There has been a lot of hype about portals recently, and well founded, as modern portals can bring game-changing capabilities to businesses. So, lets talk about what a portal is and why the technology is so important.

Wikipedia describes a portal as a doorway, and further explains that a web portal is a web site with diverse sources of information, presented in a unified way. Ok, so we've got lots of information coming from different places, accessible all in one place. Is that right? Well, the answer is yes, but it's really much more than that...

Today, portals are being used in a variety on contexts: Internet sites, Intranet sites, and Extranet sites. Each of these kinds of sites have different purposes. An Internet site is designed to provide information to a public audience, e.g. potential customers, other businesses, personal contacts, etc., commonly referred to as a web site. An Extranet site is designed to provide more specific information to customers, vendors, or other external business partners. Extranets can be used to deliver customized product news, company announcements, documents and reports, product manuals and procedures, FAQs, problem solving discussions, and even solicit information to help design your next product or service. The last type is an Intranet, which helps employees collaborate and innovate. Intranets facilitate the learning, sharing, and problem solving process by managing news, documents, knowledge, and team discussions inside the organization. The Intranet can also help automate your business processes to achieve a substantial boost in productivity.

So what makes today's portals special? Modern portals, sometimes called enterprise portals, offer a one stop shop for information and interaction between employees, staff, customers, and other partners. The ability to provide one location and one consistent user experience to access information from a variety of sources, places, or systems can prove to be very powerful for users. Imagine customers grabbing and updating data (invoices, orders, etc.) from the ERP system without being in the ERP system. Imagine employees accessing time cards from the ERP system, payroll forms from the HR system, sales information from the CRM system, all from inside the portal. Modern portals also foster a collaborative environment by providing tools to manage discussions, capture feedback, and keep everyone up to speed. And when there's something you need that just doesn't exist yet, portals provide a great platform for application development.

Here are some examples of how companies are using portals to do more with a positive ROI.

Shell conducted a study that found employees in an average corporate environment can spend 30% to 60% of their productive time searching for information to do their job. Shell built a Knowledge Intranet to serve its 10,000+ employees and now saves $300M annually with a project ROI of 5000% in the first year.  -Ideas Magazine

Audi launched an Extranet site for its dealer customers in Australia that boosted users by 450% and page visits by 300% in the second month of its operation.  -Intranet Journal

It is easy to see how a portal can become the information center of a business. Contact an eCorpSys consultant for more information on how a portal can help your organization.