Re: Is this possible??

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I'll start with the hardware. We have 2 IBM Servers each with dual Xeon
3ghz. The desktops are all IBM 3ghz and we have 16 of those, Servers are
running 2000, desktops XP. Routers and switches I'm not sure of.

As for the data. All our timekeeping data is stored on one server, it runs
the telephone time-in, well actually a dedicated desktop does, but the data
is all stored on the server. This is the FoxPro database and that has all
employee schedules in it because that software uses the schedules to figure
overtime. All the client data is stored on the other server. Basic setup
there is on a shared drive, each client has their own folder, we have around
40 clients. Under each client's folder are sub-folders for specific types of
data (this is the same for all, meaning all clients have the same
sub-folders). They would have a plan folder, medical, etc. The plans, under
the plan folder, are done in Word and can be 30-50 pages long and can contain
graphics. These are done every year, so there will be one for every year
they have been with us. Also on the shared drive would be a folder called
program budgets, and under that there will be a seperate folder for each
year, and under that a folder for each client. They will have an Excel
spread*** for each month for their budget, so there will be 12 Excel
spreadsheets (possibly more if an amendment is done mid-month) under that.

That's a basic overview of where the data is that I'd have to pull in. I'm
guessing there wouldn't be more then 4 people needing to access this at a
time, but the maximum that would be in at a time would be 11.

I guess what I would want to know, for one, is more about the RAD tool. My
biggest concern though is how I'd be able to look up these Excel budget
sheets when a new one is made every month. Example, I want to click on Joe
Schmoe's name, click on his budget, and look up his August 2007, how will it
get this into Access easily without having to define each month a new file
location? Would you want to enter the data into Access and have it store it
and export it to an Excel form, or just set it up to keep the data where it
is and just have Access pull it in to view?



"Jeff Boyce" wrote:

MS Access makes a great RAD tool. You can quickly prototype both data
structures and user-interfaces. And you can connect to a variety of data
sources (such as those you described).

However, if the underlying data sources are not well-normalized (internally
and/or between sources), you (and Access) will have to work extra hard to
get good use of Access' relationally-oriented features and functions.

If you decide you will be migrating the data from their current sources to a
new back-end/data store, you can use MS Access, or you can use something
like SQL-Server, and use Access as a front-end to connect to the data.

Without some idea of YOUR sense of "that much data", we can only guess
whether Access could handle it.

Without some idea of YOUR environment (PC-horsepower, network "pipes",
version of Access, number of simultaneous users, number of data entry users
vs. number of lookup users, ...), we can only guess whether Access could
handle it.

You did post in an MS Access newsgroup ... what kind of response were you
looking for?

--
Regards

Jeff Boyce
www.InformationFutures.net

Microsoft Office/Access MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

Microsoft IT Academy Program Mentor
http://microsoftitacademy.com/

"Shanin" <Shanin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AC4B0474-1945-4091-A4CF-FF2507413A20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a co-worker that would like me to build a database that centralizes
a
huge amount of data and am wondering if Access would even be the avenue to
try and do this in. My thoughts initially are this would be a huge
undertaking and would probably lead to a swollen database and would be
better
served by something other than Access.

What they want is this, a database that they can click on a client's name,
where this would pull up a main screen which would show who worked for
that
client, and several other options like med errors for this person, the
person's budget, the person's plan and even being able to click on the
staff
that work for the client and being able to view their trainings, schedule,
etc. The main problem I see in all of this is all of this stuff is in
numerous different applications. All HR/staff trainings, employee
information is in an Access Database I already built. Schedules are in a
FoxPro database which also is our timekeeping system. I have our HR
database
linked to that to pull schedules so that is not a problem. Budgets,
errors,
etc, these are under the clients folder on a server and are in Excel and
Word, some are even still in Lotus. The part I would find hard is the
budget
forms come from the State and have to be in that form and you have to hav
a
new on every month, sometimes more than one if an amendment is made so you
would have a hard time trying to link to something where the file name
would
be constantly changing.

Without a total re-work of the agency on how things are reported, I don't
see this as being possible and even then, I don't think Access would be
the
best solution to store that much data.

Any thoughts?


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