With the bulk of websites today being built on a content management system or framework such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla, its worth looking into integrating these platforms into more of your organization’s processes. They all support users, roles (different levels of access) and adapt well to different devices. It also maintains a common interface that your staff may already be used to working with.
One recent example of this was to build out an HR management system for a customer. Most of the customer’s staff was already familiar with WordPress and its interface. The customer needed a way to handle shift changes, days off, sick days and approvals along with other HR form-driven burdens. By consolidating this in one simple interface, the customer maintains a centralized platform to use, manage and maintain.
For those of you not wishing to have such integration with your public website, it is possible to restrict access based on your office’s IP address to certain functionality. This ensures that only your office can access these new and restricted area’s of your website in addition to other existing layers of security (strong passwords, brute force protection, etc). Additionally, these applications can be delivered internally to your company and not “published” to the outside world.