A developer's thoughts on Microsoft Access 2010 (part 2)

Yesterday I introduced you to Martin McSweeney, an experienced Microsoft developer who recently "saw the light," as we like to say, as an Alpha Five convert. I printed the first of Martin's e-mails to the Alpha team about his problems with Microsoft Access 2010. And I'm certain he's not alone in these views. We believe that his fellow developers will find value (and perhaps learn something new) in Martin's (very well-written, if I do say so myself) words. And that's Martin's hope as well. As he said said to me just yesterday in another e-mail:

It is in my view vital that the Access Development Community is given an opportunity to understand the benefits. The problem with many Microsoft Developers is that they are for some very strange reason, prepared to just accept what Microsoft gives them on the basis that Microsoft's market domination makes their customers feel safe. The problem we have here is that I think some are more frightened of risk assessment within the project management phase of solution approval. Then there's the issue of change management, a subject we all struggle with. I do however think the latter is less of an issue if emphasis can be placed on breaking free of the restrictive development environment they find themselves in.

I have pondered in many a spare moment what's the best approach and there is little alternative but to continue to develop brand recognition and to build on what is clearly an outstanding product. I am hoping I can play some small part by documenting the migration of our application in a really high profile challenging workspace.

The "Developer's thoughts" series continues today with Martin's critiques of Microsoft Access 2010 based on the new version's feature set. It is worth noting that Martin's assessment is very consistent with comments from other users and developers on the Microsoft Access 2010 page.

Here's what Martin has to say, verbatim:

One of the key considerations here is the change for the developer. There was an expected jump from Access 2003 to 2007 and it's taken a step further in 2010. Microsoft HAVE to give Access users the ability to publish apps to the web or they will starve the user base of probably THE key requirement. So they have gone for developing what they started in real terms in Access 2003 with SharePoint integration, but now better integrating it into the platform which is essentially a SQL back end. I have talked at length in the past about what say an Access developer who has been using Access 2003 will have to learn to move to developing solutions in Access 2010. Given that many of the developer's clients chose not to move to Office 2003, let alone 2007, the limitations for the developer have been a challenge, unless they were deploying a runtime of course. You have to remember that many corporates steered clear of Office 2007 because of the potential training bill to deal with the RIBBON. I did have some stats on adoption and I maybe need to dig them out. The thing is that us longstanding Access developers are very fond of our clunky old friend VBA, we love it because it allows us to develop business logic that macros can't deliver. So what do they do, come up with some bastardised macro/code library that will be poorly used by the same users that think Excel is a database. It will be very very interesting to see how the real development community warm to where they are going!

This means that IF and it's a big if, business adopts Office 2010 it will undoubtedly be some time down the road and things will have moved on yet again with your product. So what you must be very careful to do is to understand the time lag from when Microsoft does a full commercial release of office (what I like to call the "real public beta testing phase" where the paying customer is given a product that almost works) to corporate adoption at say Service Pack 1 at the earliest and more likely Service Pack 2, this is a big time gap. The great thing about where you are is that you are there TODAY and many of the developments they are touting is way down the road in the real world.

The hard facts are this, business wants Web apps NOW not towards the middle of 2010 and you can do this now and what's more you can do it better. Note in the video when he goes to render a simple report in the browser, they zoom out while he distracts you with some chat and then zoom back in once it renders. Given that they will not have been connected to a lame back end, this tells you everything you need to know.

They know that their strength is in the trust in the brand amongst those who are risk averse, so they are taking this opportunity to further exploit SharePoint which they see as THE collaborative way forward. The concept of SharePoint in 2005 was in my view an innovative way forward, but the Microsoft Web delivery platform seems to have moved no further forward. There is a speed issue and it just feels outdated. How many adverts do you see from third parties promising they will improve the performance of your SharePoint site? Call me old fashioned, but if the original product needs third party intervention to speed it up, then it's not where I want to be. It's a great example of how market dominance allows you to deliver product way behind the curve and get away with it.

It would make a great commercial to have two PCs side by side with a network hard drive between the two. One screen with an Alpha 5 presentation through the browser of the data hosted on the network drive and the other with an Access desktop presentation of the data. With the statement "How would you prefer to view your Access database today?". You could then follow up with a series of images with the same statement, with the Access Desktop PC on but a PC at home as the other PC. Take it a step further with the same statement again with the Access Desktop PC on with a man on a train looking at a mobile phone. (My God I should be in advertising!!!). Data when you want it where you want it for less than the cost of ?????? (not sure what you might want to use as the example)

Just a few more thoughts on my road to Damascus!

Regards

Martin

Editorial note about SharePoint pricing: Microsoft's solution to getting to the Web with MS Access 2010 is SharePoint. I had repeatedly heard that Microsoft Office SharePoint is "cery expensive," but until I took a look at actual numbers, I didn't know what that meant specifically. You may want to check out Sharepoint pricing for yourself. Now I understand the meaning of STICKER SHOCK.