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An enterprise portal, also known as an enterprise information portal (EIP), is a framework for integrating information, people and processes across organizational boundaries in a manner similar to the more general
web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displa ...
s. Enterprise portals provide a secure unified access point, often in the form of a web-based
user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
, and are designed to aggregate and personalize information through application-specific
portlets The Java Portlet Specification defines a contract between the portlet container and portlets and provides a convenient programming model for Java portlet developers. Portlets are pluggable user interface software components that are managed a ...
. One hallmark of enterprise portals is the de-centralized content contribution and content management, which keeps the information always updated. Another distinguishing characteristic is that they cater for customers, vendors and others beyond an organization's boundaries. This contrasts with a corporate portal which is structured for roles within an organization.


History

The mid-1990s saw the advent of public
web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displa ...
s. These sites provided a key set of features (e.g., news, e-mail, weather, stock quotes, and search) that were often presented in self-contained boxes or
portlets The Java Portlet Specification defines a contract between the portlet container and portlets and provides a convenient programming model for Java portlet developers. Portlets are pluggable user interface software components that are managed a ...
. Before long, enterprises of all sizes began to see a need for a similar starting place for their variety of internal repositories and applications, many of which were migrating to Web-based technologies. By the late 1990s, software vendors began to produce prepackaged enterprise portals. These software packages would be toolkits for enterprises to quickly develop and deploy their own customized enterprise portal. The first commercial portal software vendor began to appear in 1998. By 2002, competing product offerings from application server vendors entered the market, who saw portals as an opportunity to stave off the
commoditization In business literature, commoditization is defined as the process by which goods that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of attributes ( uniqueness or brand) end up becoming simple commodities in the eyes of the market or cons ...
of application server technology. In 2003, vendors of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
-based enterprise portals produced a standard known as
JSR-168 The Java Portlet Specification defines a design by contract, contract between the portlet container and portlets and provides a convenient programming model for Java portlet developers. Portlets are Pluggable look and feel, pluggable user interfa ...
. It was to specify an API for interoperability between enterprise portals and portlets. Software vendors began producing JSR-168 compliant portlets that can be deployed onto any JSR-168 compliant enterprise portal. The second iteration of the standard, JSR-286, was final-released on 12 June 2008. Enterprises may choose to develop multiple enterprise portals based on business structure and strategic focus while reusing architectural frameworks, component libraries, or standardized project methods (e.g.
B2E Business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce uses an intrabusiness network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. Typically, companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes. B2E ...
, B2C, B2B, B2G, etc.).


Employee portal

A study conducted in 2006 by Forrester Research, Inc. showed that 46 percent of large companies used a portal referred to as an employee portal. Employee portals can be described as a specific set of enterprise portals and are used to give an interface for employees to personalized information, resources, applications, and e-commerce options.


Lean portal

In 2009,
Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients ...
introduced the concept of the portal-less portal or the “lean portal”. Lean Portals offer an alternative to the traditional portals available for the last 15 years, which have become very difficult to deploy and maintain. Traditional portals are bloated with features that aren’t necessarily cost-effective to businesses. This leads to a lot of frustration for companies thinking of investing in a portal as the traditional model forces them to exceed their budgets for features they don't want or need, without being able to deliver the results they wanted. In contrast, a Lean Portal is lightweight and easy to deploy. It's built using modern Web 2.0 technologies, such as AJAX, widgets, representational state transfer (REST) and WOA/SOA approaches. According to
Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients ...
, organizations who opted for a Lean Portal found that it delivered more than 80% of the required functionality within months of launching, without compromising security or advanced integration requirements.


Fundamental features

An enterprise portal has two main functions;
integration Integration may refer to: Biology * Multisensory integration * Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technolo ...
and presentation. It must be able to access information from multiple and varied sources and manipulate that information through the portal. Other common features include; * Single sign-on — enterprise portals can provide single sign-on capabilities between their users and various other systems. This requires a user to authenticate only once. * Integration — the connection of functions and data from multiple systems into new components/
portlet The Java Portlet Specification defines a contract between the portlet container and portlets and provides a convenient programming model for Java portlet developers. Portlets are pluggable user interface software components that are managed a ...
s/
web part A Web Part, also called a Web Widget, is an ASP.NET server control which is added to a Web Part Zone on Web Part Pages by users at run time. The controls enable end users to modify the content, appearance, and behavior of Web pages directly from a ...
s with an integrated navigation between these components. * Federation — the integration of content provided by other portals, typically through the use of
WSRP WSRP (910 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include b ...
or similar technologies. * Customization — Users can customize the look and feel of their environment. Customers who are using EIPs can edit and design their own web sites which are full of their own personality and own style; they can also choose the specific content and services they prefer. Also refers to the ability to prioritize most appropriate content based on attributes of the user and metadata of the available content. * Personalization — Personalization is more about matching content with the user. Based on a user profile, personalization uses rules to match the "services", or content, to the specific user. To some degree, you can think of the two like this: customization is in hands of the end user, personalization is not. Of course actual personalization is often based on your role or job function within the portal context. * Access control — the ability for portal to limit specific types of content and services users have access to. For example, a company's proprietary information can be entitled for only company employee access. This access rights may be provided by a portal administrator or by a provisioning process. Access control lists manage the mapping between portal content and services over the portal user base. * Enterprise search — search enterprise content using enterprise search. * Omni channel enablement — present the pages optimally on all channels and devices. * Analytics — track and monitor user behaviour on portal pages (such as navigation, clicks, downloads, page exits and such) and generate reports.


Marketplace

In 2014, independent analyst firm Real Story Group divided the Enterprise Portals technology marketplace into two categories: Infrastructure and Specialist vendors. The two categories include ten vendors that the firm evaluates in its ''Enterprise Portals Report''.Portals & Content Integration Research Report
Real Story Group (June, 2014). Retrieved on 04 June, 2014.


Common applications

*
Content Management System A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
* Document Management System * Collaboration Software * Business process management systems *
Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a r ...
*
Business Intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...
* Intranet *
Wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...
*
Blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
*
RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
* Knowledge Management System


See also

* List of enterprise portal vendors * Intranet portal * Intranet


References

{{Reflist


External links


JSR 286: Portlet Specification 2.0

JSR 168: Portlet Specification




* ttp://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/intranet-articles/intranet-portal-solutions-die-evolve-move-to-web-2.0/ Intranet portal solutions die, evolve & move to Intranet 2.0
Top Intranet Trends: Usability, Access, Personalization

Employee Portals

Ph.D. Thesis based on Enterprise Portal explaining about the major characteristics, development methodology, etc.

Mynordstrom employee portal

Mynordstrom Employee Login portal
Web portals Portal software Strategic management Information technology management