Outlook, Excel or Access to mange contact details?

[davesp]

Hello, I am looking to create a customer contact details page and would like to get opinions on whether should utilize the custom forms in Outlook Contacts, create an Access data base or (the easiest) setup an Excell spreadsheet.

I am new to custom Outlook forms and Access, but have taught myself how to code VBA for Excell, so I have some background in developement, if you can call it that.

I am leaning toward Outlook Contacts.

Background: I have 50+ customers, and one or more contact for each, in Outlook, which is good if I want to send them an e-mail. But if I want to look at the contract expiration date, I need to pull the paper contract or logn on to a different system and grab that info. If I want to find out what system the customer is on, I have to open a spreadsheet or Access database to get that info. There will be around 25 different data fields that I want to populate and preferably display on screen in a nice neat formated form as well as be able to export it to a spreadsheet to print.

I would prefer to have all that info in one easy to get to place that is available to me anytime, anywhere. That is why I am leaning to Outlook as I can access via OWA anywhere there is an internet connect. I also need to be able to share that detail with my backup.

If I am successfull at this, then I would want to make it available for my peers in the company...

So my questions are; what is your opinion,, Outlook, Access or Excel and then what reference materials, books, self help websites, beginners guides, etc would you recommend.



Thank you all.