Even with the dot-com downturn, companies are sticking by their eBusiness
objectives. Companies now have a greater need for integrated IT business
solutions in order to: compete, discover new ways to grow their business, be
first to market, improve efficiencies and effectiveness, exploit synergies,
nurture strategic relationships etc. The concept of enterprise portals is fast
becoming the face of eBusiness–focussed, personalized, and productive. An
enterprise portal transforms the way companies do business by allowing secure
personalized access to business processes and corporate data by any employee,
customer, or partner with a Web browser.
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Personalization
One of the key reasons that organizations are starting to use portals as the
interface to their eBusiness initiatives is that portals can be customized to
the needs of each user or group of users. Personalization is the component that
brings about a significant increase in productivity. Effective enterprise
portals are the ones that personalize the entire experience by using the
structure, processes, and identity information that is already stored in your
network directory services. You can therefore create a unique experience for
users with different business roles, locations, addresses, genders or salary
ranges. Portals are generally personalized according to business roles, which
apply to business objectives. Role-based personalization provides all employees
who have the same role (for example, account managers) with access to the same
resources and information. Portals that are tightly integrated with a
centralized directory will not only deliver a higher RoI but will deliver a
lower ongoing cost.
Security in the business context
A portal can provide several layers of network security, although most
portal solutions address only the minimum layer of security by authenticating to
a centralized corporate directory to gain access to a portal. Most important is
the portal’s ability to integrate with existing security schemes for
authentication and authorization.
One-step authentication
Security need not mean that the system is difficult to use. It should be
able to provide one-step authentication to content that is integrated into the
portal. The authentication credentials should be encrypted and if the portal
solution were integrated into the directory, the authentication credentials
would be stored in a centralized directory so you can access your information
from any device and from any location.
Integration of information and business processes
The portal solution should be able to integrate various islands of
information, which is scattered across the enterprise. Only then will it have
added value. For instance, it should be able to integrate with other enterprise
applications like Exchange, Lotus Notes* and Novell GroupWise. Providing
integrated information and processes also helps employees collaborate more
effectively. When all employees see the same information at the same time, but
in the context of their personal work environment, they are able to come to a
consensus and make well-informed decisions very quickly.
Key components for building a business portal are: |
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Planning for a higher RoI
Estimating your RoI will break down the barriers for solutions addressed at
different business needs as well as ongoing improvements to increase your
company’s competitive edge. The first step to creating higher RoI is to
identify the problems that you need to solve.
If you can identify, document and set up a measurement matrix for the
internal and external issues faced by your organization, you will be able to
establish the business objectives that a portal solution can address. Aligning
the business objectives with those of the group or department that the solution
will support, is necessary to justify the investment you will make as well as
provide a measurement for your ongoing success.
BY Satyen Parikh The author is area
director, Indian subcontinent, Onward Novell Software (I).