Net administrators here's where to show-off

[Dyngoe]

Hi Y'all,

I just got thrown into a mix of things that I really am not ready to handle. Luckily, I'm a quick learner, but not that quick. I need to impliment a new database incorporating existing contacts on Outlook and files on our server. I'm thinking about using Access, but that's relatively unimportant in the big picture. My question is simply, "IF you could design a database for client tracking through project management and follow-ups, how would you do it?" We have two existing servers, one for NAT and DNS and another for DHCP, Mail and active directory storage. Hope that is enough, now please give me your ideas. Thanks in advance.

As Always,
D

 

[IJump]

Have you looked at existing software? I think programs like Goldmine can import outlook contacts. That would make more sense to me instead of "reinventing the wheel". Unless you company wants to "save money" by having you use your time to develop a new contacts management database. An existing piece of software would have many more tracking and contact management features than you would be able to put into yours any time soon.

If the second is the case, good luck.
If the database is not going to be used extremely heavily, you could probably get away with using one of your servers, but I would recommend going with a new one if your existing servers already are taxed. Access is OK, but again, only if it is not going to be uses extremely hard. I would recommend looking to see if you can find an existing piece of software that would meet your needs and not be too expensive. That would make the transition much easier on you and your company, IMO.

 

[Cheetah8799]

If you are going to do it yourself, maybe use MySQL and create a good relational database. MySQL is free, and you can run the server on Linux. Of course you would have to learn how to use it, and how to write queries with SQL... You could also implement PHP and Apache so that you could create a website that displays the queries. Basically the important feature here is that it works very well, and it is FREE!

If you don't want to spend days and days installing and configuring your servers and then learning new programming languages, I would suggest finding a 3rd party application like IJump suggested.