advice on how to reduce duplication

[northernbeaver]

I am currently working with two client companies that work VERY close together. They want to modernize their operation and computerize their operation a bit. both companies share a lot of the same information. they share customer contact list,product lists, and supplier lists. Both companies will require the abiltiy to add/remove customers/suppliers/products Im running access 2003 in access 2000 mode. I have each of the above listed sections in their own database (5 backends at the moment)
In the end their will be two front ends; one for each company. can anyone think of a way for both companies to be able to add/remove customers/suppliers/products/ etc without duplicating forms? anytime you duplicate forms there is always room for error and I want to avoind it if possible. any ideas?

 

[DrSimon]

I've never tried this properly but how about a hyperlink?
I've just inserted a hyperlink on a form in one database to a form in another database and it worked. It looked pretty horrible the way I did it, but you might want to look at it.
Simon Rouse

 

[willir]

Beaverok

Well, it looks like you addressed the biggest issue of duplicate data by splitting up your backends. I assume both groups can access common data on the same table - correct?

Specifically, the customer data is on the one backend that is shared but each would have their billing info shared.

I actually run two sessions for Access for one of my applications because of security issues. A command button starts the second session.

You may consider a similar approach. Have the common front end in the same location as the common backend, and a command button kick off the compnay specific stuff. Yes, the end-user has to toggle between two sessions.

Another approach is tweak menus on-the-fly. The user logs on. Their logon account is used to determine which company the account belongs to. Then, using the by setting .Caption property, you tailor the menus for the end-user. ...And ensure data gets written to the correct table. From my perspective, this would be a lot work, and a bit dangerous.

Perhaps a variation would be to store the captions on a table. Each site has their own "site" table. Depending on which site table is loaded controls the captions. Less dangerous, and may give you what you are looking for.

Richard

 

[Dalain]

For me, we have a network that is accessable to all parties (16 I think all over the city), for example if the two companies A & B were able to share a network, then all you have to do is place BE that contain the common information in the shared drive. (they then would map the drive to have access) and any other information that is not shared can be place on another drive.

Then you can link the FE to the tables from the shared & nonshared sources. In this way Company A & B would have access to the shared info, but not to the other Company's other drive and you don't have to deal with replication issues.

There is the issue of setting up the network..., but if they share that much info, it may be worth it.

Hope this helps
Dalain