A new Datamonitor report addresses the confusion in the enterprise portal space.
Businesses need to provide their workers with a cost-effective, easy-to-use means of rapidly accessing applications and information relevant to their jobs, as well as sharing this information easily with others. But these applications and information are generally held on a range of different internal and external systems.
The solution to this problem could be in enterprise information portals (EIPs). Datamonitor predicts in its Global Enterprise Information Portals report that the worldwide market for such portal software products will grow at a CAGR of approximately 37% to reach $10.5 billion in 2006, representing a massive opportunity. As a result, most corporate software vendors now claim to have an EIP offering, with definitions and functionalities varying significantly.
The wide array of potential information sources, the breadth of user requirements, and the unpredictability of information needs at any given time present recurring challenges in the EIP market that traditional application development does not address. Portals need to create the network of information sources their users need, and offer robust integration services and tools that enable customers to manage integration over time.
Many vendors, including database portal vendors, ERP portal vendors, business intelligence vendors, framework vendors, and knowledge management vendors offer products in the market. Yet no one vendor has the perfect solution that will address everyone’s needs.
As a result, acquisitions and strategic alliances happen almost every week between vendors of differing competencies. Vendors realise that integrating the portal front end with the enterprise back office is the key to success.
Regardless of the specific implementation, enterprise information portals offer organizations a straightforward, secure and efficient way of consolidating information access and centralization of enterprise solutions in a web-based environment.
Integrated solutions built around openness and scalability will be able to support the advanced business transformation that organizations need to harness effectively. In doing so, EIP solutions will help businesses to gain market share in this fiercely competitive world.
