scale database systems are reviewed by D.C. Hayes and J.E. Hunton in the Journal of Accountancy, January 1999, pp. 61-69. These are useful for small business and small departments within large businesses. Sometimes it is easier to build a small database system than to fool with a large system to handle smaller jobs. Smaller-scale database software packages include the following: Microsoft Access at http://www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/332_ov.htm
For MS Access helper links see http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5342/helpers1.htm#Access Inprise Paradox at http://www.inprise.com/paradox/
Lotus Approach at http://www.lotus.com/
Microsoft Visual FoxPro http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/ Microsoft is promising a greatly improved MS Access that will probably take over the smaller-scale database market like Excel took over the spreadsheet market. One advantage of MS Access is the way it integrates with other MS Office programs such as Excel.
Networked databases are exploding in popularity across the Internet. For a review, see http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/circuits/articles/18bots.html . Microsoft is promoting ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). The following is a quotation from http://www.microsoft.com/data/ado/prodinfo.htm :