Cross:

ROFLMAO.... It was their toy. they broke it..... Their problem....

I went through **** with users making their own databases and then, when it has a gig or so of data neatly separated into 5 different databases separated by year with new fields added and old fields renamed and 15 instances of "Last Seen Date" or something similar they would come to me asking me to consolidate it all into one thing and write a proper interface to access it and report from it..... I did it twice, (3-6 months of massaging data and testing it... ). At that point I made a simple edict.... If users create databases without the initial involvement of the IT department then it immediately becomes their responsibility to manage and maintain, the IT department will only advise them of their options.... It's funny, The IT department has created the database structure for every database since... life has been so much easier.

Might I suggest you tell them the same....