Here are some pictures from the Portland Access User Group Conference at Silver Falls State Park in May 2011. FMS President Luke Chung spoke at the conference which was his first experience attending this wonderful conference and location.
Consulting Services and Custom Software Solutions for Large Businesses
Since our beginning in 1986, we’ve served large organizations with our leading-edge solutions designed to help people make better data-based decisions. Whether it’s on PC desktops, networks, the Internet, and more recently mobile devices, we recognize you need to have the data you need, where and when you need it, in a format that helps you make decisions and avoid mistakes. We also understand the challenges of balancing application functionality with the cost and requirements of regulators, auditors, and enterprise IT.
Our general philosophy is to quickly create sophisticated solutions built on a solid database foundation. Designed to scale and expand, our solutions evolve as your business demands it. Sometimes we can anticipate future needs in our design, but more often, the application evolves based on unforeseen events such as changes in the economy, regulations, new products and customers, or competitive pressure. With our staff of experienced developers, we can quickly adapt our solutions to meet your needs. Rapid development and deployment, fail quickly and cheaply, and water and nurture the seeds that grow and justify additional investment.
We understand the needs of large organizations and deliver the quality you demand. FMS products are used by tens of thousands of customers in over 100 countries including 90 of the Fortune 100.
Learn more about our experience and services to large organizations in our new page Consulting Services and Custom Software Solutions for Large Businesses.
To find out how we can help your organization, please contact us for a Risk-Free Assessment.
Published on Enterprise Features: Microsoft Access Is Underrated–Your Hatred of Access Is Largely Unjustified
The Enterprise Features web site highlight’s FMS President Luke Chung’s discussion about why Microsoft Access is underrated and hated in large enterprise organizations. “Haters Gonna Hate”.
He discusses the dynamics of IT departments in large organizations and their natural conflict with the needs and budgets of information worker. He also shows how organizations that understand the strengths and weaknesses of Microsoft Access can leverage its power for competitive advantage, and how to structure service levels to do so.
New Microsoft Access Query Help Center
Microsoft Access Queries are among the most powerful features of MS Access. We have created a new resource center to make it easy to review all our papers related to Microsoft Access Queries. These original works offer tips and techniques aren’t found anywhere else. They will help you maximize your use of Microsoft Access queries to better analyze and understand your data.
In the Microsoft Access Query Help Center you will find papers covering:
Retrieving Records
- Microsoft Access Query Tips and Techniques (SQL and VBA)
- Microsoft Access and SQL Server Database Normalization Tips
- Using a Microsoft Access Crosstab Query to Create Monthly SUmmery Reports without Code and modifing data
- Difference Between “Unique Values” (SELECT DISTINCT) and “Unique Records” (SELECT DISTINTROW) in Microsoft Access Queries
- Finding Records in One Table but Not Another with “Not In” Queries
Modifying Data
- Microsoft Access Update Query, SQL Syntax, Examples and Errors
- Microsoft Access Delete Query, SQL Syntax, Examples and Errors
- This Recordset is not updateable: Dealing with Non-Updateable Microsoft Access Queries
- Suppress Warning Messages When Running Microsoft Access Action Queries Programmatically in VBA
- Returning the Number of Records or Rows Affected by an Action Query in Microsoft Access with VB6/VBA
Let us know what additional related topics you’d like us to add in the future.
Microsoft Access Database Scalability: How many users can it support?
What’s the Maximum Number of Microsoft Access Users?
There is a persistent myth that Microsoft Access Jet databases can only support 20 or so users. Here’s my response to a recent inquiry:
I flatly refute any suggestions that Microsoft Access users are limited to around 30. We’ve run many tests and have never seen that kind of degradation in performance. It is a myth from Access 2.0 days that was eliminated with Access 97 almost two decades ago.
A poorly designed Access database won’t support two users, but a well designed Access solution can support hundreds of users. Of course, what matters is the number of simultaneous users, and what they’re doing.
At Least 200 Simultaneous Microsoft Access Users on an Access/Jet Database
If everyone is just viewing data or entering data into a table, that takes very little work and a large number of people (well over 200) can be supported. People cannot type faster than what Access can handle. If users are all running massive reports and queries with data updates, that can still be done but performance would be an issue which applies to any technology, so testing and optimization would be necessary.
Migrate Back-End Access Database to Microsoft SQL Server for More Users
If the back-end database is in SQL Server rather than an Access/Jet database, the number of users can be practically unlimited if each user has their own front-end copy of the Access application. Performance issues still apply based on what they are doing. In some cases SQL Server is slower than Access, so it is important to understand the situation before thinking SQL Server is the answer.
All that said, any Access application that is distributed to others with shared data should be a split database design. Here are a few resources we’ve written:
- Splitting Microsoft Access Databases to Improve Performance and Simplify Maintainability
- Significantly Improve the Performance of Microsoft Access Databases with Linked Tables
- Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Resource Center
Simplify Support for All the Users of Your Access Databases
Total Access Startup helps with the distribution of databases to each user’s desktop, and launching it with the right version of Microsoft Access.
This allows you to centrally support a large number of Access users across your network and ensure everyone is using the latest version of your application. It also simplifies the migration from one version of Access to another.
Additional Discussions
This topic was also discussed on the Microsoft Developer Network, Microsoft Access Database Scalability: How many users can it support?
Sentinel Visualizer Helping to Expose Human Rights Violations
Our link analysis program, Sentinel Visualizer, continues to help organizations better manage and understand their data for some amazing missions.
Read our joint press release with London based Videre Est Credere (Seeing is Believing) on how Sentinel Visualizer is a cornerstone of their methodology for organizing their data and activities. They train and equip citizens in Africa to record human rights atrocities and expose it to the global press. We’re proud to play a role in their efforts to make a more safe and just world, and thank those who are willing to do so at great personal risk.
Luke Chung and Members of ITPAC Tour Fairfax County Public Safety and Transporation Operations Center
Luke Chung and the other members of the Fairfax County Information Technology Policy Advisor Committee (ITPAC) toured the county’s Public Safety and Transporation Operations Center. Combining state-of-the-art emergency response technology, this secure facility is ready to respond to human and man-made disasters. The blast resistant building houses the county’s 911 response center with police and fire dispatchers, the traffic monitoring and management team, an emergency command center to coordinate really large responses, and the police forensics laboratories. Thanks for keeping us safe and a great tour of your operations!
Now Shipping Total Access Emailer for Microsoft Access 2010
Total Access Emailer is the most popular Microsoft Access email program. Running as an add-in, it lets you easily send personalized emails using the information in your database. From using fields in the subject and body of the message, to attaching PDF reports filtered for each recipient, you’ll find that Total Access Emailer revolutionizes the way you communicate with your contacts. Any table or query can be the data source for your emails which can be in text or HTML format. We can even automatically include graphics in your HTML emails or let them reference a public site.
We are very pleased to announce Total Access Emailer for Access 2010. Enhancements include support for Access 2010, 32 and 64-bit, compressing all your attached files into one zip file with optional password, international extended character support, a new Code Generator, additional programmatic interfaces, and many more new features. An X.6 upgrade version for Access 2007 and earlier versions also available. Download the Free Trial today!
Using Terminal Services and RemoteApp to Extend Your Microsoft Access and other Windows Applications Over the Internet
Read our new paper on using Terminal Services and RemoteApp to Extend Microsoft Access and Other Windows Applications Over the Internet.
One of the features of Microsoft Windows Server that is increasingly popular over the last few years is the Terminal Server and more recently RemoteApp. With few exceptions, most Windows applications work within a Terminal Server environment. By doing so, your investment in existing applications, and the power of Windows desktop features and interoperability, can be exposed over the Internet.
This is particularly powerful for database applications such as Microsoft Access since it eliminates the need to send large amounts of data over the Internet for Access to process and users do not need to install Access on their machine. With RemoteApp, you can set up a terminal server experience where your users can only run your application without running other applications or browsing your network. Easily web enable all your desktop applications.
Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Breaks Backward Compatibility with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO)
The recent release of Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (and Windows 2008 R2) breaks backward compatibility for Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). That means if your .NET, Visual Basic 6, VBA/Office, C++ or other program includes an ADO library reference, and you compile your application or COM object on a Windows 7 SP1 machine, it will not run when deployed to an earlier environment containing the existing ADO object.
An error you may encounter is: Unable to cast COM object of type ‘System.__ComObject’ to interface type ‘ADODB.Connection’.
Basically, the interface IDs for files like MSADO28.tlb and MSADO15.dll have changed. For more information on this, read the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 2517589.
This is not an issue in Visual Studio .NET if you are using ADO.NET. But if you are using ADO, it is an issue. For .NET specific issues, see KnowledgeBase article 840667, You receive unexpected errors when using ADO and ADO Multidimensional in a .NET Framework application.
Note that applications built on the original version will run fine on Windows 7, SP1. You just can’t go backwards. Watch out!