The Big Switch

The president of our company has brought to our attention that he would appreciate it if our department could create a new information system for our company. The current information system that we use is Microsoft Excel and we need to create a way to transfer and implement the new office system of Microsoft Access. We need to explain the current downsides to using Microsoft Excel and explain the positive ways by using Microsoft Access that will help our company grow, expand, and be more efficient to our company. We also need to come up with software that is compatible to Microsoft Access just to have a contingency plan, in case the president is not pleased with the results we research and to help improve the internal communications along with help make the workflow of the sales department improve. We do know that the current plan is not working for our company and we need to all work diligently to improve our current system and make the transition easy. Microsoft office is a great tool and Excel, when used properly, is a valuable asset. The problem with Microsoft Excel is that there are various manual inputs that can go wrong. Other common problems that can cause an error involve not using a colon to indicate a range of cells, forgetting to close your parentheses, and adding common formats as part of the formula (Murray, 2013). The formulas that Excel uses would be complicated to track everything. (Murray, 2013) It is also very difficult to track the history of changes that our company uses has it moves forward. This would not only hinder the company but could possibly cause miscommunication of the data inputted. (Murray, 2013) These reasons stated above are why the company should not use the Excel program to move forward in the progression of the company. With Access, it is a relational database association that exists between the tables, which stores the data. These help to maintain the integrity of the data contained within. Access can store tons of data in different forms and yet still intertwine for easy referencing and analyzing. (Microsoft, 2013) Access is also great for the business since it has the ability to manage contacts, track inventory, track orders, and events. (Microsoft, 2013) One great feature about Access is that multiple users can have it opened working on the same database and only what the other person is working on is locked. Microsoft, 2013) This allows several people to input their data at the same time and it is secure. Conclusion As one can see there are far more advantages using Microsoft Access verses using Microsoft Excel. Access is more suited for our company’s needs now. Using Access will cut down on our company’s mistakes. This will utilize and maximize our company’s growth. This will increase the employee production. In the long run, Access will make the company’s bottom line profit grow, which at the end of the day is the most important thing.