Enterprise Portal Software

Yes, Lotus Notes is still part of the daily routine for some folks out there. United Planet, a European developer of Enterprise Portal software, has released a Lotus Notes Business Adapter for its portal, intranet and Web application software — Intrexx Xtreme. The Adapter aims to simplify the development of Web applications, Web services and process management for the Intrexx Xtreme Lotus Notes community.

United Planet, a leading developer of Enterprise Portal software in Europe, has introduced a Lotus Notes Business Adapter for its out-of-the-box portal, intranet and web application software, Intrexx Xtreme. The Adapter will simplify the development of web applications, web services and process management for the Intrexx Xtreme Lotus Notes community. Commenting on the launch, Alexander Marsch, managing director of United Planet Limited, said: “Many businesses have standardised on Lotus Notes for the administration of their extensive data records. Our Lotus Notes Business Adapter will enable these companies to use Domino Server data records in their enterprise portals and integrate existing Lotus Notes data into new or production systems more easily. The creation of a portal interface for Lotus Notes will provide a central access point for important information across the business and increase usability for end users across the board.”

New Enterprise Portals Report 2009 evaluates twelve major portal offerings. Main conclusion: Major portal players are responding -- in some cases successfully -- to Microsoft SharePoint.The major enterprise platforms are consolidating, while the open source projects are expanding as an alternative to Redmond.

IBM today announced that analyst firm IDC has ranked IBM as the worldwide market share leader in the enterprise portal software market over Oracle, BEA and Microsoft, based on license and maintenance revenue.IDC projects that the enterprise portal software market will expand to $2.0 billion by 2012. According to IDC, the enterprise portal software market grew nearly 18.3 percent in 2007 with license and maintenance revenue of $1.2 billion.Hundreds of IBM business partners, resellers and other software companies pair IBM's Web 2.0-enhanced WebSphere Portal software with their own information technology (IT) products for a variety of clients worldwide.

Alan Pelz-Sharpe recently cited a brewing backlash against SOA in the enterprise content management world. In the portal market I'm certainly hearing growing concerns about SOA from the user community. While some vendors, notably BEA, are continuing their year-long push for SOA, buyers are learning some expensive lessons. In particular the constant need for change management and the persistent performance problems are causing raised eyebrows. Portals can put a face to SOA, but still many vendors (e.g. IBM, SAP) with strong SOA marketing sell enterprise portals that only run on top of their very own software. As I point out in the Enterprise Portals Report, this would seem to contradict the idea of loosely coupled software...

By Brian McDonough The enterprise information portal (EIP) software market is still experiencing growth during an economic downturn as companies seek to improve the productivity of their employees. The market is small and the need to educate users about EIP software is still paramount for vendors seeking to spur further growth in the market. With confusion surrounding this software category, it’s necessary for IT buyers and management to understand what EIP software can do. Enterprise information portals integrate access to data, information and applications, and present it to the business user in a useful format. The portals are used by the business user, but include IT administration tools, and have some level of the following functionality native to them: role-based or rule-based administration,;

Sun ONE Portal Server 6.0 from Sun Microsystems represents the first example I’ve discussed of a comprehensive portal platform strategy targeted at constructing an enterprise computing system. In this strategy, the portal is viewed as the delivery mechanism for a much more comprehensive system I call a Distributed Information Management System (DIMS). A DIMS strategy is the weapon of choice of larger vendors against the smaller companies whose entry into the portal space was more timely, but more focused on specific functionality in the decision processing, content management or collaborative areas. I’ve explained previously that Plumtree Software and Computer Associates, early entrants in the space, have been moving toward the DIMS vision themselves. Sun began with the vision of an integrative system for enterprise computing. Its approach to its portal product has been to locate it within a comprehensive architecture, rather than to evolve an architecture out of its product

"I'm sure there must be a big rule written somewhere, that I can't seem to locate, that states that all enterprise software must have a less-than-optimal user experience, especially the interface." So concedes John Loicano, Sun's EVP of Software, who adds, "Features and functions don't have to be ugly." [Via Tim Bray.] Our forthcoming Enterprise Portals Report points out that Sun is doing some interesting things with its portal product, but portal usability across the industry still leaves much to be desired...

Today we released an alternate, "Open Source Edition" of the just-updated Enterprise Portals Report. No, the report itself isn't open source....but it is a lower-cost version that just covers the 5 open-source portal software platforms reviewed in the complete report. More than any of the other technology segments that we cover, open source portal solutions are gaining real traction -- proof, perhaps that portals are first and foremost development platforms. In an accompanying press release, we point out that prospective portal customers are increasingly considering open source solutions, but often finding them coming up short in terms of functional breadth, especially with respect to more complex, process-oriented scenarios. So our question for you is: what scenarios are you targeting with your portal technology?

The estimable Colin White has recently deconstructed how "Web 2.0 in your enterprise portal" can mean different things, specifically newfangled user interfaces versus newfangled collaboration approaches. White contrasts the approaches taken by 2 award-winning enterprise portals selected at the Portals conference he runs (a very good conference, btw). They were web agency Avenue A|Razorfish and consulting firm Accenture. Interestingly, Accenture used formal portal software (MS SharePoint 2003), while Avenue A|Razorfish did not. Before you try to replicate their success, however, note that both appear to emphasize content tagging (read: extra work) and the two firms surely boast a techno-forward employee base...