Tie it together and open it up with Enterprise Information Portals
Patrick Fitzgerald, Consultant
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The idea
of a portal is hardly new — at least in Internet terms. It's a
tool or service that brings information together and opens it
up to a wide audience. Add some personalization and you've got
something not much different than Yahoo! — one of the most
popular portals on the planet.
But the
term "Enterprise Information Portal" (EIP) causes confusion.
This is most likely due to industry hype - the attempt by
various industry players to define EIP according to their own
product offerings.
For the
purpose of this discussion, we will define EIP simply and
broadly to mean a secure, Web-based interface that provides
a single point of integration for and access to information,
applications and services for all people involved in the
enterprise — including employees, partners, suppliers
and customers.
While some
industry theorists differ in their conception of what an EIP
should include (business intelligence, collaborative
functionality, decision processing, content management, etc.),
the argument is primarily academic. The above definition is
flexible enough to include most EIP products on the market
today while insisting on some basic features necessary to
distinguish EIPs from other software solutions (Web-based
interface, single-point of integration, common access).
Nevertheless, conflicting understandings of what
constitutes an EIP exist. This stems in part from the fact
that so many different kinds of vendors with different
backgrounds come at EIP from different directions.
Some
companies have entered the EIP marketplace with backgrounds in
Data Warehousing and Analytical Applications (Brio, Business
Objects, Hummingbird, etc.). This is a logical migration. Such
industry sectors as Data Mining and OLAP lead to Business
Intelligence — which for many is a leading benefit of any EIP
solution.
Other
companies have entered the EIP market from an application
server/e-business platform background (Broadvision, IBM, Iona,
etc.). This is also a natural migration path. As application
servers increasingly become commodified, players in this
market space have attempted to increase functionality by
placing disparate products and solutions on top of the app
server — marketing the package as one overreaching offering.
The next logical step is to integrate it all with an EIP.
Not to be
out-maneuvered, many of high-tech's big players have added EIP
solutions, coming at the market from a more generalized
business software background (SAP, Computer Associates,
Sybase, etc.). These companies have long maintained
significant footholds in the markets for ERP, supply chain,
Sales Force Automation, CRM, etc.
Still
other companies have entered the market with little history at
all, providing EIP solutions as their primary focus (Plumtree,
Viador, Data Channel, etc.). Such bottom-up portal providers
are often unencumbered by legacy integration issues and may
offer the best pure EIP solutions of all.
Finally —
to confuse matters further — there exists another subset of
prominent companies who, while not explicitly offering EIP
products, provide comprehensive e-business solutions that
address many of the issues that Enterprise Information Portals
claim to solve (Siebel Systems, ATG, BEA, Allaire,
HP/Bluestone, Microsoft, etc.). These companies offer products
that can manage content management, personalization,
e-business transactions, etc. Developers building java-based
enterprise solutions with BEA WebLogic, for example, have the
tools to develop a Web-based interface that integrates
information, applications and services — in other words they
have the tools to build an EIP solution.

Different
vendors from different industry sectors have entered the EIP
marketplace.
Naturally,
any given EIP solution will emphasize the core competencies of
the company producing it. We can expect Brio's Brio.Portal to
stress the advantages of disseminating business intelligence
throughout the enterprise. Likewise, we can expect a company
like Broadvision — with a background in e-business — to stress
EIP as the ultimate in business Webification.
All EIPs,
then, are not created equal. What constitutes quality should
be the degree to which a particular EIP succeeds at bringing
together all the e-functionality of a given
enterprise.
Ignoring
vertical industry-specific needs, a quality Enterprise
Information Portal should include the following features:
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TechMetrix Research is a technically
focused analyst firm focused on e-business application development needs.
Based in Boston, Mass., the firm publishes comparison reports and product
reviews designed to aid enterprises with decision making and to keep pace
with the fast-moving e-business market.
TechMetrix is a U.S.-based subsidiary
of SQLI, a European company that offers on-site development services to
international organizations. SQLI specializes in e-business project
development.