Maybe I'm late now, but I'm not so sure that leaving MS Office aside is a correct choice.

With a small amount of work you can customize Access to fit you needs exactly. In this way you will have no more and no less than what you need. Wether a specific application is better than an Excel list, I'm not so sure that, fully exploiting Office, you do not have already what you need.
I've seen a number of small business leveraging the suite with good results.