Most companies appreciate the complexity of back-end processes when it comes to ecommerce offerings. But how many pay as much attention when no money’s changing hands? Will you risk building a site that doesn’t connect with the rest of your organisation working behind the scenes?

If you were in the planning stages of building a new e-commerce site, of course you’d look at all the backend processes: transaction handling, recorded, integration with accounting systems, fulfillment, CRM, logistics, much more. And if it formed part of a larger offline offering, you’d want to make sure it fits as seamlessly as possible with existing set-up: everything from systems and applications to employee roles and training.

But what if it didn’t involve e-commerce? What if your new website’s role included the intake of user-generated information that required some kind of employee-generated response, on- or offsite? Or if much of your content will be created and updated by various employees?

I’m still astonished occasionally - both on iConcertina projects and when speaking with colleagues at other agencies – when clients have made a considerable effort to ensure that all stakeholders’ interests are represented in planning and design, but back-office employees’ input is neglected. If we want to focus on user-centric experiences, we need to take into account *all* the users: the customers *and* the employees who’ll be running the site and its associated operations. Your back-office employees are the real experts about how existing systems run, their limits and their strengths. They can have a better idea of what your customers’ day-to-day concerns are and what your realistic response options are. They’ll want to asses how the new responsibilities triggered the new site’s functions will dovetail (or not) with their existing responsibilities. And once it’s up and running, they can be one of your most important sources of evaluation and recommendations for new features.

This needn’t be an expensive, formal, time-consuming, Big 4 consultancy-style review of all your business operations. A few key conversations and follow-up documents is often enough to make sure you’ve got buy-in and a better match between the back-end of your website and the back office. That extra bit of planning places value on information, whether it’s one-way data capture or a two-way conversation with your customers.