Portals

1
Portals

• Brian Soldera/Timo Hiiback
• BUS5233 Seminar in e-Business
• October 23, 2006

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Portal

• What is it?
• Gateway web site that offers a set of services
• Environment through which a user can gain access
  to web-based information and tools from a single
  Internet location
• Websites that can be customized for different
  user groups and that enable a user to locate and
  share knowledge and data, participate in business
  processes, and collaborate.

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Portals

• Single point of access to content and core
  services via a single sign-on
• Managed on-line experience, dynamically supplied
  via an integrated environment of databases,
  application windows, and cookies
• Accessed using a web browser
• Integration of information from various sources
• Ie Newsfeeds, stock quotes , weather,
  entertainment, etc.
• Web based access to intranets, extranets
• External and internal applications

4
Why

• Establish and environment where disparate
  sections of information can be seamlessly
  integrated and presented to the user, with a
  logical flow connecting applications to human
  workflow tasks.

5
Types

• Commercial
• Yahoo, AOL, etc.
• Enterprise
• Focal point for interaction with the firm
• Stakeholders - Employees, customers, customers,
  suppliers, investors, regulators, etc.

6
Common Features

• Single Sign-on
• Browser Based Access
• Personalization and customization features that
  provide users with a unique individualized web
  experience
• Linked Directly to Business Processes
• Security and transactional capability

7
Common Services

• Calendaring
• Discussion groups
• Announcements and reports
• Searches
• E-mail and address books
• News, weather, maps
• Stock quotes
• Etc.

8
Components

• Constructed using anything from a loosely
  collection of static web pages to a full
  application server

9
Evolution

• First Portals simply search engines
• Today Robotic crawlers that dynamically push
  information to the website. Tools that access
  integrated data from distinct enterprise
  applications and platforms. Applications that
  customize website content.
• Constructed using anything from a loosely
  collection of static web pages to a full
  application server

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Application Server

• Three Tier Architecture1st Tier Web Browser
  or PDA2nd Tier Web server includes business
  logic, - dispatches HTTP requests from the first
  tier3rd Tier back end, contains databases,
  information servers etc.

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Portlets

• Portlets interface for the development of web
  components that can be shared and exchanged among
  portal vendors to provide enhanced
  functionality.
• Reusable, Shareable components allowing for the
  easier adding on of services

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Portlets

• Screen Sections can have portlets that run or
  link to applications that users have access to
• Java based web components that process requests
  and generate dynamic content
• Pluggable user interface components that provide
  a presentation layer

13
Commercial Portal Solutions

• IBM WebSphere
• Oracle i9AS Server
• Sun Application Server
• BEA WebLogic
• Open Source Solutions Based on
• Apache web servers

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Characteristics

• For the user
• Customization of the interface
• Selection, layout of presentation
• Content Displayed
• Single source for various forms of information
• Security login
• For the provider
• User preference tracking
• Navigational tracking
• Frequency of usage tracking

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5 Aspects to Portal Design

• Visual Presentation appeal
• Interactivity personalization
• Utility effective without being too complex
• Breadth must understand boundries
• Depth ensure no gaps in information

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Portal Tools

• Visual Hyperlinks
• Bookmarks
• Coordinated Views
• Overviews
• Filters
• Magnifying Glasses

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Design Characteristics

• Visual presentation
• Interactivity/Personalization
• Utility
• Breadth/Scope
• Depth of information
• Where is it and what does it look like?

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Business Aspects

• Often seen as a means of changing how businesses
  conduct their business
• Objectives
• Leverage technologies
• Improved customer service
• Streamlined internal business processes
• Consolidation of distributed applications
• Global expansion

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Business Aspects Commercial Portals

• Popular destination spots
• Attract a significant amount of Internet
  advertising dollars
• Present content in a walled garden environment
• Original commercial portals presented a
  friendly environment with a pass-through to the
  WWW

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User Benefits

• One place for information/services
• Standard set of tools (web-based e-mail,
  calendaring)
• Web browser based access no special application
  clients required
• Personalized and customized information

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Success Factorsfor Portal Development

• Clearly defined objectives
• Communication to the target audience
• Abilities of the target audience
• User friendliness

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Examples

• www.northerngenesis.com
• Consortium of Northern Ontario Municipalities and
  Non-Profit Groups
• Portal launched for
• Economic development e-trade
• Tourism
• Health care
• E-Government

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TBayTel Portal Features

• Allow single sign-on
• Allow customer feedback
• Customer surveys
• QA
• Links to CRTC rulings
• Support for Regional Homepages
• Access to Sponsorship funding

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Features

• Separate view for Business and Residential
  Customers
• Ability to integrate on-line services (eg
  Webmail)
• Simple, intuitive system
• Sales through shopping cart
• Download ringtones etc
• Access to service maps / coverage

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Features

• Ability to
• display products and service info
• display regional service info
• create ad hoc forms or contests
• search the webpage
• View/Pay Bills on-line
• personalize (myTBayTel)
• view job postings
• apply for jobs on-line

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Examples

• E-Government
• more efficiently delivered public services
• Making government more business-like
• Rapid development of IT and the increasing
  awareness of its value
• Agency-by-agency data entry and fragmentation

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Conclusion

• Portals are a focal point for information display
• Inherent functionality permits custom display
• Interfaces to internal and external data sources
  and business systems
• Commercial and enterprise applications

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References

• Turban, E., King, D., and Lee, J. (2006).
  Electronic commerce A managerial perspective.
  Pearson Prentice Hall, U.S. Pearson Education
  Inc.
• Novotny, J., Russell, M., and Wehrens, O. (2004).
  Gridsphere An Advanced Portal Framwork. IEEE
  Computer Society.
• http//www.wsu.edu/portal-project
• Zhu, F., Wang, A., and Ju, Y. (2004). A Framework
  to Develop a University Information Portal. IEEE
  Computer Society

29
References

• Gant, J. and Burley Gant, D. (2002). Web portal
  functionality and State government E-service,
  35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on
  System Sciences.
• Galligan, P.T., Hopkins, J.L., and Kehoe, D.F.
  (2005). An Approach to Deliver and Early Return
  on Investment during the Development of a
  Corporate Web Portal, Proceedings of the 2005
  IEEE International Conference on Services
  Computing.

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References

• Anonymous (2005). Web portals growing once again,
  International Journal of Productivity and
  Performance Management, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp.
  61-65.
• Wang, Q., Li, Q., and Shang, Y. (2003).
  Collaborative knowledge management in the
  Extended Enterprise supported by an information
  portal,
• Dewan, R., Freimer, M., and Seidmann, A. (1999).
  Portal Kombat The Battle between Web Pages to
  become the Point of Entry to the World Wide Web,
  Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International
  Conference on System Sciences, IEEE, 1999.