oh i don't underestimate access and vba at all. i'm in love with it, it's almost an obsession of mine for 10 years. i self learned it because it interested me so much that i had no problem staying up nights messing with it.
but it seems like access is perceived as something not serious, not powerful enough. in my experience access can do ANYTHING and once you start using excel, outlook and word vba - amazing things can be done.
i'm now using it to automate complicated reports. i work for a large company, they don't use access except for tables and queries and they automate by using sql stored procedures. so whatever they can't automate - i automate with access. there was nothing i wasn't able to do with it.
i'm the biggest fan of microsoft)))) ms access with an sql/oracle backend and with ms office is an amazing package and no one can tell me different.