During the first stage of construction of an FCS platform the platform administrator ("P-Admin“) plays an essential part.

First, it is important to gain an overview of the roles of the system administrator ("S-Admin“), the platform administrator ("P-Admin“), and the users.

Platform administrators are in the middle of the hierarchy, between the system administrator and the users.

The functional hierarchy can be illustrated using an analogy of the construction and use of a house:

• The purchaser (i.e. designer) announces what the house (i.e. the platform) should look like.
  
• The builder (i.e. system administrator) transfers a ready-made house to one or more owners (i.e. platform administrators).
  
• The platform administrator sets the house rules, divides the inhabitants (i.e. users) into groups and structures the arrangement of the house (i.e. organisation of content on the platform).
  
• A view users visit the house while others live in it permanently. The inhabitants have different keys (i.e. permissions) which grant them access to different rooms (i.e. folders). In accessible rooms, they help to add, change or remove furniture (i.e. content). Doors for which inhabitants do not have access keys are not visible to them.

Forms of use: ASP and server license
factline offers the factline Community Server (FCS) as an ASP solution. This means the server, on which a customer's platform is installed, is located at factline. The functions of the system administrator are taken over by factline. Clients can also purchase a server license. In this case, the system is installed on the server of the client. Subsequently, the customer is the system administrator.