Hi I work for a small security company. We have a customer database which contains customer's details & alarm codes. This is currently stored in an excel spreadsheet (about 2000 lines) and works well for us.

What I need to do is make the info available remotely to people on the road answering alarm calls. They would preferably use a hand held device such as a smartphine or tablet so I figure access needs to be via browser .

Basically I need an interface where a user can enter all or part of customer name or address and get a list of entries meeting the criteria and then click on the right one to get more info. - Basic I know

The main criteria are :

1. Access must be simple and quick. People using it are non technical and in a hurry !
2. Access must be secure - for obvious reasons
3. Must be relatively cheap to implement.

Our current set up: Spread sheet resides on windows sbs server accessible over microsoft vpn. We currently don't use any macros for front end access. The small number of people using the data just open it and read it.

What we need is quick easy way to access certain data remotely.
My ISP could provide a MySql or SQL server DB for a reasonable cost and I was thinking of moving our excel DB one of these. The nxt problem is the front end. I have a reasonable knowledge of Relational DB and SQL but none of anything like ASP, PSP for designing a front end. I have read that it is possible to use an MS Access front end for an SQL server DB and was thinking of going this way. Basically I do not have time to learn ASP or PSP and would like a front end develoment tool to allow me to quickly & easily design a front end without too much coding.

I am also fairly proficient in VBA so could do a front end for excel but, as I said I feel that opening the full excel data base for every query will be too slow and limit us to windows devices for remote use. (was hoping to use a handheld android phone or tablet)
My question is - does this approach make sense. Any alternative suggestions would be most welcome or a push in the right direction.

Many thanks in advance for your help.