Mertel Insurance is implementing a Microsoft^® SQL Server^® database that will track customer information, policy information, and transaction histories. Sales representatives need to access customer information to better serve their clients. Claims representatives must access policy information to determine coverage. Supervisors would like to access transaction histories to monitor employee performance. Compliance officers often must gather different and varied information for various regulatory agencies. Mertel executives want to monitor key metrics stored in the database to gauge company performance.

What methods do you recommend that Mertel Insurance use to retrieve information from its databases? Should all users be responsible for conducting Microsoft^® SQL Server^® queries as needed? Is a custom application the right solution? Or, should a team of analysts be in charge of running reports and distributing the information? Will the same approach work for all the users? Defend your recommendation.