Part of my new job has been to automate a few spreadsheets and joining data from separate systems. I'm much more comfortable working in ASP.NET, but I have a lot of background with MS Access so I don't mind at all. In fact its nice to "go back" a little and see how quickly you can do simple things in Access. You can set up tables, queries and forms in minutes. The built-in wizards make creating a basic form in a crunch very easy. The reporting component is extremely powerful. It has its limitations, of course, but with a little hacking you can get it to do that Gantt chart you needed or some crazy conditional formatting if you must. There haven't been many times where I"ve had to go outside of Access to build a report. Mostly roll-your-own type of things.

Its refreshing to jump into Access, create a couple tables or import data from Excel, run the form creation wizard and your done. You now have an easy way to navigate through your records and the ability to change the data within the form.  In ASP.NET you've got to jump through a few hoops to get to that point (SubSonic's wonders aside). Using Access for non-authenticated forms and reports in a pinch is a fantastic alternative to a full-blown ASP.NET application. Its unmatched in its RAD capabilities and most people in your office will already have it installed on their PC. 

Its refreshing to jump into Access, create a couple tables or import data from Excel, run the form creation wizard and your done.

There are many times when creating a web-based application just isn't possible so using Access to merge some data is the way I look to go in those cases. Most people are already familiar with the standard Access forms and reports so the learning curve is fairly low. Don't depend on Access as your backend for a many-user environment because you will be flirting with disaster, but that wasn't the reason Access came into being. Use it for what it was meant for. Rapid application developement, prototyping and reporting.