Enterprise information portals (EIPs) have come a long way since the acronym was first devised in a November 1998 Merrill Lynch report. Back then it sounded daring when Christopher Shilakes and Julie Tylman claimed that demand for EIP software will eventually reach or exceed demand for enterprise resource planning applications. Nine months later, it sounds like a truism, as more and more executives are scrambling to join the emerging players in the EIP space. Dawn Lepore, vice chairman and chief information officer for none other than Charles Schwab Corp, now has a seat on the board of directors of EIP pioneer Viador Inc, maker of the E-Portal Suite. As for Bellevue, Washington-based DataChannel Inc, which builds XML-based EIP platforms, it has not only wooed three new vice-presidents but also launched an XML Business Network, DataChannel.com, under the auspices of Tim Gelinas, one of the founders of Spry Inc. Over in Fairfield, Connecticut, SageMaker Inc has taken a different tack. Rather than luring mainstream execs to the EIP side of the industry, the company has added geographical information systems (GIS) from Geodynamic Solutions Inc to its SageWave EIP. Whether EIP companies will eventually rival SAP AG and PeopleSoft Inc or go the way of the web application server, last year’s next big thing, remains to be seen.
