Most of the businesses that ring us have an Access database somewhere near the middle of things. Jobs get raised in it, the customer records live in it, and the month-end figures come out of it. Quite often the person who built it has moved on, and nobody is sure what would happen if it stopped.
Looking after those databases is what CDE Systems does, and has done since 1999. Most of the ones we support were built by somebody else. We keep them running and fix them when they break, and when you want more from them we do that too.
You’ve got enough to do without becoming the office database expert. We can take that part on, and the database, the data and the decisions about it all stay with you.
We’re in Sheffield and work with organisations all over the UK, nearly always remotely.
Where are you with it?
Find the line that’s closest.
| If this is where you are | Start here |
| It has stopped and people can’t work | Emergency Access support. Ring, don’t email |
| It won’t open, or data has gone missing | Access repair and recovery |
| It works, but the person who knew it has gone | Access support and development |
| It’s slow, and everyone has learned to wait | Access performance tuning |
| You’ve been asked to find out what state it’s in | Access health check, £495 (+VAT) fixed price |
| A new PC won’t run it, or too many people are in it at once | Access migration and upgrades |
| People need it on a phone, at home or out on site | Access modernisation |
| The same figures get typed into two systems | Access integration and APIs |
| A spreadsheet has outgrown itself and you need something built | Access design and development |
| The code throws errors and there are no notes | Access VBA development |
If none of them fits, ring and describe it however it comes out. You don’t need the right name for the problem, because working that out is usually the first ten minutes of the call.
Why people ring us about Access
We take on databases we didn’t build. No documentation, no developer, and nobody left who remembers why it does what it does. That’s most of the systems we look after, so it doesn’t faze us.
You talk to an Access developer. We don’t have a ticket queue or a first-line script. Whoever answers is one of the people who does the work, and it’ll be the same people the next time you ring.
No problem is too small or large and when they say they will get back to you, they do – quickly.
Aire Valley Catering
We’ll say so when the answer is “leave it alone”. Sometimes the database is fine, or the fix is cheaper than the project someone has quoted you for. If that’s what we find, that’s what you’ll hear. It’s the reason the £495 (+VAT) health check exists, and the report is yours to keep whatever it says.
Access is what we do all day. We aren’t an IT support company that also does a bit of database work. It has been Access, SQL Server and the business systems built on them since 1999, for businesses, councils and central government.
Some of the Access systems we look after
Aire Valley Catering: an Access business system with four mobile apps
The office runs on Access and SQL Server. The engineers, who spend their days in commercial kitchens with no signal, use apps that connect to it and carry on working offline.
Dearson Winyard International: case management, reporting and a client portal
An immigration and right-to-work consultancy. We develop and support the case management system it runs on, and a new member of staff can be set up and working on their first day.
Bolt & Nut Manufacturing: certificates, stock and live job tracking
A fastener manufacturer that wanted tighter control of material certificates and a live view of jobs on the shop floor. We added both to the system they already had, with barcode tracking.
Commercial Catering Service & Maintenance (field service)
Aire Valley Catering
Field service apps that work with no signal
Aire Valley Catering’s engineers work in commercial kitchens across the UK, often with no usable signal, and every job still has to be recorded. We built four production…
View case study
Transport and logistics
ACC Worldwide
A faster SQL Server system, noticed on day one
ACC Worldwide’s staff used one business system all day, every day, and it was slow. We worked on the SQL Server environment behind it. The speed-up was immediate,…
View case study
Travel and leisure (adventure travel and expeditions)
Jagged Globe
Keeping bookings, customer records and the website in step
Jagged Globe runs on an internal database and a booking website that have to agree every day, and sometimes they didn’t. We traced and fixed the transfers between…
View case study
Not sure Access is the right place for your data?
We’ve written about that separately. Why use Microsoft Access? covers where it’s a sensible choice and where it isn’t, and Why not use Excel as your database? is for the spreadsheet that has turned into a system without anyone deciding it should.
Tell us about your Access database
Tell us what it does, who uses it, and what’s causing problems. We’ll explain what we’d recommend and what it would cost. If it’s best left alone, we’ll say so.