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

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

~ (Author) "The industry is flooded with portal articles, opinions, ideas, and suggested software solutions to select from..." (more)
Key Phrases: corporate portal solution, portal business case, corporate portal project, Good Morning Heidi Collins, Oracle Financials, High Risk (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Frequently Bought Together

Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line + Realizing the Promise of Corporate Portals: Leveraging Knowledge for Business Success + Proven Portals: Best Practices for Planning, Designing, and Developing Enterprise Portals
Price For All Three: $98.46

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A must-read for business and technology professionals contemplating definition, design, or implementation of their corporate portals." -- Yogesh Malhotra, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman & CKO, @Brint.com LLC; author of Knowledge Management and Virtual Organiations and Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation

"Collins has provided a much-needed road map for any organization wishing to undertake buidling a corporate portal." -- Dr. Randy J. Frid, author of Infrastructure for Knowledge Management

"Collins shares her considerable experience in deploying corporate portals in a way that will save organizations substantial time and money." -- Randy Eckel, CEO, Infolmage


Product Description

A look inside enterprise portals, the new technology that gives employees one-stop access to ALL their companyOs information resources.

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

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (December 11, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0814405932
  • ISBN-13: 978-0814405932
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 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.com Sales Rank: #481,232 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Heidi Collins
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Heidi Collins Page

Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The industry is flooded with portal articles, opinions, ideas, and suggested software solutions to select from. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
corporate portal solution, portal business case, corporate portal project, portal desktop, corporate portal strategy, corporate portal users, quotient grid, portal project team, corporate portal definition, corporate portal services, business domain experts, portal software solutions, content page tabs, corporate document repository, corporate portal system, portal software application, business case documentation, assistance personalization, portal proposal, corporate portal concepts, total corporate expenses, portal menu, expertise portal, portal banner, copy the appropriate section
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Good Morning Heidi Collins, Oracle Financials, High Risk, Low Risk, Medium Risk, Webcast Chats, Net Cash Flow Option, Peer Discussions, Fargo Bank, General Ledger Transactions, Net Total Savings, World Wide Web, John Wiley, New York, San Francisco, Sales Strategy Presentation, Active Server Pages, Audit Report, Data Gathering, Final Presentation, Former Address, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook, Report Review, Total Timing Now Year
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line
65% buy the item featured on this page:
Corporate Portals: Revolutionizing Information Access to Increase Productivity and Drive the Bottom Line 4.5 out of 5 stars (19)
$25.60
Proven Portals: Best Practices for Planning, Designing, and Developing Enterprise Portals
13% buy
Proven Portals: Best Practices for Planning, Designing, and Developing Enterprise Portals 3.9 out of 5 stars (7)
$30.47
Enterprise Knowledge Portals
9% buy
Enterprise Knowledge Portals 4.4 out of 5 stars (15)
$24.26
Realizing the Promise of Corporate Portals: Leveraging Knowledge for Business Success
8% buy
Realizing the Promise of Corporate Portals: Leveraging Knowledge for Business Success 5.0 out of 5 stars (7)
$42.39

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Despite some shortcomings it's "must reading", April 8, 2001
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.

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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
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.

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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
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not much here
I've read a lot of technical books across a number of computer-related topics, and usually I find something useful. Read more
Published on November 2, 2005 by G. Alcorn

5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive portal approach
Corporate Portals is a great reference book. I have a solid picture of what I want the portal to accomplish to create a lower cost of ownership of technology as we plan and... Read more
Published on July 29, 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent portal overview
Thank you, Heidi!! I feel like I have a much better understanding of what to ask when looking at portal solutions. Read more
Published on July 15, 2002 by Cynthia

5.0 out of 5 stars Separating Reality from the Hype...
I have found this book to be extremely helpful to me in my independent consulting practice. Understanding what to think about, focus on, and pull together in order to discuss... Read more
Published on June 26, 2002 by J. A. Comeau

5.0 out of 5 stars Corporate Portals - A Must Read
For anyone contemplating whether or not to move forward on a project involving the deployment of an enterprise portal, this book is a must read. Read more
Published on June 22, 2002

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't judge the book by the cover.
I read the first 4 chapters, find the book to be ridiculously repetitious and it appeared to me that the author's message was constantly and repeatedly "Corporate Portals are Good... Read more
Published on May 13, 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding portals from scratch
Corporate Portals provides you with a clear, practical, and detailed picture of all the technical and organizational issues involved in creating a corporate portal solution... Read more
Published on April 23, 2002 by Gill Futcher

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Handbook on Corporate Portals
Excellent "how to" guide for those considering a corporate portal solution. Very detailed in the preparation of a business case through to design and implementation... Read more
Published on May 10, 2001 by William H. Tyson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Overview of Portals - A MUST Read
I've read Corporate Portals twice and think it's a thorough overview of the subject of centralizing a knowledge desktop for employees. Read more
Published on April 17, 2001 by Lisa813

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, badly organised, repetitive
This book is very badly written. It is full of gobbledegook; for example: "The corporate portal solution is deployed in several iterations or design phases in order to... Read more
Published on April 15, 2001

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