Omran — Five Apps and an Old Website Merged into One Arabic Platform

Omran Foundation, a youth-led organization that starts and runs community projects, had its online services spread over six systems: a main website on a separate content management system, plus separate apps for accounts, the incubator, events, the library and the academy, each on its own subdomain. We had built four of those apps (accounts, incubator, events and library) and run them since 2023, so we knew the cost first hand. A member had one account but moved between different interfaces. Every app kept its own copy of the users and synced it with the accounts app. Each fix and upgrade had to be done several times, and the Omran team managed content in several admin panels. The old website, which we did not build, had become hard to maintain, and its articles, publications and search rankings had to survive the move.

We wrote the requirements and an architecture document with Omran, then built one new application in milestones: accounts and roles first, then the incubator, events, the library, a new e-learning platform built from scratch, and last the public website and its content. The old systems stayed untouched while we worked. Each module that replaced an old system got an importer that reads the old database and can be re-run safely, so the data could be refreshed up to launch day. Members keep their existing accounts and passwords. The incubator's application forms, phases and reviews run on a form builder we maintain and reuse across projects. Old website addresses (articles, tags, topics and the competitiveness index pages) redirect permanently to their new pages. The public site is Arabic only and right-to-left, and one admin panel covers every module, with a role per module so each team sees only its own area. The platform also exposes its admin actions to AI assistants through an MCP server, so the Omran team can look things up and make changes by asking in plain language. Before launch we reviewed every module for bugs, security issues and missing tests, and fixed what the review found.