[rrrrrrrrrrrryan]

Getting rid of lousy Excel-driven processes is a big part of my current job. SQL only solves half the problem, though: Excel is also a tool for manual data-input and manipulation. To solve this piece you often need to create CRUD webapps, which can be much more complex to develop and maintain than some SQL in the database.

[CRConrad]

> To solve this piece you often need to create CRUD webapps, which can be much more complex to develop and maintain than some SQL in the database.

Why do they need to be webapps? If you've done it with Excel so far, you're obviously on a LAN, so why not traditional client/server native apps?

[PeterisP]

Deployment and authentication is going to be a problem, but the big thing is that in many such environments users would simply not be able to execute your native client app on their controlled workstation by default. But for most software teams nowadays creating a CRUD webapp is simpler and cheaper than traditional client/server native apps; I've seen major companies maintain their existing client/server native apps but whenever they have the choice (e.g. greenfield development), they'd rather not have a native app because, frankly, there's no good reason to do so as the maintenance is much simpler if you don't have to worry about the deployed client instances.