Portal Technologies and Executive Information Systems Implementation

Abstract

Portals may be seen as World Wide Web (“the Web”) sites that provide the gateway to corporate information from a single point of access. The potential of the Web portal market and its technology has inspired the mutation of search engines (e.g., Yahoo!) and the establishment of new vendors (e.g., Hummingbird and Brio Technology). Leveraging knowledge, both internal and external, is the key to using a portal as a centralised database of best practices that can be applied across all departments and all lines of business within an organisation (Zimmerman, 2003). A portal is simply a single, distilled view of information from various sources. Portal technologies integrate information, content, and enterprise applications. However, the term portal has been applied to systems that differ widely in capabilities and complexity (Smith, 2004). Portals “aim to serve particular communities, including various business groups” (Deise, Nowikow, King, & Wright, 2000). A portal aims to establish a community of users with a common interest or need.