Technology
Portals for the masses
How to compete virtually on a global basis
By Paul R. Harvey
Smart Business Indianapolis | May 2007
Bill Russell
Executive vice president, Allegient
A byproduct of the dot-com explosion
in the late ’90s was an exciting but
unfinished technology that offered a promising glimpse into the future business
climate — one where smaller companies
could more easily stand toe-to-toe with the
industry giants.
This technology was dubbed an Internet
“portal” implementation. A portal is a Web-based virtual doorway to a business that
consolidates multiple Web sites into a common, integrated platform, allowing a business to satisfy multiple constituents.
“Because of developments on the technology front and the emerging industry
standards, portal implementations are now
viable for small- and medium-sized companies,” says Bill Russell, executive vice president of Allegient. “Portals are quickly moving from a luxury enjoyed by large companies to a requirement for competing.”
Smart Business spoke with Russell about
what factors are making portal implementations both affordable and necessary for
small- and medium-sized companies.
How do portals help level the playing field for
smaller companies?
Today, even a small company may have
as many as a dozen individual Web sites
that can be a distraction due to technical
constraints, maintenance and related
costs. Portals suggest that these separate
Web sites can become a common, integrated platform that allows businesses to satisfy any of their constituents, from customers to suppliers to employees — to
even partners and shareholders.
An additional key benefit to a portal is
speed. Portals allow a company to quickly
and specifically serve the right people with
the most current information and utilize a
process for completing a business transaction. A business can, in almost real time,
answer the questions: How are we doing?
How are sales? What are our costs? How
are we dealing with our clients?
How are portals utilized?
Portals are moving from pure content-oriented, or information-centric, sites into comprehensive higher-value ‘environments’ where a company can serve more of
its constituents’ needs through collaborative interactions, transactions or applications. Portals are beginning to embed the
business processes, along with the relevant
information and people, so they can collaborate, share judgments and make decisions. This allows faster decision-making
and timely direction changes.
Self-help applications are popular first
initiatives and provide a fast return on portal investment. For instance, a portal application can allow online bill payment or
provide a site where employees can view
their W-2s, manage medical benefits, etc.
How have portals evolved into a viable technology for almost any company?
Portals have gone from an entry-level
cost of $250,000 or more to less than
$25,000 due to evolving technology and the
industry’s recent drive for standards.
Emerging portal standards are based in
part on a family of standards called Web
Services, or WS-I. And big players like IBM,
Microsoft and others are holding true to
the standards and are not making their versions so proprietary that you can’t interact
or interface with them.
The standards also opened the door for
software developers to build small applications or ‘portlets’ that can be easily connected or integrated with a portal. These
portlets increase portal value and help better serve constituent needs.
What challenges accompany portal implementations?
Portals can cross the traditional functional roles or departments inside a company.
To succeed, a portal implementation
should be tied to a strong governance
model. This includes a division-of-labor
type approach for assigning responsibility
and accountability. As an example, a product manager is able to post information
about a product on a portal very quickly,
with approval review by the legal department, marketing, etc. But ultimately the
product manager controls that content. In
a bad governance model, no clear accountability is established or no recognized embedded approval process is established,
and new information is slowed due to functional ‘turfism’ or individual interests.
Security is another big challenge, which
is being addressed by the new standards.
Portal providers are quickly evolving in
two major areas, including authorization/
identity management, as well as information security.
How can companies move to implement portal technology?
The basic platforms can be purchased,
but most small- to mid-sized companies
would be better served by first bringing in
experts in portal implementation and business solutions.
It’s crucial to first determine the business
solution definition or value for what you
want to accomplish. Once that is identified,
it can be translated into how the technology will be deployed. The technology is secondary to the business need.
BILL RUSSELL is executive vice president of Allegient. Reach
him at (317) 564-570 or brussell@allegient.com.
