About six years ago I had a similar task to fulfil. I had written a software suite for a customer who
distributes software to his customers, which are bookshops (Yes, they still exist today and some are
doing very well). The software included erp/crm/pos and all kinds of internet-communication.
They wanted a more stable database than native vfp and more unspecific "something newer".
Together with the customer I decided to use VS/vb.net with the SQL-express-db because it looked
like I could do everything I needed with it, I could use the express-version of MS-SQL without royalties and
I choose vb.net because I had some experience with vb5/6. Finally I found a fine framework called
strataframe which made the conversion a bit easier. But the main reason I did not use all the tools mentioned
in a lot of discussions here was that I wanted some tool which is used by a lot of people and where are
enough sources where I can get help.
Looking back it was a good decision, the only problem was/is that the framework isn't really up to date anymore.

Best regards

Thomas