I dont know on which programming language you work to make the front end . But for both C# and VB.net the following webcast series of microsoft helps a lot about connecting data with VB or C# form in front end and sql server in back end.

this was quite helpful when I migrated to VB + SQl, rather than access.

http://www.msdnwebcastportal.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=5&tabid=24