Let's suppose you've been tasked with a project that requires dealing with a significant amount of data. Perhaps you're analyzing changes in the demographics of patients using hospital services over the last three years, analyzing the results of your cost accounting system, or investigating various characteristics of bad debt claims. All of these would require working with large volumes of data that would tax the abilities of most spreadsheets. In your heart you know that you need a true database system to handle this data, but know that there is no way that you will get funding for a full copy of SQL Server.
Fortunately, Microsoft has felt your pain and created a solution to help you solve your problem. It's called Microsoft SQL Server Express, and it's a free download from the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/. It has most of the features of the full version of SQL Server, although it's limited to a total database size of 10 GB (which is still five times as big as databases that can be handled by Microsoft Access). It comes with the same management tools as the full version of SQL Server, so you can apply your existing database skills or learn new ones. This is the same version that's used "behind the scenes" for products such as Outlook's Business Contact Manager, and also for the free version of SharePoint. Although it's designed to be used on a server, it can run easily on a workstation running Vista or Windows 7. And there are 32 bit and 64 bit versions of it to allow you to you make the most effective use of your hardware and software. SQL Server Express is also a great training tool for financial analysts to start building their skills for dealing with large datasets.
With healthcare institutions becoming more complex and datasets getting larger, the ability to use true databases (rather than attempting to shoehorn lots of data into Excel) will be a critical skill. SQL Server Express allows financial analysts to build the skills even if their employer doesn't provide a database environment. Give it a try.
