Let’s focus and try to imagine the following: you see two people who own two separate small shops in an average city.
One of the owners has been selling the exact same thing for years. The offer is supplemented with seasonal products and the typical process of ordering a new product is based on an analysis of shortages in the warehouse. The offer is tailored to a wide audience, because everyone can come to the store and buy the goods they are interested in. Customers remain rather anonymous, just random people passing through the store during opening hours. Promotions are usually organized for poorly rotating goods or those whose expiration date is just about to end - it is rather a normal thing that sometimes you order too much of something. Moreover customers usually choose this store because they have it on their way home, sometimes those regulars who have come for many years are rewarded by the owner with a smile or a moment of conversation.
The second seller, however, adopted a completely different method of performing his business. He perfectly knows the profiles of his customers, he is aware of who and when visits his shop. Is it located next to the school? So when it comes to the lunch break you can count on an average of 20 new customers, which is 18% of all incoming during the day. The remaining groups are employees of local offices (26%) arriving during lunch between 1 p.m. - 2 p.m., local residents returning from work after 5 p.m. (21%), elderly people also living in the area visiting mainly in the morning (16%). The rest of the group are 'random' customers. Here the goal is to transform them into regular customers. On the basis of these data, it is possible to estimate at what times the most desirable goods will be. Now you can estimate the promotional offer and change them every 2 hours under appropriate conditions. The loyalty of regular customers is rewarded. Taking into account all the above data, only then is the assortment ordered in the store - the offer is 100% tailored to the expectations of customers. The risk that something is missing or something is wasted is limited to the absolute minimum.
So the following question naturally arises. Which of the salespeople will attract more customers and thus achieve better sales results? And the answer is rather obvious. Nowadays, running a data-driven business is the only guarantee of success in selling both products and services.
Table of Contents:
1. So what exactly is 'data driven business'?
2. What is the Admin Panel in the app?
3. What is an admin dashboard?
4. How does the Admin Panel work?
5. What should an Admin Panel have?
6. How to add an Admin Panel to a website?
So what exactly is 'data driven business'?
Basically, it is basing your business, its processes and structures on the data collected during the activity. This allows for continuous improvement of solutions in the company and optimization of business processes. Data-driven intelligence provides a competitive advantage, since every decision is based on numbers, not feelings or intuition.
Your application administration panel allows you to change the visible part of the platform. But most of all it allows you to analyze figures, customer behavior or the effectiveness of your marketing activities. Only thanks to such an analysis you will be able to get to know your, often anonymous, customers as well as their habits and preferences!
What is the Admin Panel in the app?
Admin Panel is basically the core of most applications. Without it the content could not be in any way created. From this particular part the whole app may be managed. Of course it is also designed to help user-related functions, from providing insight into user behaviour to tracking transactions. The admin panel is not accessible for regular users of the app. Only being an admin or having permissions you can use it freely.
But what is important, you don’t always have to depend on developers in order to modify changes to your website or app for small modifications. You can easily create e.g. new posts, categories, tags, links and custom post types. It is also where theme files are changed, widgets are added, plugins are activated or updated and settings are changed.
Based on one of our projects for the Saudi Arabia shawarma restaurants network, you can observe how the product can be easily customized in order to become more and more user friendly. It is mostly achieved with the use of data analytics and based on all the tracking data connected with the usage of the app. The Admin Panel definitely brings a great value to that custom restaurants management system, enabling the Shawarmer owners to collect and analyze various kind of data regarding their business!
Find out more about Shawarmer App here!
What is an admin dashboard?
Admin dashboard is often mistaken with the admin panel. It may actually seem as the same thing, since one is the integral part of the other. Admin dashboard can be a crucial part of the admin panel, but both of them do not have to exist simultaneously. The mentioned dashboard is basically the front side of the admin panel. It provides rather the display of information. This information is actually more detailed than the regular user would need. It allows the admin to quickly access the state of the site and decide what actions need to be taken. Then there is the job of the admin panel where the actual steps can be taken.
Here’s the example of admin dashboard designed by us for one of our Partners:
How does the Admin Panel work?
Here we have to introduce some kind of distinction between the back-end of the app and the admin panel. Often the two concepts are mixed up and used incorrectly. The term application backend is used to describe code that is written on the server side of an application. That means that the backend as the important part of an app is responsible for data storage, security, and business logic. It can be considered as an integral but invisible part of the software. In contrast, the frontend of the application is the visible part of it, a visual display of the backend.
The administration panel, however, as mentioned before, is the part of the app allowing the administrator to manage its functionalities.
Let’s compare managing the application with driving a car. Most of us do it almost every day, but we never think about how it actually works. In this case the backend is the engine. It is invisible while we drive but without the engine our car will not even start. The other integral part of driving a car is the actual driver. From one spot he controls the whole machine using a driving wheel, breaks and other tools. In the app the driver is the administrator and all the tools he uses to ‘drive’ his app are placed in the admin panel.
When designing the panel, developers define what information can be sent from the backend to the admin panel and displayed to application administrators. Of course, it is worth making the scope of this data as wide as possible.
What should an Admin Panel have?
Of course we cannot say that all the possible features should be added to every existing admin panel. It is highly dependable on the specifications of your app. For sure the admin panel should answer all your business needs. Also should contain all the data you need to collect and also simply answer your users or send them some coupons if it is designed to do so. Moreover thanks to the possible integrations it allows you to easily check if the whole application works as it is supposed to.
And so for example when you build a social app the panel will need to control how frequently it is used, if your users are only one time visitors or use it actively. You will also probably need to have an option to block some users or harmful content. If the admin panel is optimally designed it may help you to save a lot of time and money. Most of the possible challenges may be predicted already during the development phase.
3 crucial questions for you!
- What you want to know?
- What you want to have access to edit?
- How do you want to react?
When you answer those, you already know what features your admin panel should have.
And here you can find 8 important features you may consider while customizing your Admin Panel in order to significantly facilitate running your business:
#1 Built-in CRM
Customer Relationship Manager is a system that allows you to manage, optimize and automate processes related to servicing your clients. This functionality is very important in order to allow you to easily manage the user base, view the history of their orders and preferences. It just enables the collection of data on the sale of your products or services. The most sophisticated CRM solutions allow you to automate marketing activities and personalize communication with the user.
Above you can see an example of the CRM module implemented in one of our fintech apps - CostTracker.
You can read more about this project here!
#2 Messaging module
Would you like to have a chance to send personalized messages or newsletter with the newest special offers directly to users of your app? This possibility might be given to you by the communication module organizing all the processes of information exchange with your clients. It not only enables you to provide faster services in the mean of tech support, but also allows you to inform registered users about new products on your platform by means of a newsletter or push notifications on mobile devices.
Speaking about newsletters - did you know that once in two weeks we send our own? You can sign up below to make sure that you’ll receive a carefully selected app development knowledge straight to your inbox!
#3 Easy content management
The content displayed on your platform should be as much as alive! The offer should be tailored to the needs of users and any changes to it must be intuitive and easy. Tools such as HTML editor or WYSIWYG plugin help in this. If you operate in the e-commerce industry, it will be a particularly important functionality for you. Adding promotional products, selecting their variants or even the order configurator? You will need a whole set of such tools and all available for you without hiring a developer.
#4 Analytic tools
This is with no doubt the heart of the data-driven business. Which article on your blog was the most popular and why? What are your customers' purchasing preferences? How many new users signed up last week and what can you improve to increase this number? Are your marketing activities effective? How has the CAC amount changed compared to the last month? Follow and analyze your users' behavior, historical transaction data, and interesting content. Track every metric and draw conclusions.
Obviously, the type of data you will want to track varies deeply depending on the industry you are operating in. For example: below you can see the data chosen by one of our clients from the construction industry. ProEst estimating software helps construction companies to estimate their cost better which helps avoiding getting in debt or investing in materials, which are simply too expensive for us. As the estimating process is very complex - the visuals help to see your costs in a clear and understandable way. Much better than 100 Excel files huh?
You can read about our story with ProEst here!
#5 Third parties technologies
Your platform does not exist in the void. In the course of your activities, you may often need the possibility of exchanging data between applications or extending the functionality of your panel with additional possibilities. The flexibility to add new solutions will allow your business to fully flourish. Even if you skip any of the tools you would like to integrate in the initial stage - thanks to the API interface you can add them at any time.
#6 Report builder
As it was mentioned before, you should analyze all the data as much as possible. What’s also important, is to be able to present data using reports and charts presented in your admin dashboard. This will not only help you better understand your customers, but it will probably have an impact on almost all of your business decisions!
#7 Clean and ergonomic interface
You don’t want the search for the needed modules to take ages, right? The most relevant information should be visible with a few clicks. Data should be sorted into appropriate categories so that the database operation is intuitive. Isn’t it better to operate within an organized environment? You need to remember that when your company starts to grow you will probably need additional employees to work on the same panel. If it is not too complicated to use and offers all the necessary functions at the same time, it will be easier for you to train others.
#8 Desktops and mobile devices friendly
The interface optimized for mobile devices will allow you to work in comfortable conditions, not only from the office, but from anywhere in the world! At Railwaymen, we perfectly understand the needs of our partners and design solutions that allow access to data at any time and on any device. Want to know more about us, and how we approach custom app development for more than 10 years already?
Check our Web & Mobile Dev FAQ here!
How to add an Admin Panel to a website?
You always get access to your administration panel when you use ready software solutions. In the case of open source software, these can be e.g. CMS systems that allow you to manage the content of websites (such as WordPress or Joomla) as well as their more extensive versions dedicated to e-commerce (WooCommerce, PrestaShop). To use them, you should contact your web hosting provider and follow their installation instructions for the respective applications. Usually, you should first choose a web server from the available proposals (Apache, Nginx, etc.), SQL database model, configure domain records, install a store plugin, secure the website with an SSL certificate etc.
Sounds complicated? Do not worry! Thanks to the wealth of services in the SaaS model, you do not have to worry about the technical nuances of hosting your application or website. There are many ready SaaS systems that allow you to launch your store or website with just a few clicks. It is currently the most user-friendly application maintenance model
Even if none of them meets your expectations, nothing is lost! At Railwaymen, we create products that are 100% tailored to our customers. No matter if you are planning to open a small boutique or an international public tendering system. In every case, we are ready to provide you with dedicated high-end solutions. Forget about technical problems related to creating applications and focus on what is most important - developing your business passion.
This is just one of the reviews we got on Clutch.co - you can see the rest & understand why we have 5.0/5.0 rating by checking the rest here.
Conclusion
As you can easily observe, you can only benefit from having a customly designed admin panel. Thanks to data based on your users’ activity you get the accurate feedback on your business and marketing activities. Multiple reports on the data allows you to analyze the risk and profitability of new investments. This is what gives you the closer look on every cent you spend and you know that it is worth investing in.
Moreover, you do not have to look for every data manually. It is all aggregated in one place and easily accessible. Forget about the horror of multiple excel sheets with all the information gathered manually. Forget about looking for every single document lost somewhere on your company’s computers. Data oriented business allows you to be ahead of your competitors at the very beginning.
If you want us to help you with the challenge, contact us at info@railwaymen.org. Me and my wonderful app development team will be happy to help you!
