Portals Unlock the Knowledge that Drives Business Value, Robert Duffner
Enterprise portals are the primary aggregation and access points that enable employees, partners, suppliers and customers to more efficiently function and collaborate. According to META Group (Dec. 2000 report), portals will help reduce the cost and implementation time for customer relationship management, commerce chain management, and employee knowledge management strategies. These customer-focused business strategies drive the creation of new business value, which is key to competitive differentiation.However, to realize this potential, business must shift away from traditional approaches to portal deployment, approaches that stifle integration and growth. Business should adopt the perspective of a portal environment that is designed and built on e-business platforms.
World-class e-business infrastructures require a common portal environment and Web transaction platform—at BEA this is known as an e-business operating system—to help ensure seamless integration, growth without pain, rapid deployment, and high performance. Moving away from standalone portals and applications eliminates the risk of overlapping functionality and the inefficiencies caused by intra-company communication breakdowns. Smart, efficient knowledge sharing can only enhance organizational performance and customer value.
The Role of Enterprise PortalsHistory has shown us that each major computing paradigm—mainframe, client/server, Internet—was accompanied by an associated user interface. Mainframe computing had scripting language, client/server computing had Windows, and Internet computing had the Web browser. As we approach the next computing paradigm—Web Services—a new interface will be borne and evolve to harness its power.
Web Services are designed to take advantage of new Internet standards for exchanging data and facilitating dynamic communication between disparate hardware systems and software programs. In short, Web Services make it possible to build bridges between systems that otherwise would require extensive development efforts. Using a portal interface, businesses will be able to improve agility and even to transform themselves into new kinds of enterprises.
There’s little coincidence that the burgeoning enterprise portal market is heating up [$1.5 billion business in 2002 according to Giga Information Group] at the same time as industry experts claim Web Services is the next computing paradigm. In fact, IDC estimates the market for infrastructure software and services that simplify integration of business processes will approach $50 billion by 2005. META Group (Dec. 2000) predicts that by 2005 the portal market will evolve into the new standard user interface built atop back-end services.
As enterprise portals increasingly become the Web interface, or dashboard, for control and management of Web Services, businesses must re-consider the criteria for evaluating enterprise portal products. To meet future business needs, enterprise portals should have an underlying structure with these four elements: presentation, personalization, framework, and integration.
PresentationA portal’s value lies in its ability to present desired content in a usable format. Enterprise portals must support multi-channel access and pervasive computing, to include access through mobile devices and support for instant communication. The portal must deliver rich, interactive presentation layouts, such as dynamic HTML pages, and a consistent look and feel across all applications. As an example, BenefitsCorp’s B2E portal provides account executives self-service access to retirement plan account data and email from mobile personal digital assistants and PCs so that they can do their jobs more efficiently, more responsively, and more cost-effectively.
PersonalizationPersonalization not only enhances sales effectiveness for customer-facing applications, it boosts efficiency and comfort levels among business users. BEA WebLogic allows businesses, such as Citigroup’s Worldwide Securities Services organization, to build and integrate content management systems and registration applications that collect information provided explicitly by users, as well as implicitly by tracking behavior.
IntegrationTraditional EAI, and next generation integration technologies, are vital to architect portals and back-end applications on a common, standards-based platform. Enterprise portals must integrate with myriad databases, ERP systems, inventory and accounting applications, third-party systems, and Web servers. This integration greatly reduces operating costs and accelerates delivery of new applications.
FrameworkConclusionEnterprise portals require continuous enhancements and additions. This requirement means open and flexible e-business platforms, which evolve with an organization’s needs, scale with its growth and support a broad range of knowledge-based and transaction-based applications, are a must.
About BEA
BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) is one of the world’s leading e-business infrastructure software companies, with more than 10,000 customers around the world. BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform is the de facto standard for more than 1,900 systems integrators, ISVs and ASPs to provide solutions that fast-track and future-proof e-businesses for high growth and profitability. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 92 offices in 32 countries. Contact BEA at Tel: 408-570-8000, www.bea.com, or Sales@weblogic.com