As you mentioned, this is a general question.
You could have written the same thing in VB, or perhaps used Delphi from
Borland to make this application.
So, your question is really not a programming question, and in fact it
certainly is not a question that relates to ms-access on it own.
Not knowing the application, and not knowing the "culture" and attitudes of
the people you are working with, it is very hard to come up with reasons as
to why these people are not using your software. Perhaps your software is a
pain in the neck to use?
Why do people use software? We consume and use BILLIONS of dollars of
software in a year. Our software industry would NOT exist if people as
general rule did not think it was worth the value of purchasing software.
Since consumers consume SO MUCH, then obviously consumers think software is
a relative bargain.
I can remember a good number of years ago when I wrote a payroll application
for a company. The effort and time to create the payroll checks went from a
difficult task to nearly that of pressing a button. A computer was now
printing them out in place of some poor guy writing them out!!. The business
owner also used have to write out the payroll slips by hand also (hours, tax
rates etc had to be looked up for EACH employee from a set tax tables). The
time to make the payroll slips and write the checks went from a good days of
work to WELL LESS then one hour. These people were so happy that they would
have came to my house and cleaned it for me, cooked me dinner, and even
started searching for a nice wife for me ;-)
In other words, the software was SO useful that wild horses could not taken
the software away from these people. Do you think this company would even
BEGIN to think of going back to pencil and paper? Not in my life time! And,
ask people in a company if you try and take away Excel from them...they will
scream!
So, obviously the one reason why people use software is because it turn a
task of horrible human drudgeries in to a enjoyable task, or at the very
least a task that is far easier.
And then, there is some software that a company CAN NOT even function when
it stops. I have a tour reservation package, and, if that system stops..the
company CAN NOT function. In this case, the managing of what resources are
left (hotel rooms, bus seats), and doing the pricing are actually VERY
difficult for humans to do. In fact, you should have seen how the tour
company used to work with paper. To make a bus list, they would actually buy
a bunch of beer, and then have all staff sit in a room with a bunch of chalk
boards and write out the names for which bus. They would then type them into
Excel...and then print them. In effect, my software has removed those fun
beer days, as they now just press a button. Again, hours of time saved.
You can read about that system here:
http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/Rides/Rides.html
So, does your software remove some human drudgery and suffering that the
company has endured for years? If it does, then I can't imagine why they are
not using the software.
If your software is actually something that creates more work for people,
and your software actually requires people to do something that they DID NOT
have to do before, then in effect you are using software to MAKE MORE WORK
for those people. And then you wonder why they don't want to use the
software? I can't imagine why people would not use your software to enrich
their lives, make their job easier to do then it was before.
It is also possible that the software does NOT make their task at hand
easier. Perhaps the software is not well designed from a user interface
point of view. Perhaps, and even MORE important is that the social dynamics
of the software are wrong.
You can read the following article on social interface here:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/NotJustUsability.html
And, you can read a discussion/answer (which includes one of my answers) on
the above subject here:
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/d...ad&ixDiscussTopicParent=1475&ixDiscussGroup=6
And, if you want some great reading on how to make great software, then read
the following on designing a good software here:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html