All your points are correct, but do ignore the specifics.
The tools and methods you discuss require trained professionals to use.
This is where IT fails the departmental user. The department does not have
the expertise of the budget and usually not access to those tools. The
department has to request support from IT. These departmental requests are
mostly ignored by IT or the turn around time is more than the department can
wait.
This is exactly where you will find Access a very useful tool. It can be
used as a front end for departmental users to get the data they need to
execute their processes.
Now comes the ignorance. Many companies will allow read only access to
their enterprise data through Excel, but absolutely freeze up when you ask
the for the same thing using Access. IT types know enough to know Access
can manipulate database data, but why they can't see all they really need to
protect the content and integrity of the enterprise data is to provide some
Views and allow the departments to work with the data as needed.
Much of the problem is also about control. IT has the belief they are the
Priesthood of the data and the unwashed masses don't really even know what
they need. If an request in properly reverent and humble and deemed worthy
the priests will, in their own good time, deliver what they think the serfs
need whether it is what they really requested.
I have seen some good IT departments that see their users as customers
rather than as a nucense and provide the knowledge and reap the rewards of
Access used properly.
I once did a 5 year international enterprise level project. Access was used
for prototyping because you can put together a form and some functional data
in almost no time.
But, I know the frustration. I am even seeing companies now that will not
allow Access to be installed on any computer. I know of one that does that,
but their business analysts are provided with a copy of SQL Server
Management Studio to query data for research.
Go figure.
I have a continuing battle with our database managers. They do not want me
to
use MS Access. They're pushing everyone into using Cognos. In my
department
we like the flexibility to create ad hoc reports and develop rapid
applications to crunch our data. We also like the ease of integration with
Excel, which is our primary analysis tool. I would appreciate some good
arguments to convince the dB administrators and managers to get off our
backs.
There are many potential problems with putting database and data
analysis tools on desktops or on workgroup servers: security; data
integrity; multiple versions of the truth; duplication of effort;
difficulty of guaranteeing SLAs; expense and complexity of support.
These issues quite rightly concern those charged with enterprise
information management responsibilities. You can't expect them to get
off your back unless you can demonstrate that such concerns are
properly addressed.
These days there are plenty of cost-effective options for delivering
data and analysis using enterprise BI tools, tiered applications and
client-server DBMS. Those solutions tend to be designed with security,
high availability and manageability features in mind - features that
Access just doesn’t have, was never intended to have and never will
have. So there are at least some reasons why management may not be
convinced that Access is the right tool for the job.
