Savvy companies actually encourage departments to do development of new projects in Access.
To flesh out on Pats comment, and there's not really any need to, she's got it in a nutshell. But I think there's an important issue with people's perception of Microsoft Access which Luke Chung tackled very well. I was fortunate to see him do a presentation at the Microsoft campus, Reading, Berkshire, UK, I believe in 2010. I reckon this is an excellent summary of what he said:-
Microsoft Access within an Organization's Overall Database Strategy
To Quote Luke:- "Databases evolve over time. Access cannot and was never designed to solve every database problem. What it does offer is a great, cost-effective, and quick solution for a wide range of common database challenges in Windows."
And one of the main takeaways I got from Luke's presentation was that IT departments hate MS Access most probably because someone comes up with a poorly designed Access database for their office or department which works and does the job. Upper management like it but want it upgraded at some stage. Management expects the IT department to sort it out. This causes the IT department a headache. Instead of calling in experts to help sort it out, they just say no we don't want MS Access, it's unsafe, this is wrong, that's wrong. (It's just as safe as your Excel and Word documents... To qualify this is me not Luke)...
This is a copy of Luke Chungs PowerPoint presentation (Saved as a Google Presentation) from the Microsoft Reading Campus presentation:-
Where Access Fits in the Overall Database Strategy of an Organization
MS Access is absolutely brilliant at what it does. Seeing as many people move from Excel to MS Access, it's important to understand the differences between MS Access and Excel, differences which if not addressed early on in your development WILL cause you a big headache at some stage. I blogged about it here:-
http://www.niftyaccess.com/excel-in-access/