Many of you have a lot of data on your local computers or on a network drive that you use with your PC based databases such as Microsoft Access, File Maker Pro and Alpha Software.
These “dinosaurs” of software power many of the day-to-day business processes of many small businesses around the world – payroll, customer records, inventory, marketing and so many things.
One of the limitations many of you face with databases is that without some help from a technical person, only you, or those sharing your computer, can access the database.
Of course with the rise of hosted applications many of us are using online database such as Trackvia, Quickbase and Dabble DB. These databases make it VERY easy to input and share data with any authorized user – be they in the next cubicle or in another time zone.
One of the more popular PC based databases is Microsoft Access. In fact, over the years I’ve created many databases (reports, forms, queries and programs) with Access. You can export your data to Excel and import it into one of the databases mentioned above.
However, Zoho recently created a new add-on that imports your data effortlessly from Microsoft Access to Zoho Creator and Zoho Reports and does much more.
Taking your legacy data, and putting it securely online, means its not just “data” but a powerful collaboration tool.
Ramon Ray is the editor and tech evangelist for Smallbiztechnology.com
