Portals: the most potent force of integration yet?

Rather than simply managing materials, money and people, companies must better manage their information assets too. That was the message from Martin Butler, IT analyst for the Butler Group, at the firm’s ‘Corporate Portals: Select, Design and Implement’ event in London this week. And Butler sees corporate portal technology as the best weapon to help businesses succeed. In his speech ‘Integrating the enterprise’ Butler urged UK firms to stop worrying about the 2 to 3% of turnover they typically spend on IT, and start addressing the 25 to 30% of turnover they spend on information: including administration, management and processing of it. Said Butler: “Knowledge and information are harder to manage [than money and materials] but implementing portal technology can help you do this and can bring serious benefits to the business.” He cited the benefits of adopting portal technology as: better distribution of information throughout the enterprise; improved collaborative working; improved content management; integration with enterprise applications; and better customer/supplier support. “The role of a portal,” said Butler, “Is to give companies a common user interface for all their enterprise applications … A platform for defining business rules … and a mechanism for broadcasting company policies.” And according to Butler, there’s been a marked shift in IT spend in the last decade. “We’re seeing companies shifting their focus from automation IT projects of the early 90’s to integration and information IT implementations. Whilst Butler said that portals were, “The most potent force of enterprise integration to date,” he admits that the path to ROI can be a lengthy and difficult one. “Expect political and cultural barriers, and ensure you get full buy-in from senior executives. Don’t expect returns straight away. It’s more about changing the way you exploit knowledge and information sharing in the company.”