Many agencies must support field personnel who require local data access. Investigate a system's ability to copy subsets of data to roaming machines, then accept modifications back into the database. Tools from your database vendor are meant for use with the database and have obvious performance benefits you cannot ignore. The downside is that these tools probably only work with a single database. Third-party tools work with many databases and often excel at their particular task, providing more functionality.
Tools can simplify the creation and maintenance of databases.
Md. He uses Embarcadero Technologies Inc. tools for rapid development. Tools from companies such as Embarcadero Technologies can help you rapidly deploy database applications and manage database operation. Tools also ease report creation and analysis. Companies such as Cognos Corp. of Burlington, Mass., specialize in the analysis and reporting of data. Their products usually are more sophisticated than what you might find from a database vendor.