Enterprise Information Portals

Enterprise Information Portals
Enterprise information portals are growing trend in the design and deployment of intranets in business. An enterprise information portal (EIP) is a web based interface and integration of intranets and other technologies that give all intranet users and selected extranet users access to a variety of internal and external business applications and services.

For example, internal applications might include access to e-mail, project websites, and discussion groups; human resources Web self-services, customer, inventory, and other corporate database; decision support systems, and knowledge management systems.

External applications might include industry financial and other Internet news services; links to industry discussion groups; and links to customer and supplier Internet and extranet websites. Enterprise information portals are typically tailored or personalized to the needs of individual business users or group pf users.

The business benefits of enterprise information portals include providing more specific and selective information to business users, providing easy access to key corporate intranet website resources, delivering industry and business news, and providing better access to company data for selected customers, suppliers, or business partners.

Enterprise information portals can also help avoid excessive surfing by employees across company and Intranet websites by making it easier for them to receive or find the information and services they need, thus improving the productivity of a company’s workforce.

However, in order to present something as simple as a Web page with links to useful internal an external information sources, applications and services, an enterprise information portal must integrate many information technologies. So full fledged corporate portals are proving to be a challenge to build.
Enterprise Information Portals

Intranet Applications in Business Organizations

Intranet Applications in Business Organizations
An intranet is a network inside an organization that uses internet technologies (such as Web browsers and servers, TCP/IP network protocols, HTML hypermedia document publishing and databases, and so on) to provide an Internet like environment within the enterprise for information sharing, communications, collaboration, and the support business processes. An intranet is protected by security measures such as passwords, encryption, and fire walls, and thus can be accessed by authorized users through internet. A company’s intranet can also be accessed through the intranets of customers, suppliers and other business partners via extranet links.

Organizations of all kinds are implementing a broad range of intranets uses. One way that companies organize intranet applications is to group them conceptually into a few user services categories that reflect the basic services that intranets offer to their users. These services are provided by the intranet’s portal, browser, and server software, as well as by other system and application software and groupware that are part of a company’s intranet software environment.
Intranet Applications in Business Organizations