Tie it together and open it up with Enterprise Information Portals

Page III

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Integration. In many ways an EIP is really just an amalgamation of business software programs within the enterprise (ERP, CRM, supply chain, Sales Force Automation, Web sites, data warehouses, legacy mainframes, etc.) and data and services external to the enterprise — all of which are accessed from a single Web-based interface. One good test of quality integration is support for single-sign on. As business grows, so does the problem of managing multiple passwords, roles and permissions for multiple resources. A portal solution that solves this problem must integrate smart and deep. When it comes to portals, the interface is the easy part. The behind-the-scenes integration of data, applications and services is what defines true value.

Personalization. Users should be able to choose what appears on their window to the enterprise — within certain role-defined constraints. This includes subscription and notification capabilities wherein users can opt to have information or applications delivered to their desktop — controlling when it is delivered and how it is presented. A business executive, for example, could set up an alert on his desktop indicating when daily reports based on the analysis of business information arrive in his e-mail. A supplier, on the other hand, could have an up-to-the-minute view of enterprise inventory broken down by branch location appearing in a user-defined area on the desktop.

Content management. Content management in the EIP context requires directory and indexing capabilities to automatically manage the ever-growing store of structured and unstructured data residing in data warehouses, Web sites, ERP systems, legacy applications, etc. Using meta data to define types of information, good content management can serve as the backbone for a system of corporate decision-making where business intelligence tools mine data and report findings back to key role-players in the enterprise.

Content management may also involve going outside the enterprise, employing crawlers that find pertinent data via the internet, incorporate it into existing systems, index it and deliver it to appropriate analysts, knowledge workers or decision-makers.

Two other important areas of consideration are subsumed under the category of content management: Search and Publishing. Search capabilities should allow users to get at appropriate information based on criteria entered into an engine. It also includes easy navigation of and access to corporate information (organized by the content management system), providing the ability to drill down through data to get at the information required by specific users. Publishing capabilities, on the other hand, should make it easy for workers in the enterprise to put business information into the e-business system. It should support all the main data types and give users the ability to classify access to the information being published according to defined roles or individuals within the enterprise.

Business Intelligence. As many of the vendors who come to the market from a data warehousing background know, an EIP without business intelligence (BI) is of little use to an enterprise trying to turn their business information into competitive advantage. Traditional business intelligence involves those tools and technologies that perform data warehousing, data mining, online analytical processing (OLAP), etc. EIPs can bring these tools to appropriate individuals scattered throughout the enterprise in an integrated manner.

Collaboration. One of the advantages of EIP is increased workflow productivity and interaction between and among employees, partners and suppliers. Collaborative functionality can range from tracking e-mail to developing workplace communities. Some EIPs might allow workers in different parts of the world to easily create virtual meeting rooms where they can conference by chat, voice or video communication.

Many of the vendors competing in the EIP space have previous experience providing vertical portals that address some of the functionality delimited above. The problem with these independent portals has been one of integration on the enterprise level. A sales department might use a CRM solution that has no way of communicating with the BI tools used by Marketing. Or there exist different ERP systems for each branch of a retail enterprise — these ERP systems may help branch managers see the inventory for their store alone, but they do little good in giving that same manager a view of enterprise inventory as a whole.

A true EIP can be seen as a horizontal solution bringing together the vertical functionality of these portals and integrating it all into one system, accessible by all parties involved with the enterprise — employees, partners, suppliers and customers.

EIPs act as horizontal portals, integrating the functionality of vertical portals

Yet out-of-the-box packaged EIPs can also be seen as vertical in the sense that vendors will target certain functionality to specific industries. The portal needs of the customer-care-intensive healthcare industry, for example, will certainly differ from those of a manufacturer doing business in an exclusively B2B context.

Integration matters

Integration capability is one of the differentiation factors in the EIP marketplace. Some vendors — who tend to stress their out-of-the-box portal solutions — address this issue with prepackaged and extensible adapters that go by a whole host of names (Gadgets, MiniApps, Portlets, E-Clips, etc.). While these adapters help deliver applications, information and services to the presentation layer of the portal, they do not necessarily achieve interoperability between and among applications spread throughout the enterprise.

Other vendors — who tend to characterize themselves as portal infrastructure providers — stress the importance of integrating applications at a lower level. This kind of integration enters the territory of EAI (Enterprise Application Integration). While more costly and time-consuming to implement, it promises deeper functionality in a way that can allow for features such as single sign-on functionality and universal search and categorization across all enterprise resources.

In our estimation, at this early stage in the EIP marketplace, a lot of attention is being focused on the quality and quantity of prepackaged adapter libraries bundled with portal products. If this becomes the primary arena of competition for EIP vendors, we can expect the pure EIPs to win the game.

One of the leading vendors in this regard is Plumtree Software. Their Corporate Portal uses Plumtree Portal GadgetsTM to deliver applications and content to the portal user. According to the corporate Web site, Plumtree has "established partnerships with over 60 systems integrators and 30 technology and content providers" — to develop Gadgets that embed "content and services from applications of every major class." Plumtree has also created a Web site that developers can access to download new Gadgets as partnerships grow.

Plumtree is not alone in providing these kinds of adapter libraries. Other vendors include Viador, Hummingbird, Sybase, DataChannel, SAP...

As the market matures, however, larger organizations will increasingly realize the competitive value of going deeper than front-end integration. Few vendors at this point offer their own complete front-to-back-end portal integration product — and beware of those that claim they do. For this kind of solution it would be wise to investigate a vendor's partnership network and prepare oneself for a long implementation.

One so-called "portal infrastructure" provider is Verity. Offering Portal One as an out-of-the-box solution, Verity provides "connectors" for integration at the presentation level. But with a background in full text search and knowledge management solutions, Verity tends to push for deeper integration using "gateways" that tie enterprise systems tightly together, allowing for the kind of searching the company specializes in. Verity also offers an extensive partnership network to round off a portal solution in areas that exceed its core competencies.

The level of integration that best serves an organization can only be decided on a case-by-case basis. Where the very notion of an EIP may face organizational skepticism, it may be best to start with an out-of-the-box solution that has the flexibility to grow as its value becomes apparent. And unless your enterprise is already fully dependent on a specific software vendor, beware of portal solutions that depend too heavily on proprietary application or e-business frameworks. This would be counter to the future direction of EIPs in general.

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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.