Ben,

The 'bumble' might help but I can't find it.

When you say 'better' .. what exactly do you mean ?

There are infinite ways to interact with SQL Server and each solution really need to be judged in it's own context.

What exactly are you trying to achieve ?

What are your struggles with your existing solution ?

What technical resources do you have at your disposal (programing languages/platforms skills etc )

Let's put some flesh onto the problem and see what happens ...