Portals are heralded as the beginning of a new phase of corporate
computing that promises to transform an organisation's access to,
and use of, its information sources, says Angela Ashenden.
Why the interest and the confusion?
Vendor hype
surrounding portals is the primary cause of confusion in the
market. The diverse range of applications and different
technologies currently being used to create portals is also a
contributory factor. There are also a significant number of vendors
who are using the term "portal" in their marketing to describe a
simple Web interface for their application
Providing easy access to corporate information is an important
concern for most business organisations as they continue to grow
and adapt to the new information and knowledge economy. The advent
and subsequent growth of the Web and, in particular, intranets, has
afforded corporate users access to new types of information, some
of which is beyond the control of the traditional IT department.
Portals are seen as a possible response to increased user
expectations about information access and delivery.
Portals also provide a tangible home for several niche technologies
that have interested the corporate community for years, such as
search and personalisation technologies. They also provide a
Web-based focal point for collaboration and exchanging
information.
Companies are not just eager to use portals to cope with increased
flows of business information and processes and to improve internal
relationships. Many are starting to use portal technology to
provide access to e-commerce and e-business services, and to enrich
relationships with customers, partners,
 | | "The workspace portal signals a
move away from the traditional Windows-based desktop user interface
to a browser-based collaborative interface" | | | | | |
| | Source: Ovum | | |
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suppliers and investors.
The evolution of portals
Over the last 30 years, the user
interface developed from a single command line into a user-friendly
graphical interface. By the 1990s, however, it seemed to reach a
plateau, with no vendor successfully introducing a real
alternative. Until the Web - and the portal - came along.
Initially, the term "portal" referred to well-known Internet search
and navigation sites that provided a starting point for Web
consumers to explore and access information on the Web. While these
public Internet portals continue to flourish, the market for portal
technology is increasingly focused on the better delivery of
corporate information.
Portal technology has significantly matured since the public search
sites were first built, and has been used to build a diverse range
of portal types including application service provider portals,
customer relationship management portals, "vortals" (B2B
marketplace portals) and knowledge portals. The next development is
the workspace portal.
The workspace portal
Unlike consumer Internet portals, an
enterprise portal is more than just a launch pad to other Web sites
and information sources. Ideally, an enterprise portal represents a
"destination" - a place where users "live" and work on the
corporate network. We call this type of enterprise portal a
workspace portal. It does not act as a gateway that users access to
go somewhere else. Rather, it is the environment where they stay
and perform their work - in other words, the portal is their
desktop.
Ovum defines the workspace portal as: A single coherent integrated
portal that presents its users with all the information they need
to carry out their job.
To capture and retain corporate use, the workspace portal needs to
integrate all the business information and tools that support a
user's job or specific role. Portals that focus only on content are
inadequate. The architecture not only needs to provide broad access
to a range of corporate information sources and application
services, but also sophisticated value-added portal functions, such
as unified search, categorisation, embedded application services,
integration, collaboration, administration and security.
The potential of portals
Workspace portals are challenging
the fundamental assumptions of the current models of information
processing at the desktop. The workspace portal signals a move away
from the traditional Windows-based (single) desktop user interface
to a browser-based collaborative interface - positioning the Web
browser as the gateway to a set of shared services and knowledge
resources. The focus of the corporate desktop is also shifting to
the collaborative productivity of this new "Webtop" environment. We
are at the beginning of a revolution in the form and function of
the corporate desktop. This has been sign-posted by developments
from such companies as Microsoft and IBM.
Microsoft's entry into the portal market with SharePoint Portal
Server demonstrates the importance of this market, and also
highlights its need to avoid losing its monopoly of the desktop
market. Having owned the corporate desktop for almost a decade with
Windows, the software giant's crown is under threat as portals
promise to become the new corporate interface.
Workspace portals have implications for the business models of all
major IT industry players, not only Microsoft. As workspace portal
developers continue to focus on accessing all corporate information
within one application-independent interface (not segregated
applications), it threatens to make today's Windows-based metaphors
look as obsolete as IBM's 3270 terminal interface.
www.ovum.com