It’s not uncommon for business owners to feel trapped by the software they rely on. Maybe it’s a system they’ve had in place for years and no longer meets their needs or maybe they’re stuck because they haven’t been able to find a better option.

Whatever the case, it’s stressful and frustrating. Software should enable your business, not pin it in. Last year we were able to help our client, TBS Factoring, break free of the limits of their legacy software and start feeling more hopeful about the future.

Outgrowing Access

Microsoft Access is a good database product for small projects, but it was never meant to be used for line-of-business applications, regardless of how Microsoft sometimes pitches it. Unfortunately, many businesses rely on Access because it was often the only “easy” solution available to them at the time.

Years later, they find themselves fighting with the limitations of Access: sluggish performance as their data grows, limits to multi-user access, and poor reporting being some of the biggest complaints.

TBS Factoring was one these businesses. As their business grew, Access failed to keep up with their needs. They stuck with Access as long as they could because they knew how important data was to their business, but it was no longer a good fit.

So they called us looking for a better path forward.

Enabling success

Aside from performance issues, TBS Factoring needed a better view of their data. Custom exports to Excel just weren’t cutting it. In order to give them the reporting and visibility they needed to make business decisions, we presented them with an Oracle APEX-based solution.

Although Oracle is well known within the enterprise sector, it’s a less familiar name to small-to-medium business owners. But after looking at example applications and some case studies, TBS Factoring was on-board—“This is the solution for us.”

We used APEX to create an easy-to-use, web-based front end that provided quick access to their data and gave TBS access to powerful reporting dashboards. The new dashboards gave them new insight into their collections process, enabling better, more-informed decisions to improve their business.

The new application is much faster than Access and can scale with the business as it grows, because an Oracle database is being used on the back end—the same technology used by Fortune 500-sized companies, scaled down to fit TBS Factoring’s needs and budget.

Are you tired of fighting with Access?

If your business has outgrown Access or you’re still fighting with a legacy database like Fox Pro, we may be able to help. Gives us a call or e-mail and we can talk through the challenges your business is facing to determine if Oracle and LSG would be a good fit for your business.