Customizing Android ROM app data before flashing

Question

I'm working at the IT-department of a rather large company, and we got Android phones for all of our employees. Every time someone quits or turn in their phone for any reason, we have to factory reset and then install all the required apps for our company, and this takes time.

I recently discovered that if you flash a custom rom, you can pick and choose what apps you want pre-installed in the ROM. This is good news for us and it got me thinking further.

So my question is, is there any way to customize the app data before flashing the ROM?

For example, we want our company's email app pre-installed with the correct user data already set up.

Answer 1

Look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=613, theres some socalled 'rom kitchens' that let you remove or add apps from/ to roms and make some customizations.

Answer 2

I'm not exactly sure about having the users data already in the email application, but you need to decompile the ROM, place your company's applications in the /system/app/ folder and then recompile the ROM. This will keep you from having to install the applications manually.