A big thank you! (1 Viewer)

[stevekos07]

I would like to take this opportunity to convey my deepest thanks to the many contributors to this forum who have assisted me over the last three years with so many minor and major Access development problems and hurdles.
I work for the Australian Red Cross, in administering a community program that provides telephone support for socially isolated, vulnerable clients, mostly elderly people who live alone, and who have major health issues.
Three years ago I embarked on a project to replace our clunky fragmented spreadsheet-based administration systems with an Access DB solution.
What began for me as a huge and daunting task as a rank novice, has been greatly assisted through the patient and generous contribution of many here.
I have joined many Access Developer forums over the last few years, but none have proven to be as open, understanding and generous as this one. So I rarely seek help on those other forums nowadays.
A major milestone was reached for me this week when our entire State-wide program went paperless for the first time in our 40 + year history! Such as been the recognition of this outcome that there are talks of doing a similar thing for other programs within the organisation. This in spite of the fact that we have a (supposedly) sophisticated IT system in place, that “should” have been able to accommodate our needs, but our “little” project was not on the national IT agenda.
I am sure that there will be many more issues and problems that I will need assistance with in the future, but in the mean-time THANK YOU!
Steve Koschella,
Adelaide, South Australia

 

[Lightwave]

Excellent news and big congratulations - quite often slow and considered bottom up approach wins over big money top down approach every time.

What's great about doing your own thing (in whatever technology) - it really empowers you to make informed decisions on what can and can't be done.

That saves A LOT of wasted time and money.

I'm getting the impression there's a groundswell back to MS Access again because there's been so many poorly performing big all promising IT projects.

 

[NauticalGent]

Great news Steve and thanks for sharing your story. A few of us have similar experiences and it is always good to hear how this site has contributed to so many.

John

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Steve, it has been my experience that there is a double-edged sword here. Therefore, congratulations and commiserations.

You see, when you demonstrate that you can DO something and it works well, people clap you on the back, shake your hand... and say "Here's this other project and we need you to do this one."

So the good side is recognition and continued employment. The bad side is that whatever your original aspirations, everyone will say "Oh, can you help us with THIS project next before you go on to that other job?" You now have the reputation of being a competent Access designer and implementer who gets things done. And everybody WANTS things done. Good luck with your sudden notoriety.

Our site in New Orleans maintained about two dozen systems for the U.S. Navy Reserve when Katrina struck in 2005. We kept those machines up and running with minimum down-time (about 3 hours on the Saturday before Katrina hit on a Monday) to switch functions to our alternate site.) We ran things for a year from that site before recommissioning the original systems. How did we get rewarded? A few "attaboys" and such. Then they said, "Since you did such a good job, we want you to do what you did for over 30 new systems." Before I retired, it had become over 80 major systems. So beware of being competent unless you have a really strong back - 'cause the bosses WILL increase your workload.

Of course I could be joking... maybe.

All kidding aside, great job! Here's to your continued success.

 

[stevekos07]

Steve, it has been my experience that there is a double-edged sword here. Therefore, congratulations and commiserations.

You see, when you demonstrate that you can DO something and it works well, people clap you on the back, shake your hand... and say "Here's this other project and we need you to do this one."

So the good side is recognition and continued employment. The bad side is that whatever your original aspirations, everyone will say "Oh, can you help us with THIS project next before you go on to that other job?" You now have the reputation of being a competent Access designer and implementer who gets things done. And everybody WANTS things done. Good luck with your sudden notoriety.

Our site in New Orleans maintained about two dozen systems for the U.S. Navy Reserve when Katrina struck in 2005. We kept those machines up and running with minimum down-time (about 3 hours on the Saturday before Katrina hit on a Monday) to switch functions to our alternate site.) We ran things for a year from that site before recommissioning the original systems. How did we get rewarded? A few "attaboys" and such. Then they said, "Since you did such a good job, we want you to do what you did for over 30 new systems." Before I retired, it had become over 80 major systems. So beware of being competent unless you have a really strong back - 'cause the bosses WILL increase your workload.

Of course I could be joking... maybe.

All kidding aside, great job! Here's to your continued success.

Ah, yes, the old Peter Principle! That's a real danger. The "dirty little secret" in all this is that while I have achieved some notoriety with this project, there are whole areas of Access DB development that I haven't even touched on with this project. Like handling financial transactions for example.

My fear is that if I am presented with a project that needs a whole "bottom up" learning curve again it might be a bit of a disappointment for those who have unworthy expectations of my abilities.

I am just going to have to be ruthlessly honest about my abilities to take on new projects. The advantage I do have though is that at least I do have some idea of what I DON'T know! So for those salivating bosses will need to be brought into the real world of needing to be prepared to take timing and perhaps the cost of external consultancy into account.

Thanks and cheers!

 

[isladogs]

The advantage I do have though is that at least I do have some idea of what I DON'T know!

You could always use this quote by Donald Rumsfeld:

There are known knowns.
These are things we know that we know.

There are known unknowns.
That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know.

But there are also unknown unknowns.
There are things we don't know we don't know.

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/donaldrums148142.html

 

[AccessBlaster]

...The bad side is that whatever your original aspirations, everyone will say "Oh, can you help us with THIS project next before you go on to that other job?"

Truer words we never spoken.

 

[Lightwave]

Like handling financial transactions for example.

Pure Central accounting systems are probably best avoided - this is one area where there are good market alternatives that are relatively inexpensive and well tested.

Financial sections within existing systems often can't be avoided - generally not too complicated and the ones that I have designed are because commitments are long into the future and cannot be recorded in a normal ledger without blowing up balance sheets and finance needs to reconcile with an entity outside of finance. Legal Agreement / Land / Certificate etc...