July 2010

For Microsoft Access, SQL Server,
Visual Studio .NET, and VB6 Professionals
 

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are enjoying July. It's been a hot, hot summer here in Virginia. A big difference from our snowy winter.

Over the past few months, we've seen momentous changes with Microsoft. They've released Office 2010 and we're actively upgrading our Access/Office products to support it. As part of the new Office/Access 2010, they've introduced native 64 bit support plus Access integration with SharePoint 2010, to allow limited distribution of Access databases to the web. Read more in my blog.

Microsoft has also released Microsoft Azure and is making a big push for cloud computing. We're very excited about this and have been working with Azure to integrate the Windows desktop to the cloud. We will soon release our first public cloud solution: EzUpData. Read more about it below, and sign up to become a beta tester and check out the two papers describing our vision and experience using it.

I spent the 4th of July watching the fireworks in DC next to the Lincoln Memorial. It's always a wonderful experience to do that beyond the basic fun of watching large explosions. Over the past few months, I've had the fortune of participating in our democracy much more than usual.

As you'll see below, I've been appointed on a technology board for our county to represent our public school system. Late last month, I also participated in a one day lobbying effort on Capitol Hill as part of the Association for Competitive Technology meeting Senators, Congressmen, and their aides. I don't know how much of an impact we had, but I'm hopeful we've communicated how some of their well intentioned actions could negatively impact the interests and job creation capabilities of small businesses. For more information, read my blog on my experiences.

All the best,

Luke Chung
President

Contents

• Introducing EzUpData: Privately Share Your Files Over the Web
• Microsoft Azure and Cloud Computing
• Linking Microsoft Access Databases to SQL Azure Databases in the Cloud
• Total Access Statistics Preview for Microsoft Access 2010
• Paper: Reporting for Startup and Ecommerce Companies
• Microsoft Access Tip: Problems Converting a Database from ACCDB to MDB
• FMS President Appointed to Fairfax County IT Policy Advisory Committee
• FMS Receives Microsoft Gold Certified Status for the 9th Year in a Row

Introducing EzUpData: Privately Share Your Files Over the Web

We are delighted to introduce a revolutionary and economical new capability for Microsoft Access users and developers: EzUpData 

EzUpData is our first software as a service (SaaS). It lets you easily create a web site for your contacts to log in and see the files you've published for them.

Directly from Microsoft Access or Excel, you'll be able to distribute files, data, and reports to each of your contacts over the web. Rather than creating your own web site to host the files or sending files via email and having your contacts search their inbox for them, you can post them to your privately branded EzUpData web site so they always have a place to find them. You can even specify publish and expiration dates so files are available and disappear when you want.

For instance, from Access, you can take an invoice report and create a web site that each of your customers can visit to see only their invoices as PDF files. Whether it's for internal or external contacts, EzUpData makes it truly easy to publish files and minimize the need to send files via email. Built on Microsoft Azure, EzUpData offers tremendous scalability and security.

EzUpData is currently in its final phases of development, and we invite you to sign up as a beta tester. Visit the EzUpData site to learn more about it and try our live Northwind account.

Microsoft Azure and Cloud Computing

We at FMS are very excited about cloud computing and started developing solutions using Microsoft Azure including SQL Azure well before it was released to the general public. I feel cloud computing represents the next big platform change in the software industry and the most significant transformation since the introduction of the Internet in the mid-1990's. This will be massive. Not that it's a perfect solution as I'll describe later, but because there are so many advantages to cloud computing and so many hassles to what people are currently doing today.

Linking Microsoft Access Databases to SQL Azure Databases in the Cloud

Cloud computing will be a huge benefit to the information worker and Microsoft Access community. Instead of worrying about the hardware and deployment issues around applications, one can focus on building the solution and using the enterprise quality cloud platforms which previously didn't exist or were prohibitively expensive and difficult to use.

With Microsoft SQL Azure, Microsoft will host SQL Server databases in the cloud. With SQL Server 2008 R2, you can link your Microsoft Access databases (Access 2007 and 2010) to them. Learn how to do it in our new paper on Microsoft Access and Cloud Computing with SQL Azure Databases (Linking to SQL Server Tables in the Cloud)

Total Access Statistics 2010 Preview Version for Microsoft Access 2010

Total Access Statistics is the most powerful number crunching program designed specifically for Microsoft Access. It extends the data analysis capabilities of Access queries to let you perform advanced numerical analysis on your data. Use any Access table, linked table, or query to perform calculations such as percentiles, regressions, frequency distributions, t-Tests, correlations, non-parametrics, rankings, moving averages, etc. It can also perform data normalization and let you select random records. As you would expect in a query, you can specify Group By fields so analysis is performed on each set of records with identical group fields. Running within Access as an add-in, it supports ACCDB, MDB, and ADP databases and generates its output in tables.

We are pleased to announce the availability of the preview version of Total Access Statistics for Microsoft Access 2010. In addition to supporting Access 2010, we've added financial calculations for cash flows. It now calculates net present value (NPV), present value (PV), future value (FV), internal rate of return (IRR), and modified internal rates of return (MIRR).

The FREE preview is available for both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Access 2010 and is functional through September 1. It includes both the interactive wizard that runs as an add-in, plus the programmatic VBA library so you can embed statistical analysis in your applications. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Paper: Reporting for Startup and Ecommerce Companies

FMS president Luke Chung participated on a panel discussion at the Digital Capital Week conference held in Washington, DC in June.

Luke spoke in a session on Accounting and Technology for Ecommerce and Startup Companies about maximizing the value of data analysis and reporting. He also discussed how to support the natural evolution of high growth businesses. Here is a summary of some of the financial reporting and system concepts that were discussed in Financial Reporting for Startup and Ecommerce Organizations.

Microsoft Access Tip: Problems Converting a Database in Access 2007 from ACCDB to MDB

From Access 2007, you may want to convert an Access ACCDB database to a legacy MDB format. You may have done it several times before but all of a sudden, you get this message:

It turns out this occurs if the database was opened with Microsoft Access 2010.

Learn more about the issue and workaround here: You cannot save this database in an earlier version format, because it uses features that require the current file format

Luke Chung Appointed to Fairfax County, Virginia's Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee

Approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, FMS president Luke Chung is serving on the county's Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee (ITPAC) to advise the county's board and CTO on the future direction of information technology investments. Having served several years on a business and community advisory committee for the superintendent of public schools, Luke is representing the school board on this committee. "It's an honor to serve on this board to help our county and it's 1,000,000+ residents maximize the use of technology to improve services, safety, education, and good governances while minimizing overall costs," said Luke Chung. "Over the years, Fairfax County has established itself as a state and national leader through solid business growth and high quality public education. With constrained budgets, I expect we will continue that tradition through the smart application of technology."

FMS Development Team Receives Microsoft Gold Certified Status for the 9th Year in a Row

We are pleased our development team has once again received Microsoft's highest recognition for its partners. We have a long track record of our certified professionals (all located at our Tysons Corner, VA office) delivering great solutions to our clients. This year, Microsoft added extra requirements with independently verified customer references for our products and services. We're pleased that our customer satisfaction scores placed us in the top category.

We have attained certified competencies in three categories:

• Software Development
• Web Development
• Independent Software Vendor (ISV).

Our team of expert technologists and business analysts continually hone their skills to maximize the impact of the technology they bring to you. Learn more about how we can help you by visiting our Microsoft consulting site.

Thank you for your continued interest in FMS, Inc.