What is a Portal?
The concept of a portal is straight forward: organize access to vital information and tools into a single point of access using web browser and search technology. Many portals can be tailored to present information based on the needs of the user to make it personally meaningful. In a nutshell, a well-designed portal brings together the people, the information and key processes of an organization to improve productivity.
Implementing a successful portal generally provides:
- A single sign-on and common, consistent user interface that supports personalization
- Maximization of the value of corporate data and applications
- Unified content searching across the enterprise
- Improved overall security
Like any information technology initiative, a portal project must be built on clearly defined objectives to enhance organization productivity and boost bottom line results. A few examples of information and tools to expose via a portal include:
- Integration up and down the value chain from Supplier Extranets to Distributor
- Access to ERP, CRM and legacy systems plus external data sources
- Personalized, quick access to unstructured data: spreadsheets, Word documents, images, etc.
- Access to structured data (corporate data in databases) and Business Intelligence (BI)
- Alerts, notification and other mission critical information to users with a need to know
Encourage collaboration through:
- Document management and versioning
- Identification of subject matter experts and preferred communication channels
- Project Management tools and processes
- Communication tools: email, virtual meetings; instant messaging
Integro’s Role in Developing your Portal
Integro can help with all aspects of implementing a portal for your organization. We can facilitate sessions to identify and prioritize the highest value applications and information to include in the portal. We can collaborate with your IT department in the design and implementation of the portal. We can also develop specific portal applications. We work collaboratively with our clients to leverage expertise and build the best and most cost effective solution.
One good way to understand the value of portals and how they can fit within your organization is to have an idea of what others have accomplished. Often, people think of portals only as tools for use within an organization. The four examples below are solutions that Integro has delivered that extend portal functionality to customers, agents and suppliers.
Portal for employees and customers - An Information Clearinghouse Organization with 75 employees that needs to be able to share and manage its information assets among employees and clients
Portal to connect agents, the company and suppliers - A start up insurance company with a business plan focused on levering highly automated business processes to maximize employee productivity hired Integro to build an entirely web-based insurance management system. The system spans the value chain from agent interaction through policy management to the backend rating engines and re-insurers. It features a portal interface to centralized data and policy management making all customer information available to employees for customer support, policy administration and management of the agent channel.
Portal to leverage legacy data - A division of one of the largest financial services companies in the world hired Integro to create a portal that would allow their external insurance agents to communicate and share information internally to employees. The solution integrated several legacy systems to leverage the value of the existing systems without replacing them and provided better communication between agents and customers, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
Portal built around order management - A leading commercial printing company specializing in custom screen-printed promotional items depends on nearly 15,000 distributors to sell their products. Integro collaborated with the company to create a strategic eBusiness roadmap, designed and developed their website, which included a distribution channel portal to centralize communication with their distributors securely through the web. The Portal includes online ordering, viewing of order status, and content management.
Integro is currently offering special services for IBM WebSphere Portal Express. Learn more about this exciting offer (and other Portal services) by clicking on this link: Affordable Portal.