Choosing Between MS Access and Visual FoxPro for Legacy Apps

Still people these days calling us to help them as MS Access consultants or Visual FoxPro as their legacy desktop applications.

Some of the clients just simply don’t let go of their desktop applications even though these apps originally were developed 15 to 20 years ago.

Patches upon patches were added and yet they work with these old applications, and do not realize how much productivity they lose.

I am amazed that some manufactures, their production line depends on their old legacy apps. In many cases they cannot even find their inventory as the raw material for their final product in their warehouses.

They simply just consumed their inventory in the middle of their production without realizing it. They always need to send somebody to find their inventory and run multiple counts.

My discussion with a new client: can you help us to re-develop our MS Access Application? Yes sure(me), he said, but we have a small problem! The original developer was fired 2 years ago.

I replied to him, we will be glad to move your MS Access application into the cloud and figure out with you what has to be developed, including reverse engineering.

The client was stunned, he thought we will continue to work with his desktop application. Eventually he came to terms with the cloud concept.

Like anything else in the world of technology, it is important to look at the features versus stability. While a current desktop application may just work there are a number of factors to consider with regard to maintenance and future compatibility.

Older applications can stop working in future updates to the OS without warning. Virus and malware exploits are not addressed in older application software. Modernizing can help to future-proof an application, make it less susceptible to attack, and more user-friendly taking advantage of the latest modern techniques in UI presentation.

Visual FoxPro application is a good example. We have a couple of current applications in VFP and with each new update of the Windows Server OS we face issues with optimistic file locks and SMB changes.

Still our Visual FoxPro Consultants are busy to maintain these legacy applications and working to upscale their back end into the latest MS SQL engine version.

Another major advantage to moving from desktop applications to modern cloud solutions is that small-to-medium businesses can outsource their IT Administration by moving to a hosted solution. Not only can this result in a cost savings, but also provides peace of mind that proper techniques are being used to safeguard their applications and their data.

In most cases the benefit of moving to a modern environment outweigh the costs and just makes good sense.

Isn't it typical that some companies fire their one and only developer and then wonder why they can't get things to work or changed as desired? The old technology may still work but is it fitting the company's needs? If the company is expanding, does the old system cover all the possible new needs? Does there need to be a fresh approach? Sometimes, that is the best course of action.

When it comes to Visual FoxPro or MS Access applications, we always advise our clients to look for other long term productive options. They can either run their apps while using their local server for a web based solution or convert their Visual FoxPro into the cloud.

Some Of the Custom Software Solutions We Provide:

At The Farber Consulting Group Inc., that’s what we do best, helping companies get where they need to be.  For more info please call us to discuss further.

Doron Farber - The Farber Consulting Group

I started to develop custom software since 1985 while using dBase III from Aston Tate. From there I moved to FoxBase and to FoxPro and ended up working with Visual FoxPro until Microsoft stopped supporting that great engine. With the Visual FoxPro, I developed the VisualRep which is Report and Query Engine. We are also a dot net development company, and one of our projects is a web scrapping from different web sites. We are Alpha AnyWhere developers, and the Avis Car Rental company trusted us with their contract management software that we developed with the Alpha Five software Engine.

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