Free Database?

Fittle

I'm looking for a free downloadable database to use in work. I have Microsoft Access, but am not finding it very useful for the job I need to do.
Basically, I have a list of 'clients' - about 100 - who contact us regularly - I'd like to input their information and update their file each time I have contact with them. I used a medical database previously (clinical manager) and I'm looking for something similar. Any ideas??
Thanks for reading

croo

Well there are lots of Open Source databases but from the little you've said I don't think it's necessarily a database you are looking for but rather an application to manage clients for a medical practise.. or not?

If not and you really want a database, there is an Access like application in Libre Office but since you don't like Access perhaps something else. There is the very powerful PostgreSQL and the very popular MySql. Apache's Derby is a nice "light" database that can be easily embedded into java applications.

If you do want an application rather than a database per se...
Well then there are lots more questions. Like for starters... Will there be just one user? Or an office of people? Do you require remote access? If so a web based app might be useful. Is it a particular type of medical office?

The best place to find open source applications is on www.sourceforge.net but there are literally 100s of 1000s of applications there so it helps to know a little more when searching!

Fittle

Ok thanks - I didn't realise I'd need so much more information sorry - I've been using various databases for years, but they've always been in place in any job I've worked in.
This particular one is not for medical clients.

I work in the voluntary sector and we are trying to create a 'tighter' system when our clients contact us - currently, I use excel and type in the topic of the phonecall, date, time, etc - Each client has it's own excel page but to gather any sort of information (for example, the average age group of our clients), I have to click on each page and create another page of info. This worked well when we were starting, but as we have grown, I've realised we need a application or database (I'm not great on the terminology, sorry!). I would be the one updating and one other person would need to be able to see it (we have a shared drive, so something I could save there would be good), but not necessarily update it. And I'd need to get stats from it quite easy, if possible. Remote access isn't required either, thanks.
Does that help much?

croo

OK so it's definitely an application (using a database) rather than a database per se.

And some sort of crm or helpdesk application.

There are many open source helpdesk apps but most are web based not standalone. Of course it is possible to install the webserver & database the application would use locally but I think we need something real simple and off hand I don't know anything that fits... I'll do a little googling tomorrow to see if I see anything. Or perhaps someone here has something in mind or even better experience of something that fits the needs?

Are you a registered charity? Because many firms provide free software/services to charities so it might widen the possibilities.

Fittle

We are a registered charity, yes. Thanks alot for this - I've been searching for something for a long time, but I'm not very tech-savy - I've used databases most of my working life, but wouldn't have a clue how to source anything. Thanks again:)

croo

Hi again...
I've had a look around and I found a lot of open source helpdesk/CRM type apps, which is no surprise, but most are using web based technology.

Now, that doesn't mean it has to be on the internet but it does mean you access the application via your web browser. This makes sense for these types of apps because it is rarely 1 person dealing with calls & issues; so to be able to share the data is required. And, being a web app means maintenance on the individual computers using it is easy because they just need a web browser and all computers have that by default now!

The problem I see with all these apps is they require the installation of; a webserver, database & usually the php programming language.

Now there are tools out there to ease this burden.. primarily a app called XAMPP http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
which will install all the server type applications I mentioned above. You might install these on your own machine for you to access or if you had a network in the charity's office with any old spare machine you might install the server apps there and then everyone in th office could access the apps via their browsers!

Now after saying all that...
The apps I found were more helpdesk/Customer Management apps like
vTigerCRM (which I've used myself and founds easy to use).
You can see a demo here
http://demo.vtiger.com/index.php?action=Login&module=Users
Click on the "support manager" role and then click the "sign in" button (Just double check the language is English! Others around the world will be using this demo too so you never know).

There will be references to purchase & sales info you are not interested in and this can be removed. But for the demo just ignore it.

What you are interested in is in the "Support" submenu in the bar.
Contacts; Calendars; Tickets.
Calendars include Events ... so when a contact calls you add an event of type call and this would be added to the calendar. Tickets allow you to track issues; take notes and add events.

It strikes me as I write this that if you wanted such functionality in a standalone app then something like outlook would provide all that!
If you don't have outlook there are open source equivalents in thunderbird with the "lightning" plugin!!

Anyway... in my search I came across another application I thought might be of interest to you. It's called OpenPetra and is a management app aimed at charities. Again open source so no cost involved. I have no experience of this app but I read on their site it can be installed standalone or on a server. So that seems to meet your needs. Have a look around their website and see how it fits. It seems to be aimed more at the management of donations!?
http://www.openpetra.org/

There is one other option I considered and looked at;
Google provide a service called "Google Apps" - it effectively provides private email & document sharing for businesses. But once registered (for a monthly fee) you can buy additional "Apps" from their market place. One of the main Customer Management type apps there is InSightly and they provide free use to Non-Profit orgs. Now Google also offer this service to Non-Profit but when I looked closer it was only orgs registered in the US as Non-Profit so that would seem to rule you out. But given google is based in Dublin perhaps there is a chance they might be persuaded to offer the same to Irish Charities!

With free access to Google Apps then you could look into getting a free version of InSightly
https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=3956+15797827514936543044&category=Customer+Management&query=

The big benefit of this approach is there is absolutely no systems to manage from your perspective! Even just the Google Apps might be useful!? You would get emails as name@yourCharity.com - plus a place for creating and sharing documents and also a shared calendar. Again from a web browser and in this case as it is hosted by google (it would be private though!) it could be access from anywhere so long as you had the correct login credentials.

Anyway I hope all that was not too technical and helps you find something.


PS. vTigerCRM is not the only such app it's just 1 of many such apps but one I've used before myself. They're a;ll very similar so I thought its demo might be a good guide as to if that is the type of thing you needed?