Corporate portals: realizing their promise, avoiding costly failure

Reviews selected issues involved in the deployment of intranets, with particular reference to those that have stimulated the development and adoption of corporate portal applications. Notes a questionnaire survey, conducted by Enterprise LSE, of 145 UK departments and agencies in late 1999 (report available from www.governmentonline.org), which showed that many intranets were not yielding the anticipated benefits. Discusses the genesis of corporate portals and lists the main features that these should include in terms of: content; communication; collaboration; customization; and currency. Notes the emergence of collaborative portal companies, business intelligence applications vendors, enterprise information/corporate portal (EIP) vendors, portal framework vendors, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors. Describes the issues to be considered when selecting a corporate portal solution, including: product functionalities; pre-sales; costs; external source integration; and the impact on the provision of business information. Corporate portal vendors are becoming aware of the importance of providing effective integration, but may well decide to work with a selected number of vendors to reduce the technical integration issues. Concludes that, although corporate portal applications have been marketed for a couple of years, they are still in their infancy. Business information managers must make an effort to understanding the technology and benefits of corporate portal applications.