We have a business unit that gave up on IT writing mobile apps for them.<p>So they made an Access app with giant buttons that would run on vdi. They figured out how to automate 4-5 key business functions on iPad, which saves them a ton of time in the field.<p>The brass found out about it, and has spent $400k writing a "proper" replacement, but have been 75% complete for 3 months.
I'm doing QA on a replacement for a VB6 / Access application for a large and slow-moving utility company. Funny thing is that the consultants building the app on the hot, super-awesome BPM platform move at the same pace, and each build includes more bugs and fewer new features to test than the last.
I've been working with several applications that are Access-based in one way or another. Most of these apps are "ancient". Some of my job is to migrate these apps to modern solutions, but a lot of that depends on project budgets.
We converted an Access front-end connected to a SQL Server instance and rebuilt the front-end with Rails to have a internal website for data entry and Tableau to automate reports. Highly recommend.