BUSINESS - Considerations for implementing corporate portals

BUSINESS - Considerations for implementing corporate portals
(CopyRight 2009; Benjamin Goh, www.bensglobal.com)

Corporate portals, like any tools (software or hardware or process), serve to help businesses perform a certain function or task. However, in order to fight against the economic crisis warrants more than a tool. It is what's behind the tool that brings about success. If a decision is to build a portal, then its most important & essential that it is build with the blessings of the users (e.g. employees and business partners; customers & suppliers), that is, the users are involved during the requirements specification down to the user-friendliness and further down to the ownership & adoption of the solution(s) by the users. Portals should streamline communications between management & employees, help employees collaborate more easily, & give employees personalized access to the information & applications they need to do their work well. Portals should do it all in a cost-effective manner that lets companies save money by consolidating both servers & applications.

Companies will implement corporate portals in today's current difficult circumstances after they have thoroughly considered "BUSINESS" :-

B for Business Type? This is very much dependent on the type of business & the type of industry or vertical market that the company is in. Some businesses use the website just as an information or bulletin board & not for any form of electronic transaction or business.

U for Union? Portals are great but will it affect negatively a significant number of employees in the company & thus, cause unions to react negatively towards the company. This is one area that would require special professional attention.

S for Sites? Corporate portals are great for multinational companies with offices, warehouses, factories or business partners in numerous locations that are geographically dispersed but are equipped with internet technology.

I for Internet Availability? Do bear in mind that there are still many places in the world that are not equipped with internet technology & as such, if a business' main market is in these geographical locations, the portal is of no use.

N for Network? Is the existing network & IT infrastructure equipped with the necessary security to prevent hackers? Most companies move into portals without serious consideration of this area. Once again, a very important area but often overlooked or skipped due to high upfront investment (hardware) & high recurring cost (annual software subscription or renewal fees).

E for Employees? Are there enough employees to warrant a portal to manage all or most employee-related transactions? Its always a question of nice-to-have versus must-have? If the company has offices or plants spread geographically in many locations, it may be economically more viable to have a human resource portal to manage all human resource issues like employee performance assessments, employee handbook, annual leave, etc.

S for Strategy? What is the company's strategy for the present & future? If the strategy is to move into the online B2B market in the near future, then it is naturally critical that it should develop a corporate portal to support this future strategy. However, one should note that a company or product name used in the non-online world is not suitable for the same used in the online world.

S for Social contribution? As in all businesses, one of the key mission of the company is to make this world a better place to live in. Careful consideration should be placed in terms of the social implication of the corporate portal. Will this portal have an impact on the political, environmental, social & technology areas of the society that the company operates in?


Whether it is B2B or B2E or both, its comes back to the same consideration, "BUSINESS"!
Try looking up http://www.capterra.com/portal-software for software/ services for building corporate portals.