Note: This article appeared in Intranet Professional, prior to its re-launch as Intranets (in 2004).

In November 1998, Merrill Lynch declared the portal marketplace a legitimate investment space. The company describes an Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) as follows:

…Applications that enable companies to unlock internally and externally stored information and provide users a single gateway to personalized information needed to make informed business decisions.

Since then the definition of an enterprise portal has continued to be enhanced and the promise of portal technology recognized by many of the world's largest companies. By providing end-users with relevant data from across multiple data sources and presenting that information in a context that is meaningful to the user, portals offer the promise of:

• providing competitive advantage through new business processes.
• increasing productivity by putting more power into the hands of business users.
• increasing effectiveness through knowledge sharing and reduced search time.

The Portal Marketplace
While the business drivers are clearly in place to drive demand for enterprise portals, a survey done last year for Hummingbird of 1,000 IT executives and managers in small, medium-size and large organizations, indicated that most companies plan to have portals, but 60 percent of them were only in the "conceptual phase" of EIP deployment; a mere 7 percent had pilots underway, and only 8 percent had completed deployment.

Despite the clear promise of enterprise portals, many implementations have resulted in less than 100 percent delivery on expected functions or performance. Why the difficulty? In many cases, the promise of an enterprise portal is not provided by the technology itself. It is driven much more through having a clear vision, objective and understanding of end-users and their needs.

Fulfilling the Promise with a Process
Through work with corporate clients over the past three years, Open Door Technologies, LLC, a services firm specializing in enterprise portals and knowledge management, has developed a clear process for planning and defining an enterprise portal project. It is evident that the definition of the project is the critical element in projecting success. That process is explained in detail in the rest of this article.

Through work with corporate clients over the past three years, Open Door Technologies, LLC, a services firm specializing in enterprise portals and knowledge management, has developed a clear process for planning and defining an enterprise portal project. It is evident that the definition of the project is the critical element in projecting success. That process is explained in detail in the rest of this article.

A Quick-Guide to Portal Definition Steps
The Enterprise Portal Definition Process should produce deliverables derived in a logical sequence. At a high level, the Portal Definition deliverable should be designed to include answers to key requirements questions—Who, What, With What, and How (see Table 1).

The actual work of creating an enterprise portal definition can be broken down initially by business, technical, and creative tracks. Each of the tasks assigned to the tracks can be pursued in parallel, providing that there is strong project management and regular communication between the various teams. About 80 percent of the effort to create a portal definition falls to the business track. for a project to succeed, it cannot be primarily IT-driven. Tables 2-4 break each of the tracks down into tasks, showing the activities and benefits of each.

The actual work of creating an enterprise portal definition can be broken down initially by business, technical, and creative tracks. Each of the tasks assigned to the tracks can be pursued in parallel, providing that there is strong project management and regular communication between the various teams. About 80 percent of the effort to create a portal definition falls to the business track. for a project to succeed, it cannot be primarily IT-driven. Tables 2-4 (at the end of this article) break each of the tracks down into tasks, showing the activities and benefits of each.

The major sections of the portal definition deliverable include the following:

A Portal Vision Document
This document presents an enterprise wide vision of what a portal can do and how it should be used. It is critical in creating the proper environment for a successful portal implementation. It will affect every person inside the organization and potentially others outside the organization. Projects that do not start out with this "big picture" view usually languish or provide only marginal value to the organization as a whole. Allowing separate business units to pursue their own portal strategies and plans only adds to the problems that an enterprise portal is capable of solving.

In the process of creating the enterprise portal vision, organizations should rely on a number of strategic inputs from potential users, industry comparisons, and prioritized lists from executives. 

A Creative Layout
The final deliverable should provide some guidance to potential users as to the look and feel of the site. The creative layout should take into account not only "look and feel" issues, but the Information Architecture needs of the various users and communities as well.

A Content Inventory
An enterprise portal will only provide as much value as the content that is available through it. Addressing content issues, in detail, is a critical success factor for enterprise portal implementations. Content should be identified and cataloged. A corporate taxonomy should be created to identify and categorize information. In the Portal Definition phase, this will be one of the most time-consuming tasks.

A Portal Tool Recommendation
Based on requirements gathered from the business and technical tracks, the Portal Definition document should include a recommendation for a portal tool or platform. The market is currently flooded with potential solutions, and establishing an organizational benchmarking method is imperative to being able to select the proper tool.

Other items to consider for the portal definition document include a Quality Assurance Plan, a Logistical Requirement document to deal with training and rollout, and an Administrative plan to cover setting up and maintaining users, content import, security models, etc.

By beginning an enterprise portal project with a clear vision, and clearly identified tasks, roles, and responsibilities, an organization will reap several benefits, among them:

• A vision that is created and embraced by the business units.
• A plan that reaches beyond one phase based on business needs and priority.
• Consensus by the business units on the rollout plan.
• A smooth implementation, avoiding change in direction midstream. • Measurable success metrics.
• A vendor-independent course of action based on business needs. A methodical and scientific approach that reduces errors and uncovers issues early in the process.