[AccessD] Access Development Future

[David Emerson]

Currently I am in Adelaide (having moved 3 years ago to be closer to grandchildren). Current clients are all from NZ so I can service both countries.

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD <accessd-bounces+newsgrps=dalyn.co.nz at databaseadvisors.com> On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
Sent: Monday, 26 October 2026 12:53 pm
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access Development Future

Are you living in a big city where there might be a local market for your skills?

r

On Sun, Oct 25, 2026 at 6:07 PM David Emerson <newsgrps at dalyn.co.nz> wrote:

> Hi Rocky,
>
> I am definitely in the "years" category rather than "decades".
>
> I figure that it is the huge installed base that are the ones that are 
> more likely to be needing support than new applications from scratch. 
> The trick is letting them know we are still around.
>
> David
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AccessD 
> <accessd-bounces+newsgrps=dalyn.co.nz at databaseadvisors.com>
> On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
> Sent: Monday, 26 October 2026 11:02 am
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving < 
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access Development Future
>
> David: Nice to hear from you.
>
> I'm still doing sporadic work for a few legacy customers. It's fun. 
> But it's not a living. Well, that's because I started to wind my 
> business down many years ago. Simply did not P.R. or advertising. And 
> the clients mostly went away. And I'm retired and those few extra 
> bucks are not going to change our lifestyle.
>
> I have heard (and I believe) that there is a huge installed base of 
> Access apps, and they'll all need support from time to time. You don't 
> need 99% of that market - just enough to keep you and the bank happy.
>
> Access and VBA is an obsolete technology. But so is COBOL and during 
> the Y2K "crisis" they were bringing retired COBOL programmers in to 
> update the apps.
>
> But a new business of any size is probably not going to have an app 
> written from scratch like I used to do - they're going to want it in 
> something that can port to the web easily (or start there).
>
> I don't know who old you are or how close to retirement you are or how 
> close to being ready for that. But if you've got a time horizon in 
> decades instead of years, you might want to think about taking your 
> database and UI designing skills to a more moderne platform.
>
> Let's see what others on AccessD think (if there are others :--) )
>
>  Best,
>
> r
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 25, 2026 at 2:26 PM David Emerson <newsgrps at dalyn.co.nz>
> wrote:
>
> > Greetings Listers,
> >
> > All has been quiet on the Access front.
> >
> > I am interested on how many of us are still supporting Access
> applications?
> > Has AI made a major difference to existing client databases or is 
> > there still a niche for our work in smaller businesses that don't 
> > have the funds to take advantage of the latest technologies?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > David Emerson
> > Dalyn Software Ltd
> > Adelaide, Australia
>
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