I believe File Maker Pro will probably become a new standard if people ever figure out it exists.
FMP has all of same features / short comings of Access plus you can actually make a real client / server setup if you know what you're doing.
In a single file you can define your forms, reports, tables, etc. It is also cross platform and runs on Windows or Mac, and can be adapted to web based too. All by design.
Coming from the "real" SQL servers to File Maker Pro was really hard mentally but once I got the hang of it I found it was pretty amazing. Now as a database it's nothing special but as a database application development system that "normal" people can use it really shines.
If you PLAN on a network setup I would suggest taking the time to learn how to separate the storage database from the application database up front. Otherwise upgrades require you do lots of data export / import and that can take a while or be almost impossible if your tables change significantly.
I've built a call center application that automatically handled incoming phone number lookup and automatically dialed regular POTS phones using FMP on NT. That was about 6 years ago so I imagine it's improved since then.
