Access is a database program that is part of the Microsoft Office suite and provides a data management system within the Windows environment. Access is widely used in education due to its ease of use, which is why we will use it to implement the example database we introduced in this post. Before we begin, let's introduce our database software.

Microsoft Access

Access can be considered a DBMS, but it is a DBMS with limited functionality. If we analyze the characteristics of DBMSs, introduced in this post, we find limitations especially regarding:

• security mechanisms;
• transaction support;
• concurrency of access operations.

These features are implemented by Microsoft at a professional level in the SQL Server product.

However, Access has some special features that distinguish it for ease of use and therefore make it useful in some contexts, including education. Access features include:

1. The GUI, which allows you to define tables and create queries in a user-friendly way;

2. The presence of a single file to store the database and associated queries.

Access Table Structure

Before looking at our database design example, it's helpful to define the data types that can be used for attributes within an Access table. The most common data types are listed in the table below.

Example of Conceptual and Logical Design

The database to be designed, relating to tenders and competitors, has been analyzed in this post. To create it on your computer, simply follow the step-by-step explanation in the Access video tutorial linked below.