Make your life more Access-ible!
January 30, 2018
Make your life more Access-ible!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Access
My organization currently uses Microsoft Access primarily as a fast and easy way to compile data and have a manageable database for different projects and ideas. Since we all already use Microsoft Office Suite and are familiar with the various products within that, especially Excel, we all have adapted very quickly to the software as well as our own standards for consistency. This way, we are able to customize different dashboards and reports and use data with which we are already familiar.
Pros
- Organization - Its layout is particularly conducive to organizing data and is very user-friendly. Working with data is simple so long as you have a working knowledge of either building your own forms/reports or SQL.
- Integration - Since Access is an Office product, it integrates nicely with Excel. This allows for not only the freedom of designing the data and reports you generate but also that it is quick to pick up as most people have some experience with Excel.
- Support - Since there is already a large compendium of help and useful tricks/tips for Office products, there is always an answer to whatever question you may have or outcome that you are trying to achieve.
Cons
- Long loading times for larger datasets - Depending on the data with which you are working, it can take a while to open and save documents. Additionally, if you are working with multiple datasets that are joined, this is all saved into one file and seems to make the issue worse.
- Learning curve - Without a relatively strong background in either database management or SQL, it can be difficult to adapt to Access. The layout isn't very intuitive for new users and so it takes time to learn the ins and outs.
- File size limit - Access has a 2GB file size limit, which, for the large majority of cases is not a problem. For those instances where you are working with multiple large datasets, though, this will be an issue unless you link multiple Access databases.
- Before Access, we were trying to do different versions of link analysis just through Excel. Naturally, this was time consuming and less than optimal for working with large data sets. Now, with Access, we are able to write queries that will look for connections between data points for us which frees up time and resources to do actual analysis.
- Neither positive or negative, but few individuals within our company know how to use SQL or build reports and so this puts more pressure on those of us who do know how to bug fix issues or help those who don't know SQL with tweaking reports. This can take some time away from personal responsibilities but allows for more exposure to different situations.
Visually speaking, Tableau is more visually appealing and I've heard that it can be a little easier to use. Our organization likely chose Access due to the costs associated with Tableau as well as the learning curve with its program as well. I'm not sure about the integration with Excel, but since Access is a Microsoft product I would imagine it is more easily connected through Access.
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