Moving Away from MS Access

Brian_Hayes 

Sorry you feel that way! I can assure you that the intent of my reply was indeed to present options and insight.  With limited context it is often hard to tell at what phase a questioner may be at in their quest for information.

So, with limited context, questioners get advice that may go well beyond what they are looking for!  Kind of like sitting at dinner with cranky grand parent and you ask that one simple question, "Would you like your lemonade refilled?" .... and two hours later, you still don't have the question answered with the specifics you want, but you decide to refill their lemonade anyway as you listened about the days kids made lemonade from hand picked lemons on the corner and ate blueberries right out of the bushes on old man Johnsons farm.

I do hope you are able to address the needs you have.  We have found that PowerBI is addressing the role Access used to fill with respect to analysis and reporting.  SQL Server has replaced the use of Access as a repository. However, we have not been able to eliminate Access for its other uses, and at this point we likely won't as the sentiment toward Access has changed since we have implemented PowerBI and mandated all data be stored in a SQL Server repository.

Just because you don't like the "answers" doesn't mean they are wrong.
Lets take a simple example.
Some years ago i read a book about migration of a Simple Access Application to a Web equivalent (ASP.NET i think i can't remember) .
It was around 300- 400 pages where the author took step by step the whole procedure from migrating the tables to SQL using Entity framework, designing the web "forms",the reports and so on...the surprising fact was the Access was a simple few forms - few reports application nothing heavy by any means...just a simple just over the beginner level template ...yet it took its effort ...it took its time...
SO yes you can move away from Access any time and there are great alternative...you want desktop ..then .NET or Java fills the blank perfectly ..you want web ..even better PHP/JS/.NET and a ton of frameworks are here to help for the UI...for the BE is much "easier"..just make a pick MSSQL/MySQL/Oracle/IBM/Firebird ...there are just too many options.....either paid or free.....
Some years ago my boss was discussing the transferring of the BE of a huge Access application to SQL...i replied NP...just "close" the IT department for 1 year ( i was the only "real" developer and i was also the system administrator)...let me transfer the table/queries and then optimize the whole application in order to use SQL efficiently...of course he denied ..saying that i was exaggerating and others have done it just by using one of the utilities that are in the "market" ...and its so "simple...we just migrate and we fix problems as they pop up".....i refused to take this lonely road.the whole idea along with the proposed planning was dumped...a few years ago i left the company...till today they are using Access and unless something magical pops up they will do for the next 20 years for sure.

So as i said in my previous "you didn't liked" post...nothing is holding you back ...the word "impossible" simply doesn't apply in these cases... if you are the manager you just have to train/enhance your team to do the job...if you are the boss you just have to hire some people to do the job...if you are the developer/administrator you just need to calculate your extra hours you are going to cost to your company to take such a task .....so as i said is all about money...either in explicit or implicit form but is money ....if you are not ready to spend/charge or whatever simply you will come back here or in another "friendlier" forum and find out the same fundamental truth.

Brian_Hayes 

I don't actually see anyone saying it is wrong to move away from Access. If anything, we're saying that doing so out of antipathy for Access is probably short-sighted. Access fills a niche that is really hard to fill otherwise.

Note that several alternatives have been suggested, including PowerApps, PowerBI, and SQL Server. I even suggested there are non-Windows approaches involving web-browser based technology.

I did succumb to the temptation to point out that asking Access developers what they should choose instead is kind of ironic. "I know you've been driving Fords for thirty years, but what do you wish you had been driving instead." "I know you like ice cream for desert, but what kind of cake should you be serving instead." See the similarity? If the question had been directed at FORMER Access developers, and had been phrased as "what kinds of advantages did you gain from choosing a different platform?" it wouldn't even have come up.