Upgrading business solutions away from Excel

I work for a small company that hired me to clean up and add functionality to their current system of databases. They had (still have) a system that involves Access databases with Excel as the front end. I've been working with this system for two years now and it's been nothing but a headache. I'm tired of VB6, mostly. My boss is concerned about upgrading, because it would take a long time to recreate all the applications I have now. I'm less worried about the transfer because what we're using is a weak and very insecure way of handling the sheer amount of data we deal with.

In your opinion what would be the best combination of database and front end languages for a small business that needs to connect the different departments (sales, shipping + receiving, R&D, etc.). We'd also like a system that we could connect to the internet so that customers could log in and see their data live. I know of lots of different languages that could meet our needs, but in the end, I need as much leverage to try to convince my boss AND his boss that a switch could improve our current system by leaps and bounds.

Thank you very much,
Nick.

Originally Posted by Niandler

I work for a small company that hired me to clean up and add functionality to their current system of databases. They had (still have) a system that involves Access databases with Excel as the front end. I've been working with this system for two years now and it's been nothing but a headache. I'm tired of VB6, mostly. My boss is concerned about upgrading, because it would take a long time to recreate all the applications I have now. I'm less worried about the transfer because what we're using is a weak and very insecure way of handling the sheer amount of data we deal with.

In your opinion what would be the best combination of database and front end languages for a small business that needs to connect the different departments (sales, shipping + receiving, R&D, etc.). We'd also like a system that we could connect to the internet so that customers could log in and see their data live. I know of lots of different languages that could meet our needs, but in the end, I need as much leverage to try to convince my boss AND his boss that a switch could improve our current system by leaps and bounds.

Thank you very much,
Nick.

Once something is too big for Excel, I prefer MSSQL (up to 4GB dbs with the express version).

Then just choose whatever front-end you are most familiar with I guess dotnet/asp?

Personally, I use php, but my tasks are very simple.

Originally Posted by SpeedingLunatic

Once something is too big for Excel, I prefer MSSQL (up to 4GB dbs with the express version).

Then just choose whatever front-end you are most familiar with I guess dotnet/asp?

Personally, I use php, but my tasks are very simple.

I'm not super familiar with asp, but have done some php and am not quite sure if they're the answer I'm looking for. My familiarity with these languages extends just to basic internet solutions and I need something more expansive. I should have included a list in retrospect, but that's the beauty of forums. So here's a list of needs:

-A database language that is powerful enough to handle millions of points of data
-This language should be internet accessible via php/xml/asp/???
-A front-end language that can create a GUI for users to manipulate the database with (I work with old scientists mostly. Brilliant people, but most of them still double click hyperlinks )
-This front-end language should create applications and should be able to be well secured as we are going to be selling some of these as products.


I realize this may be the wrong forum to be asking these questions (Not for lack of knowledge, but for lack of topicality). So, if you also feel like redirecting me to a more appropriate forum that would be appreciated. Just please don't send me to experts exchange. Bunch of idiots run that place.

Cheers,
Nick.