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Jimmy Stang · 01-16-2012, 10:01 AM

Hello fellow nerds,

The company that I work for has outgrown our modest little Access database, and I have been asked to start exploring alternatives. I'll be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure where to begin, hence this thread.

The company provides continuing education courses for heath care professionals, and our current database is simply a place where we store customer information, registrations, etc. and then we merge that data onto receipts/confirmations, certificates of attendance, targeted mailers, and other similar things.

We also accept online registrations, but at this point it is a simple form that people fill out, which is entered into our system manually. Ideally we would like a database that can accept online and offline registrations yet store them in the same place, and perhaps even handle the credit card payments, receipts, etc. instantly (we currently do batches at the end of the day). We would also like something where people can have an account that they can log into and then register, view past registrations, print old receipts, and that sort of thing. We also need the ability to accept registrations offline (phone, fax, etc.) because our client base isn't the most tech savvy group out there, although it is improving. And, obviously, we'd want to migrate our data over to the new system as seamlessly as possible.

Even though I was able to make an Access database years ago that has done us well, I'm not a programmer and I'm not afraid to admit that I can't provide the company's next generation of database. We currently have just shy of 48,000 clients that have amassed about 98,000 registrations over about 10 years. So I think that it is time for something a little more robust than what we have.

So are there any good database consultants in town that you would recommend? I'd like to start getting in touch with some and start the quoting process sooner rather than later. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Maybe some of you do this sort of thing for a living as well.

Many thanks CP!

01-16-2012, 10:01 AM	#1
Jimmy Stang Franchise Player Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Calgary Exp:	Database advice Hello fellow nerds, The company that I work for has outgrown our modest little Access database, and I have been asked to start exploring alternatives. I'll be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure where to begin, hence this thread. The company provides continuing education courses for heath care professionals, and our current database is simply a place where we store customer information, registrations, etc. and then we merge that data onto receipts/confirmations, certificates of attendance, targeted mailers, and other similar things. We also accept online registrations, but at this point it is a simple form that people fill out, which is entered into our system manually. Ideally we would like a database that can accept online and offline registrations yet store them in the same place, and perhaps even handle the credit card payments, receipts, etc. instantly (we currently do batches at the end of the day). We would also like something where people can have an account that they can log into and then register, view past registrations, print old receipts, and that sort of thing. We also need the ability to accept registrations offline (phone, fax, etc.) because our client base isn't the most tech savvy group out there, although it is improving. And, obviously, we'd want to migrate our data over to the new system as seamlessly as possible. Even though I was able to make an Access database years ago that has done us well, I'm not a programmer and I'm not afraid to admit that I can't provide the company's next generation of database. We currently have just shy of 48,000 clients that have amassed about 98,000 registrations over about 10 years. So I think that it is time for something a little more robust than what we have. So are there any good database consultants in town that you would recommend? I'd like to start getting in touch with some and start the quoting process sooner rather than later. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Maybe some of you do this sort of thing for a living as well. Many thanks CP!