The enterprise portal is your single point for data access and publication across a distributed network. Because core portal functionality requires the linking of different data stores within one metadata framework, the result is an efficiently organized set of corporate data. The need for an enterprise portal solution reflects the growing need for companies to identify and consolidate their data in a structured environment. Since traditional IT strategies for storing and accessing data have simply not been enough, the use of the web along with its embedded search engine power not only unleashes information that may not have been readily accessible in the past, but also provides an organized categorization capability that would have required detailed database designs in the past. Today, organizations choosing to plan a subject-based categorization strategy are able to easily implement an available corporate directory on all desktops accessing the company?s Intranet.

Business Benefits

Consider the amount of time spent trying to locate target items (programs, data, reports, applications, web sites, etc.). How often do employees come up empty handed? More important, how often is the located target the least optimal, yet still used to substantiate or fuel business decisions? Enterprise portals allow organizations to plan search results before the searches are even initiated. As information becomes ready for prime time, it can easily join the existing portal-based infrastructure.

Well-architected solutions represent a business-based set of electronic company assets, all within a mouse click of those employees granted appropriate security. Instead of searching outside of your organization for factual support, employees would benefit from the reuse and revitalization of many of the already developed sets of corporate documentation. A well-designed portal will link all of these currently disparate sets of knowledge with existing databases, data warehouses, installed software packages, and any other aspect of the enterprise that is organized and related to the underlying metadata base.