications weren’t as light as we thought, and we had to move the APEX server to the same data center where our data base was running, due to performance issues. When we started, we supposed that that situation would not be an issue. At least in Argentina and Brazil, you can not find as many programmers with experience in APEX as you can find with other technologies. Read full review Likelihood to Renew I and the rest of my team will renew our Microsoft Access in the future because we use and maintain many different applications and databases created using Microsoft Access so we will need to maintain them in the future. Additionally, it is a standard at our place of work so it is at $0 cost to us to use. Another reason for renewing Microsoft Access is that we just don' t have the resources needed to extend into a network of users so we need to remain a single-desktop application at this time.
Read full review I felt very comfortable using Oracle Application Express from the start. I designed my data model and quickly developed the basic CRUD pages for master tables. Then I designed the main functionality and was able to test and deploy it in a couple of days work. I will probably share the app with other members of the team and continue adding some features in the short term.
Read full review Usability Microsoft Access is easy to use. It is compatible with spreadsheets. It is a very good data management tool. There is scope to save a large amount of data in one place. For using this database, one does not need much training, can be shared among multiple users. This database has to sort and filtering features which seem to be very useful.
Read full review its easy to use as a developer and applications designed using apex are easy and intuitive to use as an end user. Even non-coders can build good applications, the more code you can write the more you can enhance the application but you can get up and running quickly with almost no technical know how.
Read full review Reliability and Availability I don't think the program has ever failed me. It is one of those programs where there is always a solution if you know where to look.
Read full review Support Rating While I have never contacted Microsoft directly for product support, for some reason there's a real prejudice against MS Access among most IT support professionals. They are usually discouraging when it comes to using MS Access. Most of this is due to their lack of understanding of MS Access and how it can improve one's productivity. If Microsoft invested more resources towards enhancing and promoting the use of MS Access then maybe things would be different.
Read full review Very active and knowledgeable community support includes quick and helpful responses from the Oracle employees on the product development team. I've never had to raise an official support request - everything is dealt with via forums and user groups - or via direct emails. The supposrt commuinty is one of the great things about Apex.
Read full review Implementation Rating there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
Read full review Using it on the cloud is really simple, the entire process of configuring and provisioning an
Oracle Database takes only a few minutes (less than 10) and then Oracle APEX is already deployed on the database, so you just have to start using it. I would strongly recommend using APEX on Oracle Cloud Free Tier.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Crystal is easier for report writing, but isn't a database solution.
Salesforce is lovely, but much more expensive than an old copy of Microsoft Office. For a small budget, [Microsoft] Access was really the only viable option. I only wish it was easier to write complex reports.
Read full review Obviously Oracle Application Express cannot replace WebLogic in terms of creating domains but it is not designed to do that. We can use this tool to prototype and later develop a product using the
Oracle WebLogic platform. We selected Oracle Application Express due to the ease of learning, and not having to buy licenses to use it.
Read full review Return on Investment Not having to recreate queries or reports every time you want to use them. Once an item is created and saved as part of the database, you save manpower by not having to recreate them. ROI from a usability standpoint is great. Solid product with great functionality that requires low maintenance usually. Read full review In the mid-size organization, we had a BI tool that had a significant license cost involved. With Oracle back-end we were able to switch to APEX and move all reporting at literally zero cost. For Oracle PL/SQL users the learning curve is very quick and easy, there are ready templates that you can start with and eventually create complex reports. You can track authorization and authentication on data editing and usage. High performance as it is native oracle sql codes. Centralized data capturing, makes your datawarehouse writable for lookup tables or reference tables. Read full review ScreenShots