creating an Intranet

Well... Here goes.
We are currently using two systems in my co.
1 is goldmine, using it to track sales and our mailing lists.
2 is a custom application written in OMNIS 7 to record customer support calls and customer purchase history.

I'm pitching this idea to the boss.
we have 17000 current customers in the database and more as prospects and such in the sales database.

We're about to upgrade to a new server using Windows Server 2003.

I was thinking that since we have a new site written in PHP and all, We could create an intranet database in PHP or a like program which would allow us to eleminate the 2-programs and consolidate it into one database which can also be integrated into the web site.

A couple of questions.
1. should the new database require less desktop processsing power.
2. is the web-site integration be possible?
3. The liscensing would be cheaper than GoldMine and other apps (such as great-pains *caugh* plains)
...
anything else you think I haven't addressed?

Sounds like a good idea to me. There would be a substansial amount of work though thinking about the data structure and converting it. If you present it you may want to show how this overhaul will pay for itself over time.

1. It should since PHP does its processing on the server
2. I don't see why not
3. No clue, sorry
4. You would need a good sized server specifically for this database and you would have to make sure it's secure.
5. Plans for backups and all that jazz.

For clarity, you would create the database in a database like mySQL or msSQL or something, PHP is a serverside scripting language that allows you to access the database.

Good luck!

OK, I've decided to write the actual database and screens using access 2K
I believe this would allow our users to all be able to use the database, and work well under the new server coming in soon.

Unfortunently, I know just the basics of access and this project has been put on my shoulders. (strange considering it started out as a sugestion alone.)
So does anyone know of a good book out there for access database design? or would you reccomend a course / cert of some kind.

Be CAREFUL with security! Since you'll be interfacing your database with a public website, all sorts of security concerns will now emerge. Don't be one of those companies we hear about who lost the social security numbers and credit card information of 20,000 people due to botched security.

I would be very careful in considering what information is publicly accessible in this database, how the interfaces are made, how passwords and authentication are handled, etc. -- Paul

*edit* I don't know if I'd trust my security to MS Access. I'd look at the MySQL and PHP route mentioned above. At least as an open source alternative, it should be cheaper, and more importantly, given security fixes more frequently. But then again, I've never done something like this before. But if anything is clear, it is that companies with public internet interfaces need to take security very seriously. */edit*

Hi Tall_Dallas,

A couple of questions: how sensitive is the data? Access is inherently less secure than database servers, but it may suit your needs. Also, your choice may be limited based on how people are going to use the database. Access can actually do read-only access (for web apps) really well; but if concurrency and security are concerns, you'd need to up to a server of some kind, like MySQL or SQL Server.

Since you're likely going on a W2K3 Server platform have you considered doing app development in .NET?

Brian