Enterprise portal

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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 portals. Enterprise portals provide a secure unified access point, [1] often in the form of a web-based user interface, and are designed to aggregate and personalize information through application-specific portlets.

Contents

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. [2] This contrasts with a corporate portal which is structured for roles within an organization.

History

The mid-1990s saw the advent of public web portals. 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. 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. [3]

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 of application server technology. In 2003, vendors of Java-based enterprise portals produced a standard known as JSR-168. 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, 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. [4]

Lean portal

In 2009, Gartner 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, 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. [5]

Fundamental features

An enterprise portal has two main functions; integration and presentation. [6] It must be able to access information from multiple and varied sources and manipulate that information through the portal.

Other common features include;

Marketplace

In 2014, independent analyst firm Real Story Group divided the Enterprise Portals technology marketplace into two categories: Infrastructure and Specialist vendors. [8] The two categories include ten vendors that the firm evaluates in its Enterprise Portals Report. [9]

Common applications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intranet</span> Network of private resources in an organization

An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in contrast to public networks, such as the Internet, but uses the same technology based on the Internet protocol suite.

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 displaying information ; often, the user can configure which ones to display. Variants of portals include mashups and intranet dashboards for executives and managers. The extent to which content is displayed in a "uniform way" may depend on the intended user and the intended purpose, as well as the diversity of the content. Very often design emphasis is on a certain "metaphor" for configuring and customizing the presentation of the content and the chosen implementation framework or code libraries. In addition, the role of the user in an organization may determine which content can be added to the portal or deleted from the portal configuration.

In business, an intranet strategy is the use of an intranet and associated hardware and software to obtain one or more organizational objectives. An intranet is an access-restricted network used internally in an organization. An intranet uses the same concepts and technologies as the World Wide Web and Internet. This includes web browsers and servers running on the internet protocol suite and using Internet protocols such as FTP, TCP/IP, HTML, and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

Portlets are pluggable user interface software components that are managed and displayed in a web portal. A portlet responds to requests from a web client with and generates dynamic content. A portlet is managed by a portlet container.

Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) is an OASIS-approved network protocol standard designed for communications with remote portlets.

Enterprise content management (ECM) extends the concept of content management by adding a timeline for each content item and, possibly, enforcing processes for its creation, approval, and distribution. Systems using ECM generally provide a secure repository for managed items, analog or digital. They also include one methods for importing content to bring manage new items, and several presentation methods to make items available for use. Although ECM content may be protected by digital rights management (DRM), it is not required. ECM is distinguished from general content management by its cognizance of the processes and procedures of the enterprise for which it is created.

A Java Portlet Specification defines a contract between portlets and their containers; they provides a convenient programming model for Java portlet developers. It is defined through various Java Specification Requests (JSRs).

A mashup, in web development, is a web page or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single graphical interface. For example, a user could combine the addresses and photographs of their library branches with a Google map to create a map mashup. The term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open application programming interfaces and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data. The term mashup originally comes from creating something by combining elements from two or more sources.

Plumtree Software is a former software company founded in 1996 by product managers and engineers from Oracle and Informix with funding from Sequoia Capital. The company was a pioneer of extending the portal concept popularized by Yahoo! from the web to enterprise computing. BEA Systems acquired Plumtree on October 20, 2005, and Oracle subsequently acquired BEA. Plumtree's former portal product continues as part of Oracle's product line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe LiveCycle</span> Java EE server software

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES4) is a service-oriented architecture Java EE server software product from Adobe Systems used to build applications that automate a broad range of business processes for enterprises and government agencies. LiveCycle ES4 is an enterprise document and form platform that helps you capture and process information, deliver personalized communications, and protect and track sensitive information. It is used for purposes such as account opening, services, and benefits enrollment, correspondence management, requests for proposal processes, and other manual-based workflows. LiveCycle ES4 incorporates new features with a particular focus on mobile devices. LiveCycle applications also function in both online and offline environments. These capabilities are enabled through the use of Adobe Reader, HTML/PhoneGap, and Flash Player clients to reach desktop computers and mobile devices.

The Sun Java System Portal Server is a component of the Sun Java Platform, Enterprise Edition, a software system that supports a wide range of enterprise computing needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SharePoint</span> Web application platform

SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates natively with Microsoft 365. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, although it is also used for sharing information through an intranet, implementing internal applications, and for implementing business processes.

Oracle WebCenter is Oracle's portfolio of user engagement software products built on top of the JSF-based Oracle Application Development Framework. There are three main products that make up the WebCenter portfolio, and they can be purchased together as a suite or individually:

On-Device Portals (ODPs) allow mobile phone users to easily browse, purchase and use mobile content and services. An ODP platform enables operators to provide a consistent and branded on-device experience across their broadening portfolio of services and typically provides on-device catalogs of content for purchase, deep links to WAP portals, customer care functionality and rich media services such as full track music, TV and video.

An intranet portal is the gateway that unifies access to enterprise information and applications on an intranet. It is a tool that helps a company manage its data, applications, and information more easily through personalized views. Some portal solutions are able to integrate legacy applications, objects from other portals, and handle thousands of user requests. In a corporate enterprise environment, it is also known as an enterprise portal.

WebSphere Portal is an enterprise software used to build and manage web portals. It provides access to web content and applications, while delivering personalized experiences for users.

Search-based applications are software applications in which a search engine platform is used as the core infrastructure for information access and reporting. Search-based applications use semantic technologies to aggregate, normalize and classify unstructured, semi-structured and/or structured content across multiple repositories, and employ natural language technologies for accessing the aggregated information.

Web data services refers to service-oriented architecture (SOA) applied to data sourced from the World Wide Web and the Internet as a whole. Web data services enable maximal mashup, reuse, and sharing of structured data, semi-structured information, and unstructured information.

The JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is a subscription-based/open-source Java EE-based application server runtime platform used for building, deploying, and hosting highly-transactional Java applications and services developed and maintained by Red Hat. The JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is part of Red Hat's Enterprise Middleware portfolio of software. Because it is Java-based, the JBoss application server operates across platforms; it is usable on any operating system that supports Java. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform was originally called JBoss and was developed by the eponymous company JBoss, acquired by Red Hat in 2006.

Intrexx is a cross-platform integrated development environment for the creation and operation of multilingual web-based applications, intranets, social intranets, enterprise portals and customer portals (extranets) as well as Industry 4.0 solutions as of 2018. A portal is created based on the drag and drop principle. Intrexx is a low-code development platform. Most applications can be created via drag & drop but manual coding can be added where necessary.

References

  1. ↑ Boye, Janus (2005-01-18). "Portal Software: Passing Fad or Real Value?". CMS Watch.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ Collins, Heidi (2001). Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line. AMACOM Division of the American Management Association. p. 2. ISBN   0814425607 . Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Knorr, Eric (2004-01-09). "The new enterprise portal". InfoWorld. Archived from the original on 2007-09-10.
  4. ↑ Urbach, Nils (2009-11-19). "An empirical investigation of employee portal success". Elsevier.
  5. ↑ "So, What is a Lean Portal Really? | Backbase Blog". Backbase . Archived from the original on 2013-01-19.
  6. ↑ Barber, Dean (2006). Portal Building. Lulu.com. p. 6. ISBN   1411661591 . Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Shivakumar, Shailesh Kumar (2015). A Complete Guide to Portals and User Experience Platforms (1st ed.). Chapman and Hall/CRC. ISBN   978-1498725491.
  8. ↑ 2014 Enterprise Portals Logo Landscape Archived 2014-06-07 at the Wayback Machine . Real Story Group Blog (04 June 2014). Retrieved on 04 June, 2014.
  9. ↑ Portals & Content Integration Research Report Archived 2014-06-07 at the Wayback Machine . Real Story Group (June, 2014). Retrieved on 04 June, 2014.
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