Access questions?

[gbrataas]

Ok so i'm working a help desk job and have about 150 computers to service. The company is not willing to purchase Track-It or any help desk managing software. Users just swing by my desk, call, email, leave notes on my car. Its pret ridiculous so i thought maybe a access database would be a good solution?
I've never used access before but i would like to get started. I want to be able to have a form on a shared drive that they can click, enter in their info(name, location, ph#, problem) and hit submit and i can just pull up a list of all the trouble tickets. How hard is this to do?? any one have any suggestions for tutorials or osme thing to get me started?

this is my feeble attempt at the layout. all i have done is made a form the way i would like to to look.

http://gbrataas.googlepages.com/db1.mdb

also is access the right program to be using? i would like them to just pull up that form and hit submit, not have the entire database open so it doens't get messed with?

any input would be great.

 

[Eupher]

gbrataas,

Your company is not willing to purchase help desk case tracking software, but they are willing to pay *you* to learn Access from the ground up and design, code, test, and debug your own custom solution? Might be good for you, 'cause ultimately maybe you could add MCDBA certification to your resume - but I think it will not be at all cost effective for your company. I think a better tactic might be to demonstrate to your superiors the *real cost*of doing it yourself (i.e. your salary multiplied by the hundreds of hours it will take you to master Access, then design and implement a workable solution), and show them how much cheaper it would be to just buy the software you need. And you can have it *now*, instead of months down the road.

Sometimes a custom solution is the only way to go - but not when an off-the-shelf product exists that will do the job. It's almost never cheaper in the long run to build it yourself.

HTH,

Ken S.