Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line [Hardcover]

Heidi Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2000

"Customers of AOL don't realize it, but they're using a "portal" when they go online. A portal provides a "home"--a place to get news, stock prices, or whatever else interests you. A "corporate portal" is the same concept--but it's for the employees of a business. It provides them with a single point of entry into all the information their company's systems contain. Through one user-friendly interface, employees can send e-mail, schedule meetings, check inventory, fill out forms, request sales reports--and on and on! Enterprise portal technology is a breakthrough! Corporate Portals explains what the technology is, supplies an analysis of its tremendous benefits, and explains how to design and propose a corporate portal solution to decision-makers. Benefits include: * Ability to customize the portal design to individuals' needs * Powerful search and navigation capabilities, with direct access to reports, analyses, and what-if scenarios across multiple systems and applications * Knowledge sharing--immediate ability to connect with subject experts and team members, or to post findings and research for anyone who needs it, and more."

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (December 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814405932
• ISBN-13: 978-0814405932
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite some shortcomings it's "must reading", April 8, 2001

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line (Hardcover)

This book is a one-of-a-kind in that it provides equal coverage ofo the business and technical aspects of corporate portals. Further, it gives a very succinct description of what a portal is, and how portals can provide measurable benefits to a business.

With respect to what value a portal brings the author sums it up with an illustration early in the book that shows the many different types of portals, and the sub-categories of corporate portals. As a consultant who needs to be able to explain what a portal is in the clearest possible terms I found this one graphic worth the price of the book.

Let me cut to the chase: this book is valuable and has many strengths. It also has some shortcomings. I'll address its strengths first.

The first four chapters were gold mines. They start with a business problem statement, define portal types and their fit to specific business goals, and step you through building a business case for a portal. This is excellent information that is not only well written, but shows Ms. Collins as a seasoned expert who has done this many times before. Some of the final chapters were equally as valuable - in particular chapter 13 that addresses financial metrics analysis, and chapter 15, which is an example business case that nicely augments chapter 4.

Of great value are the checklists that are sprinkled throughout the book. They reflect the author's experience and will make your life simpler if you use them during the business analysis and implementation phases of a portal project.

I liked the author's treatment of knowledge management, which is one of the main business reasons to implement a portal. Ms. Collins demonstrates a deep understanding of this subject and it is one of the key strengths of the book. If you want to go deeper into knowledge management I recommend building upon the excellent foundation that Ms. Collins provides with Knowledge Management Toolkit by Amrit Tiwana.

There are a few weaknesses as well.

Ms. Collin's approach to making direct links to reports, analysis and queries is "brute force" in my opinion and misses one of the key features all portal software provides: the ability to interface with data using SQL queries to stuff an XML defined document type (in correct terms, "Document Type Definition") template and displaying the result using XSL (extended stylesheet language) for presentation. All or the major portals come with mechanisms called "portlets", "gadgets" and other catchy names depending on the vendor, that facilitate this method. XML and XSL are each mentioned once in the book and only in passing. I strongly use readers who are developing a portal solution that will draw from data sources to read Building Corporate Portals With XML by Finkelstein, Aiken and Zachman.

Another potential shortcoming, depending on your industry and objectives, is the treatment of identity management. While identity management is an extremely important consideration, the entity-relationship approach proposed in the book will not be effective in certain circumstances. Unfortunately, the author did not offer alternative methods. For example, if you are in health care your identification requirements are going to be governed by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which means that you need to consider role-based access controls (RBAC) as a key component of your identification and access strategy. Determining to whom to grant rights to what is a lot more complex than relatively simple E-R modeling. The design of an effective and provable RBAC strategy is through set theory. Energy is another industry that requires identification and access methods that are a lot more stringent that those recommended in this book because of the requirement to keep all regulated and unregulated business functions and data separate. Another key element of RBAC-schemes is directory-enabled identification and authentication that are independent of applications and services. The modeling for directory-based controls is object based and also cannot be done using the E-R approach. If you fall into any of these categories I strongly recommend augmenting this book with All About Network Directories by Kevin, Tina and Christina Kampman.

The above shortcomings do not detract from the value of this book as long as you take them into account. I think the author broke new ground when she wrote this book by tackling some important issues. First, she defines the real business value of a portal, then steps you through building a strategy for enabling business processes using portal technology. She also leads you through building a sound business case for implementing this technology using objective factors and measures. I have recommended this book to numerous colleagues and will continue to do so. It earns a solid five stars.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important work on a misunderstood technology, February 24, 2001

By 

Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line (Hardcover)

Let's play stump the consultant. Here's how it's played: read this book first, then ask your consultant or consulting company to define portal. I am willing to bet that he, she or they will devolve from the smooth-talking, jargon-dropping demigods to a mumbling characters who drop into doubletalk. Why? Everyone is talking about portals, but few understand what they are, or for what purpose they can be used.

This book, Corporate Portals, will explain not only what a portal is, but how this technology can leverage corporate knowledge across all lines of business. This book does an excellent job of explaining portals as a technology and a corporate tool. It also gives you all of the information you need to develop a compelling business case to invest in a portal implementation.

The book's focus is on leveraging knowledge and creating business value. Strong points are the sections on IT analysis and how it is linked to business processes and business requirements. The section on financial metrics analysis reinforces this focus.

Specific parts of the book that I particularly liked are: identification management, how to develop and implement a portal strategy, and the example portal project plan.

I strongly recommend this book to business process owners or executives having to deal with consultants who are recommending a portal as the end-all solution to problems. This book will arm that audience with enough information to ask intelligent questions at the very least, and possibly control the conversations and negotiations. If you are a consultant, get this book so you are not blind-sided by a savvy client. Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, client or consultant, this book will provide invaluable information that may lead to significant competitive advantages and a more intelligent workplace.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reference for understanding Portal concept!, January 24, 2001

By 

A. E. Turturro (Glendale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line (Hardcover)

A few months ago I started working for a company that develops Corporate portals. With an IT background, but no concept of a "portal", I needed a source that was easily understood, yet technically savvy. Ms. Collins' book is just what I needed. She clearly explains the concept of a user-friendly, one-stop-shopping type of interface that allows a group of users to access customized information appropriate to their e-needs!

This author clearly explains the technology behind portals, looks at the benefits of using portal technology in a corporate environment, as well as determining how to "sell" the idea of a portal as a company-wide business solution. She also goes into detail about Knowledge Sharing and design customization.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about this immportant technology.