Да в 8м максе есть методы позволяюшие получить достут к BD через OLE интерфес
насколько удобен не знаю не смотрел
The following table lists OLE DB connection strings for several common data sources:
Data Source
---------------------
Microsoft Access
Microsoft SQL Server
Oracle
Microsoft Indexing Service
To provide for backward compatibility, the OLE DB Provider for ODBC supports ODBC connection string syntax. The following table lists commonly used ODBC connection strings:
Data Source Driver
Microsoft Access
SQL Server
Oracle
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel 97
Paradox
Text
Microsoft Visual FoxPro (with a database container)
Microsoft Visual FoxPro (without a database container)