Web app administration console

We have a web app that has so far been used by a single organization. We would now like to provide it as a service to more customers.

An administration system is now needed, to manage the setup for new customers.

I believe I have the app itself pretty much covered (that is, I can see what features need to be made customizable, etc) — I'm more c开发者_StackOverflowoncerned with back-end stuff for our own use, to quickly identify problems, and be able to easily offer support for common problems (whatever they might be).

Would very much appreciate hearing about any related experiences.

Basic/example features:

• signup (creates new account, sends activation email, etc)
• track billing status
• log login problems
• usage stats

You seem to have the obvious bases covered - @Stellaire's additions included. Billing/renewal, client login for feature additions/removals, usage logs, signups, etc. - I think you've pretty much got the boilerplate set of admin tools covered. --- a user forum or bug-tracking-type forum may benefit you AND your customers (at least they'll be able to see you're addressing various issues, etc.)

Your customers are going to be your best (and most profitable) source for a conclusive answer.

Before pushing it out into the wild, do some research with an organization (or 3) that you believe will be your bread-n-butter demographic. Things are sure to change when a variety of people/business models start using your product. You may get lucky right out of the gate. Or your app may seem lame in your new customer's eyes - as what IS missing is critical for whatever reason THEY deem.

Not knowing what the app does, makes it hard to say what you're going to need (or wish you had) until you've got some real client feedback. Huge difference between enterprise calendar/planning software versus a project management application.

• If your web app has any access control feature, then I think it would be good to include a role management and user access control module along with the account management module.
• If your billing module makes use of any constant values or factors (like tax or exchange rates or something like that) you could also have a module that would allow maintenance of such changeable values, since other organizations may be using different values.

Since you're porting your web app from catering to a specific organization into an SAAS app, I think you could just start with identifying which parts of your app are specifically or statically set and creating a way to make it customizable for use in other organizations.

I've been developing web applications for 13 years. The most common immediate administrative requirements that my clients have asked for have been:

1. Content Management:

Businesses do not want to wait on a developer to make simple updates to their web application content. They don't want to pay recurring maintenance fees or have to waste the time and effort on communication. This will also save you a lot of time, because you won't have to interrupt your larger tasks with menial web page updates. Also, people who don't develop think its really cool when they get to edit their web page with a WYSIWYG interface that looks like the Desktop office applications they use everyday.

2. File Uploading and Easy Linking:

Whatever CMS you implement should be equipped to allow easy uploading of files, and insertion of links to the files and images on the pages. A lot of businesses have PDF documents that need to be made available to their clients and business associates.

3. Contact Forms and Email Lists:

This is the minimum requirement for user interaction. Businesses want to engage interested clients, because that's how they make money. It should always be very easy for clients to initialize correspondence from the website. In addition, automated email responses can provide some leeway with regards to their responsiveness, so they will appreciate this functionality as well. Finally, I have been asked countless times for newsletter/mailing-list type functionality. When businesses get a new product or are introducing a special bargain to drive sales, they want to tell everyone about it. The ability to manage user groups that receive newsletters and automatically send out email will definitely come up sooner than later.

4. Social Media Integration:

Facebook has over half a billion users. Businesses want their money. This requirement follows the same principle as the previous: Anything that makes it easier for businesses to engage their existing clients and potential customers will add value to your product.

The list could continue for quite a while, but these are the most common areas. User management is also a big one, and you did mention it, but one note I would like to add is that a web application will often need to be restricted. It would be helpful to integrate some sort of role management functionality up front, that allows the website administrators to specify what groups of people can do what and go where. I've also found the need to create password protected pages on top of an existing membership infrastructure, so is this something you should take into account when you are working in this area.

The question was a little unclear as to what your application intends to do, but all of the points I have listed here are pretty generic and universally applicable. I hope this helps.

One more VERY IMPORTANT point:

When you are implementing generic administrative functionality, you can be assured that someone has done it before. Nowadays, you can be assured that a lot of people have done it before, and you have a very good chance that someone has done it before and made it open source. So, I highly suggest that you do some research on the open source solutions for whatever functionalities you decide to integrate into your app. It might save you a whole lot of time.