Advice/Consultancy required on migration of Access db to web server - (1 Viewer)

matt beamish

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Hi folks,
I run a membership database for a local society that holds a small private membership of 400 or so with around 80 institutional subscribers, and holds subscription information, payments made, subs owing, publications despatched, gift aid claims, general notes, orders and invoices etc. I have developed it as an Access db over the last 10 years, but I have just about had enough of doing this voluntary job and also at the same time want to make a membership database more accessible and also securely online so that someone else can take it on. I need someone to advise me on how best to achieve this, and also to do the necessary re-writing of the front and back ends.
Has anyone with direct experience of something similar any advice to give me?
thanks
Matt
 

Minty

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You can migrate an access database back end to an azure cloud-based SQL Server.
It is relatively straight forward but can require tweaks to the forms and general design depending on how it has been put together.

This allows you to retain the existing front end, with some modifications.
Re-writing the whole thing for another Web-based front end would I suspect be a large task and not one to undertake lightly.

You may find someone to do this for you cheaply, but it can be quite time-consuming to do and set up properly depending on the complexity of the existing system.
 

theDBguy

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Hi Matt. There's lot of options with different costs associated with them. Also, it depends on the size of the data and the number of users.
 

Pat Hartman

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The only reason for converting to a web front end is because you want to allow remote access to the database. If you have no expertise in a web technology, there is no easy way to do the conversion. It is a complete re-write. The only thing that is easily transferable is the data. You will need to completely recreate the forms/reports/queries from scratch.

So, you either need to teach yourself some web technology or pay someone to do the conversion. They will charge you a minimum of 5 times the number of hours it took you to build the Access app just to give you a ballpark number. Probably more. Not a single one of my clients was happy with any web conversion they did. One of them spent millions to replicate an Access app that was done for about $100,000. Plus they had to replace their hardware and incur monthly fees for hot-spots to work "on-line" at client sites.

Think about why this app needs to be converted. Who is going to pay for the conversion? Who is going to pay the hosting fees? Who is going to make future changes?

If you are fixated on this conversion, see if you can find a useful app that is already built and find out the cost of a monthly subscription or multiple subscriptions if multiple people need access. BUT, and this is really important, before you entrust YOUR data to a web service, determine how you would get the data back if you didn't like the service and in what format that data would be returned to you.
 

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