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Access to Omnis

John Kohl - Feb 27, 2023

In the last year, we’ve been approached on more than one occasion by businesses looking to migrate their MS Access database to a solution that is more modern, cost effective, and maintainable. As we talked with businesses, a common story we heard went something like this: you started small, and Access was a great tool to get started with.

As your business grew, so did your data, your staff, and your requirements. You noticed your database wasn’t running as smoothly as it used to: Access databases become slower to use as the amount of data increases, the number of connections increases, or if multimedia is stored – and combining any of these factors makes the problem much worse. The lack of native backup tools and other advanced functions creates increasing risk as your data grows, and then there is the risk of data corruption caused by connecting to Access on different versions of Windows.

While tools to migrate Access data to other database software exist, Access also includes forms, reports, macros, and other features that cannot be migrated with existing tools. The cost of re-creating these assets is prohibitive, and so Access databases remain one of the ten most widely used database management systems world wide. With Microsoft ending support for Office versions older than 2019, businesses are faced with two options: keep the ticking time bomb, or start afresh.

What if there were a third option? Imagine a conversion tool that could migrate not just your data, but also convert your forms and other assets into a stable and modern software package. You’d face minimal downtime, as you could run the old system in parallel while the modern system comes online. There would be no need to re-train your staff, as the new system would be functionally equivalent. You would be left with a modern software package, free to grow and expand along with your business, and without the hefty price-tag of bespoke from-scratch software solution.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? At Logical Developments, we’ve been working on a prototype conversion tool which could achieve all the above, using Omnis Studio 10.2 as a platform for forms, reports, and other functions, powered by PostgreSQL. As we progress on this project, we’re interested on hearing from you: does your business use an Access database? Call us up, have a chat – we’d love to talk with you about what we can do for your business!