Back office is an expression taken from the English language that literally means ‘back office’. This term refers to the set of activities that support a company and that do not involve direct contact with the client or end user.
Thus, the tasks and activities carried out in the back office are basically business support functions for the fulfillment of the company’s objectives as well as for the development of the specific projects undertaken. Among these activities can be mentioned:
- database administration,
- the organization of the company’s archives,
- the tracking of correspondence both internally and from the client,
- company finances,
- human resources management,
- the processes of legalization and payment of corporate taxes,
- Customer order management,
- the content feed in communication companies,
- technical support, etc.
The term is opposed to the front office , which refers to all the activities and tasks that the company performs for the client: personalized attention, sales to the public, fulfillment of customer expectations, direct provision of services, etc.
The activities covered by the back office are not those that generate dividends to the company, but they are those that keep the company in operation, as they coordinate the different work areas necessary for the achievement of the proposed purposes.
Internet back office
By extension, in the services through the web, that is, essentially digital services, the back office also refers to the processes of feeding and administration of portals, pages and content blogs, to which the end user does not have access.
This type of systems is accessible to many private entrepreneurs on the web thanks to the services provided by companies that act as content managers. These types of companies, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and others, facilitate Internet administration interfaces based on the concept of front office and back office.
The front office refers to the public image that the end user can enjoy, while the back office refers to the private section that allows to feed content and modify the design and layout.
