Custom content boxes in backend (like CMS)?

I’ll be using wordpress as a CMS for a new site I’m building but would love to customize the back-end to include links on the left or boxes on the dashboard that easily and directly allow me to change the web content.

EG, the front of the webpage has “welcome text” and “recent news” boxes. So I’d like to be able to log in and just change the “welcome text” and “recent news” boxes directly from the dashboard without having to go through the posts section.

Is this easily achievable or are there plugins that could help? Perhaps a way of putting a set amount of pre-defined posts on the dashboard ready for editing like the “Quickpress” section.

Thanks in advance.