title: End User Ad-Hoc Reporting Tool: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio or Microsoft Access?
body: <p>Our centralized IT department has suggested two primary ad hoc query tools for our general user base of approximately 200 staff members: </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2008 (SSMS)</p></li>
  <li><p>Microsoft Access 2003</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>Environment</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>The backend database is a read-only Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database. </p></li>
  <li><p>The schema is 400+ tables; allowing access to the raw data for our general staff would be a disaster. </p></li>
  <li><p>We will be building an "abstraction layer" over the raw data for our general staff to run ad hoc queries against.</p></li>
  <li><p>The abstraction layer will most likely contain a number of views.</p></li>
  <li><p>A number of users have basic knowledge in Microsoft Access; none have used SSMS.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Which of the above tools (or alternative) would be best for a decidedly <strong>non-techie</strong> user base of approximately 200 people? What are the pros and cons of each?</p>
  
  <p>Also, the IT department has suggested teaching people T-SQL so they may use SSMS. Is this reasonable?</p>