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CMS and CRM development

CMS and CRM developmentAn isometric drawing of a Laravel admin as a small building with its roof off. Along the front are three rooms, one per role: sales on the left, listings in the middle and accounts on the right, each with a desk, a screen and a person. Behind them is a hall with a records cabinet whose drawers are labelled clients, invoices and listings. On the back wall hang a rack of role keys and a dashboard board, with a printer below it. On the right, outside the rooms, the accounting system sits in an annex joined to the cabinet by a pipe. Sales edits an invoice sends a request from sales to the invoices drawer, where it is refused and the lock shows red. Accounts edits an invoice opens the drawer, writes the change and passes it along the pipe to accounting. Bulk update sends several changes from listings at once, ticks each listing card, updates the dashboard and prints a report slip.saleslistingsaccountslaravel adminrolessaleslistingsaccountsdashboardaccountingclientsinvoiceslistingsrecords1234567

A Laravel admin with the roof off: a room per role, one records cabinet and a key for who can do what. Try sales editing an invoice.

A Laravel admin that fits your content, your customers and the way you work.

Book a free first callEstimate the cost

In short

A custom CMS or CRM is an admin system built around how your business works, rather than you bending to someone else's software. Zenoware, a small studio in Auckland, builds them in Laravel, usually with Nova or Filament for the admin panel, for businesses in New Zealand and overseas. You get your own data model, roles and permissions, dashboards and bulk actions. It can connect to tools you already use, such as your accounting system. It starts with a free first call.

What you get

  • Records and fields named the way your team talks

  • Sales can't edit invoices; accounts can't touch listings

  • Reports and bulk edits without exporting to Excel first

How it runs

  1. 01

    Requirements and modelling

    We'd start by walking through your processes, then sketch the data model and roles.

  2. 02

    Foundation

    Laravel and the admin panel go in next, with the core records and access rules.

  3. 03

    Features

    Then custom actions, filters, dashboards, uploads and the odd automated step.

  4. 04

    Delivery

    Last comes theming, speed work, testing with real staff, and training.

Who you'll work with

Brush sketch of JP Caparas

JP Caparas

Founder and lead engineer

Thirteen years of principal engineering, including development lead at Public Trust. OpenAI Codex and Devin ambassador in New Zealand. You talk to the person who writes the code.

About the team

Questions

What is a custom CMS or CRM?

It's the back office of a website or business, built to order. The CMS half handles content, so pages, products, articles and photos. The CRM half handles people: customers, leads, deals, who rang whom. A custom one is set up around how you work, and because it's Laravel it can live alongside your site.

Should I build a custom CRM or use HubSpot or Salesforce?

If you sell the way most companies sell, use HubSpot or Salesforce and save yourself the build. A custom CRM makes sense when your process is unusual, when it needs to sit right next to your own product data, or when the per-seat bill climbs every time you hire someone.

What is Laravel Nova?

It's the admin panel the Laravel team makes and sells. A developer describes the records, fields, filters and actions in PHP, and Nova draws the screens. You need a paid licence to use it.

Should I use Laravel Nova or Filament?

They both give you a Laravel admin panel. Nova is the paid one, from the Laravel team. Filament costs nothing, is open source, runs on Livewire and has a lot of community plugins. We'd usually choose based on what your developers already know and whether there's a plugin for something you need.

How long does a custom CMS or CRM take to build?

Around ten weeks, going by our standard plan. The first fortnight is requirements and the data model, then two weeks on the core, four on features, and two at the end for polish, testing and training.

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The first call is free, and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right people for it.

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