InfoWorld writes that “the browser-based portal is fast becoming the enterprise UI and the nexus for a new breed of integration and app dev.”
The enterprise portal has evolved from vague ’90s notions of “empowering” employees with a document library to practical, tailored solutions for departments or jobs hobbled by a lack of integration. According to portal vendors, customers, and consultants, the trick to successful deployment is identifying related business processes, aggregating related apps and data within the portal framework, and establishing individual user identity as the organizing principle — all while avoiding new coding as much as possible.
Features vary widely, but portal offerings tend to have roughly the same objective: serve up composite, user-customizable control panels built from existing apps and data — similar to what Sun once termed the Webtop. Just as the forthcoming Longhorn version of Windows seeks to deepen desktop connections to the enterprise fabric, B2E portals are advancing on the desktop from the opposite direction, pushing thin enterprise clients through the browser and wrapping them around the needs of individual users.
A second article writes that “from integration to identity management, a well-deployed portal requires a carefully crafted technical strategy.”
[E M E R G I C . o r g]