Managing Your Organisation's Kora Instance

SuperUsers manage your organisation's Kora instance. You oversee user access, system configuration, and data security. Whether your instance serves a single farm, a multi-facility veterinary practice, a regional conservation network, or a national regulatory authority, SuperUsers ensure the system runs smoothly.

This chapter addresses SuperUsers who oversee your organisation's animal management operations through Kora. You're likely a chief veterinarian, operations director, CTO, conservation programme coordinator, or senior manager responsible for both animal operations and supporting systems.

What SuperUser Administration Involves

SuperUsers manage five core administrative domains:

User Management - Creating user accounts, assigning roles and permissions, approving veterinarian credentials, managing access across your organisation's operations.

System Configuration - Managing animal type configurations, permission settings, validation rules, medication databases, and organisational settings specific to your operations.

Knowledge API Administration - Maintaining the disease database, explainers, plant poisonings, outbreak information, jurisdictions, and authority contacts that power the Knowledge Hub (Chapter 4) for all users in your organisation.

System Maintenance - Database backups, system health monitoring, location data updates, and routine maintenance tasks ensuring operational reliability.

Security and Audit - Monitoring user activity, reviewing audit logs, managing security protocols, and ensuring compliance with organisational policies and regulatory requirements.

Single-Tenant Architecture: Your Data, Your Control

Kora uses single-tenant deployment. Your instance serves your organisation exclusively. Whether self-hosted on your infrastructure or hosted by Kora on a dedicated server, you maintain complete data sovereignty.

What This Means:

Data Privacy - Your animal records, user information, and operational data never mix with other organisations. Complete isolation ensures confidentiality and compliance with data protection regulations.

Customisation - Your instance can be configured for your specific needs. Organisational settings, feature flags, workflow preferences configure without affecting other organisations or requiring platform-wide changes.

Regulatory Compliance - Data residency requirements, regulatory auditing, and compliance obligations are met within your organisational context, not across a multi-tenant platform.

Operational Control - You determine who accesses your system, what roles they have, which features are enabled, and how your organisation uses Kora.

Your Tenant Scale:

• Small tenant: Single smallholder farm managing a few dozen animals
• Medium tenant: Veterinary practice serving multiple farms across a region
• Large tenant: Conservation network coordinating across multiple countries
• Authority tenant: Provincial, state, or national regulatory body overseeing jurisdiction-wide compliance

Regardless of scale, the principle remains: one instance equals one organisation equals complete data sovereignty.

SuperUser vs Other Roles

SuperUsers have access to administrative functions unavailable to other users:

Standard Users access animal management features (recording observations, managing animals, tracking movements) within locations they're assigned to.

Veterinarians have clinical features (veterinary observations, diagnoses, treatment prescriptions) plus multi-property access across client operations.

Regulators (when configured) have compliance oversight capabilities (cross-property visibility for inspections and regulatory monitoring within their jurisdiction).

SuperUsers have all of the above plus administrative capabilities:

• Create and manage user accounts
• Assign roles and permissions
• Approve veterinarian credentials
• Configure system settings
• Maintain Knowledge API content
• Access system-wide audit logs
• Perform maintenance tasks
• Monitor system health

SuperUser access is powerful. Grant only to trusted organisational administrators who understand both animal operations and system management responsibilities.

When to Use Administrative Features

User Management Tasks:

• Hiring new staff or onboarding service providers
• Staff roles change (promotions, department transfers)
• Veterinarians apply for professional access
• Contractors or consultants need temporary access
• Users leave the organisation

Configuration Management Tasks:

• Adding new animal types to your operation
• Regulatory requirements change
• Organisational policies update
• Expanding to new locations or facilities
• Integrating new workflows

Knowledge API Tasks:

• New diseases emerge requiring documentation
• Regulatory contacts change
• Outbreaks occur in your region
• Educational resources need updates
• Expanding operations to new jurisdictions

System Maintenance Tasks:

• Regularly (scheduled database backups)
• Data quality issues appear (location coordinates)
• Before major operational changes
• After significant data imports
• System performance needs monitoring

Audit and Security Review:

• During compliance audits
• Investigating unusual activity
• Regulatory authorities request documentation
• After security incidents
• Periodically as part of organisational governance

Desktop vs Mobile for Administration

Administrative tasks are primarily desktop activities:

Desktop excels at:

• Multi-user management and bulk operations
• Detailed audit log review and analysis
• System configuration and settings management
• Knowledge API content creation and editing
• Statistical analysis and reporting
• Complex permission management
• Long-form content entry (disease descriptions, explainers)
• Multi-tab workflows (reviewing users while managing permissions)

Mobile access for:

• Emergency user account creation (field staff needs immediate access)
• Quick user lookups (verify credentials during inspections)
• Urgent knowledge base updates (new outbreak information)
• System health checks (monitoring while travelling)
• Approving time-sensitive veterinarian applications

Most SuperUser work happens at a desk with full keyboard, large screen, and time for thoughtful decision-making. Administrative decisions affect your entire organisation.

Security and Audit Logging

Every SuperUser action is logged:

What's Tracked:

• User account creation, modification, deletion
• Role assignments and permission changes
• Veterinarian approvals and credential verification
• Configuration changes
• Knowledge API content modifications
• System maintenance tasks executed
• Audit log access (who viewed audit logs)

Why This Matters:

Accountability - Every administrative action traces to a specific SuperUser account with timestamp and action details.

Compliance - Regulatory audits require documentation of who accessed what data, when, and why. Audit logs provide this evidence.

Security - Unusual access patterns, unauthorised changes, or suspicious activity are traceable through comprehensive logging.

Troubleshooting - When issues arise, audit logs show what changed, when, and by whom. Critical for diagnosing problems.

Organisational Governance - Transparent administration builds trust with stakeholders, staff, and regulatory authorities.

Audit logs are immutable. Once written, they cannot be altered, even by SuperUsers. This ensures integrity for compliance and security investigations.

Data Sovereignty and Organisational Responsibility

As a SuperUser, you're responsible for your organisation's Kora instance. This includes:

User Access Management:

• Granting appropriate access to legitimate users
• Revoking access promptly when users leave
• Ensuring veterinarians are properly credentialed
• Protecting against unauthorised access

Data Quality:

• Maintaining accurate system configuration
• Ensuring location data is current
• Keeping Knowledge API content up-to-date
• Validating imported data integrity

Compliance:

• Understanding regulatory requirements affecting your organisation
• Configuring Kora to support compliance obligations
• Maintaining audit trails for regulatory review
• Coordinating with legal/compliance teams

Operational Continuity:

• Regular database backups
• System health monitoring
• Proactive maintenance
• Incident response planning

Security:

• Strong password policies
• Prompt access revocation
• Monitoring for unusual activity
• Coordinating with technical teams on security updates

While Kora provides the tools, you make the decisions. Balance operational needs, security requirements, compliance obligations, and organisational policies.

Feature Configuration by Kora Team

Your Kora instance may have certain features enabled or disabled based on your organisational needs and deployment configuration. Feature flags control which capabilities are available in your instance.

What Feature Flags Control:

• Specialised modules (veterinary features, regulatory oversight)
• Integration capabilities (Knowledge API access, external systems)
• Advanced features (analytics dashboards, reporting tools)
• User types and workflows (CAHWs, wildlife managers, regulators)

Who Configures Feature Flags: Feature flags are configured by the Kora team at deployment time based on your organisational requirements, licence, and operational context. You don't manage feature flags directly. They're set during initial deployment and adjusted when your organisation's needs change.

When to Contact Kora Team:

• You need additional features for expanded operations
• Your organisation's workflows change
• Regulatory requirements mandate new capabilities
• You're expanding to new jurisdictions or contexts
• Feature flag configuration doesn't match current needs

As a SuperUser, you work within the feature set configured for your instance, managing users, content, and settings. The Kora team configures which features are available.

What This Chapter Covers

27.1 Admin Dashboard Overview - Understanding the SuperUser dashboard, statistics interpretation, navigation to administrative functions, and system health monitoring.

27.2 User Management - Creating user accounts, assigning roles, approving veterinarian credentials, managing permissions, bulk operations, and reviewing user activity.

27.3 System Configuration & Maintenance - Managing animal type configurations, permission settings, validation rules, medication databases, system maintenance tasks, and operational settings.

27.4 Knowledge API Administration - Maintaining the disease database, explainers, plant poisonings, outbreak information, jurisdictions, and authority emergency contacts that power the Knowledge Hub (Chapter 4) for all users.

27.5 Security & Audit - Reviewing audit logs, monitoring user activity, understanding security protocols, compliance documentation, and incident response.

Integration with Operational Knowledge

SuperUser administration isn't purely technical. It requires understanding your organisation's animal operations:

User Management Requires Knowing:

• Who works with which animals and locations
• What clinical capabilities veterinarians possess
• Which contractors need temporary vs. permanent access
• How roles map to operational responsibilities

Configuration Management Requires Knowing:

• Which animal types your organisation manages
• What medications are used in your operations
• Which regulatory requirements apply to your context
• How workflows differ across locations or departments

Knowledge API Management Requires Knowing:

• Which diseases threaten your animal populations
• What outbreaks are occurring in your region
• Which regulatory authorities oversee your operations
• What emergency contacts are relevant to your jurisdiction

System Maintenance Requires Knowing:

• When operational changes occur (new facilities, relocations)
• Which data is critical for compliance and continuity
• When backups should occur (avoiding peak operational times)
• What constitutes normal vs. unusual system activity

The best SuperUsers combine system administration skills with deep understanding of animal operations. You're not just managing software. You're enabling effective animal management for your organisation.

Current Approach to Administration

Administrative features are accessed through the Admin Panel at /Admin in your Kora instance. Only users with SuperUser role can access this panel.

Admin Dashboard provides an overview of system statistics, user counts, animal populations, Knowledge API status, and system health. Your command centre for organisational management.

User Management section handles all user-related administration: creating accounts, approving veterinarians, assigning roles, managing permissions, and reviewing user activity.

Knowledge API Management maintains the disease intelligence system powering the Knowledge Hub (Chapter 4) that all users access for disease information, emergency contacts, and outbreak tracking.

System Tasks section provides access to maintenance operations, configuration management, and system health monitoring.

These administrative interfaces are designed for clarity and safety. Confirmation dialogues prevent accidental changes, audit logging tracks all actions, and clear descriptions explain what each administrative task accomplishes.