August 12, 2002

The Outside-In Portal

Want your enterprise portal to justify its cost right away? Make sure that it continually reflects user needs

by Grant Norris & David J. Duray

Today, most corporate employees fill multiple roles within their organizations. Titles no longer articulate the full scope of employee responsibilities or reflect the information workers must process and manage to effectively meet job objectives. Technology continues to be unleashed in offices and cubicles in a dizzying pace — all under the banner of improved speed, efficiency, and user-friendliness. Yet the data deluge continues.

Portals are increasingly recognized for their ability to streamline disparate streams of information and package it in an easily accessible, personalized interface. For employees facing information overload, portals serve as a filter, allowing relevant information to pass through, and then provide click-through access to the applications and services that allow employees to act on the information.

A general misunderstanding exists among organizations on how and when to deploy portal technology. Some companies believe content-driving systems should be fleshed-out to provide employees with a complete and comprehensive tool the day the portal goes live. However, this approach implies that an organization is offering its employees a finished product, rather than a dynamic tool driven by a constantly evolving back office. As a result, a key value proposition of a portal strategy is neutralized.

A more effective approach for companies considering portals is to build IT systems from the "outside-in": In other words, build the portal first, leveraging existing information, applications, and services, and fill in the gaps and modify the information sources in the back end on an ongoing basis. This approach creates a portal that's dynamic and constantly changing to meet the needs of the business and the roles that support business functions.

A Leap of Faith?

The organizational changes required to deploy an outside-in portal strategy are significant, but the technological changes are much less daunting. Implementing portal technology is not unlike implementing any other major computer system. Therefore, the portal shell can and should be installed first. Even, and especially, companies with multiple legacy systems should consider this approach because it makes the portal serve as a linking layer for disparate systems, as well as pool content and knowledge.

One reason for a lack of urgency in deploying portals is the concern that the investment may fall by the wayside. The resistance to additional IT build-out stems partly from the ERP systems movement during the previous decade. Companies integrated their transactional data and process information, yet many still don't fully utilize the information that these systems generate. As a result, they're reluctant to listen to the sales pitch that calls for additional spending. The outside-in approach minimizes additional spending by focusing on the portal itself and leveraging existing sources of information or only building out as needed.

Portals actually lower technology costs — both hardware and software — because applications reside on a server rather than on an individual's PC. Users access applications through their customized workplace front ends; the only software actually installed on the desktop is a standard Web browser. Less software on the desktop means lower installation and maintenance costs, and it eliminates the need to upgrade hardware to run increasingly sophisticated computer programs. Portal browsers and intuitive interfaces also eliminate the need to perform targeted training on specific applications.

Implementing an outside-in portal strategy shouldn't be a leap of faith. The time and cost benefits to the organization, employees, executives, partners, and customers are both logical and clearly defined.

Facilitating Productivity

Taking an outside-in approach facilitates productivity improvements by allowing priority applications to be implemented first. In addition to pushing out information required for a specific job function, the portal screen also provides click-through access to applications that the employee needs to act on the information. Portal users can navigate easily among different applications and use "drag-and-relate" technology, for instance, to combine material from various sources in a way that's most natural.

Employees focused on customer service are prime beneficiaries. For example, a customer requests maintenance through a company Web site. The request is received and pushed out to maintenance scheduling and ranked against all other requests appearing on the portal screen, given a priority status, and, based on availability, assigned to a field service engineer. The field service engineer uses the portal to determine proper tools and supplies and whether they're in stock. If the supplies are on hand the work is scheduled using software in the portal to optimize a route based on all required stops and transit time from point to point. The field service engineer sets an appointment time, which the customer validates. When on site, the field service engineer performs the maintenance and accesses a portal screen via a handheld device and closes the job ticket. The closed ticket is automatically routed to customer billing, and an invoice is generated on the next invoice process run.

This example illustrates the benefits to multiple parties. The customer perceives an increase in reliability via real-time and accurate responsiveness. The field service engineer is more efficient, and the host company can anticipate an increase in customer retention and speedier payment.

Yet portals shouldn't be limited to employees directly involved with customers. Senior executives such as the CFO can also benefit. The CFO role continues to migrate from the corporate police officer focused on examining corporate spending to one of value creation. Today's CFO must monitor strategic performance indicators, yet also drive business development and mergers and acquisitions initiatives. Portals are flexible enough to support both the day-to-day business reporting responsibilities as well as long-term strategic tasks.

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