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One/Administrator is designed for easy management of the
portal. New content is easily loaded into the Repository, where it is
organized and catalogued with the various portal services. Management
of users and groups is handled through a GUI-based intereface and
designed for maximum ease of use.
Job Factory Service automatically manages content creation, such as
report updates, and inserts the resulting objects into the Brio-portal
repository, completely transparent to end-users.
The entire layout of the administrative tools allows for maximum
efficiency with minimal training necessary, so installation is quick
and non-technical, but administrators are required to enter a series
of SQL commands manually in order to set up the database tables. Some
of the other portal providers have attached script files to their
products to ease this process.
Documentation, both in print and online, is thorough.
Pricing for Brio.Portal 6.0 starts at $125,000 for 500 users. Current
customers include Gillette, Transamerica and BankAmerica.
Sterling
(Eden Prairie, MN- www.sterling.com)
Sterling Software has just released the 2.0 version of
EUREKA:Portal. It is an effort to offer more personalized features
along with continued emphasis on the flexibility of its
interface.
Interoperability is the driving force behind EUREKA:Portal. Eric
Chaffee, Director of Product Management, says that the original
impetus for the creation of Eureka (back when it was Information
Advantage before becoming Sterling's business intelligence division),
was to deliver a product to unify business intelligence information.
What has become even more important is the portal access to random
information, such as Word documents or marketing literature, across
the enterprise. It is not necessary to store every bit of information,
but at least to have pointers which lead to the information. In other
words, it is not necessary to have it all, as long as you know where
to get it.
The key for Eureka is that it is 100% Java, with an XML-based API,
making it easier to create portals which include varied sources of
information. The Java coding is also a boon to administrators.
Eureka provides a highly personalizable administrative interface
which allows customers to handle security and maintenance in a manner
most suited to their particular portal. Customers of the first
EUREKA:Portal release praised this feature, and it is promised to be
enhanced and even more customizable in its next coming.
Organizations can integrate source formats as varied as HTML, XML,
Java, ActiveX, multi-media, and others. The XML-based technology is
also suitable to ASPs or software companies looking to include portals
in their existing solutions. Sterling has gone out of its way to make
EUREKA:Portal as open a product as possible.
Pricing for Eureka start at $10,000 per server and $100 per user,
with bulk discounting available. Current major customers include
Federal Express, Telus and Walker Interactive.
Autonomy
(San Francisco, CA - www.autonomy.com)
Autonomy's Portal-In-A-Box software is another recent addition to
the rapidly growing portal market, and a notable one.
It combines easy delivery of virtually any information to the end-user
with ease of administration. Portal-In-A-Box is impressive with its
ability to sort, tag, link and deliver information from almost any
source to the portal page, allowing users access to numerous types of
data on one interface.
Autonomy's Adaptive Probalistic Concept Modeling (APCM), originally
developed at Cambridge University, analyzes documents, then extracts
ideas from the text and determines the relative value of those
ideas. This technology vastly reduces the amount of time required by
administrators to update and control what information is available to
whom, thereby facilitating a much smoother portal installation
process.
The same technology also improves the query features, creating user
searches, which produce only relevant results. The administration
process for Portal-In-A-Box is made relatively easy by
APCM. Administrators will have to index existing company databases and
other information services initially, and set up the access
requirements for all individual users with the DRE administrative
interface.
Once the initial information is entered, the entire maintenance
process is automated. Searches, links and document retrieval are all
managed and updated by the Portal-In-A-Box software. Some users have
had difficulties with Autonomy's heavily text-based interfaces, a
possible drawback of the of the product.
There is also some room for improvement in the reporting features,
which are currently unable to tell administrators which files are
frequently accessed or which files are never accessed at all.
Portal-In-A-Box starts at about $75,000, and cost may go as
high as $500,000. Pricing is application-based and widely varies
depending on customer needs. Current Autonomy customers include
Nortel, Telia, and the Associated Press.
Plumtree
(San Francisco, CA - www.plumtree.com)
Plumtree Software shipped the first "corporate portal" (they coined
the term) in March of 1998, and have since been consistently
integrating new features and services to their customers, making
Plumtree one of the most highly praised portal providers.
Plumtree Corporate Portal is a comprehensive tool for the
enterprise. It is designed to integrate a wide array of systems - ERP,
Groupware, relational databases, etc. - to provide maximum information
to the end-user.
The interface is uncluttered yet effective, and the amount and
origin of information needed by the end user is virtually
limitless. Plumtree is distinguished by the use of "gadget strategy,"
incorporating a constantly growing collection of downloadable tools
into the portal. Gadgets include news, links, searches, calendars, and
other means of customizing each portal page by the user and adding
additional information. Gadgets are developed as Distributed Component
Object Model (DCOM) components, so a system can be easily extended to
access new content or include new tools with minimal administrative
rigamarole.
Glenn Kelman, Plumtree's Vice President of Product Management and
Marketing, stresses "total access" to information for portal users
through use of the "gadget strategy."
The second part of the Plumtree package provides support, security
and service for system administration. Implementation of Corporate
Portal is a breeze, and users find portal customization to be quick
and painless. Administrators can manage access to any of the gadgets,
and can provide or deny access to sensitive information with a few
clicks.
Plumtree Corporate Portal 3.0 starts at $125,000 and increases on a
per-user basis. Current Plumtree customers include Caterpillar, Texas
Instruments, Compaq, and new additon, Staples.
Epicentric
(San Francisco, CA - www.epicentric.com)
The Epicentric Portal Server 2.1 is another feature-rich entry into
the portal market. The company, founded in 1997, offers over a hundred
content and service modules to get end-users the information they need
in a highly personalized environment. Different levels of page
customization are available through the Epicentric Portal Server.
Administrators can lay out the default starting point for all users
with the Customization Layer. The individual employee can then further
personalize the portal to suit individual needs with the
Personalization Layer, adding such features as stock quotes or
personal favorite links. Access and information are ultimately
controlled by the administrator.
Some of the features included among the modules are e-mail,
searches, Web app and integration and e-commerce, which supports
business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce as well as
banner advertisements, which may be posted by the customer or sold to
outside parties at the administrator's discretion.
Portal Server 2.1 has a web-based administrative interface for setting
access privileges for individuals and groups within the company,
facilitating module-selection and customization of company-unique.
There are numerous ways to change the look, feel and content of the
information presentation to suit company interests. Design templates
can also be created using common web tools such as Dreamweaver or
FrontPage. System performance and portal usage reports are both
available to the administrator to monitor, manage and evaluate company
portal efficiency, and determine which information is the most
valuable, and which is rarely used.
Epicentric Portal Server 2.1 pricing is CPU-based, with
a $10,000 per CPU cost for NT servers and $15,000 per CPU for UNIX.
Current Epicentric customers include the United States Post Office and
Motorola.
Viador
(San Mateo, CA - www.viador.com)
Viador's E-Portal Suite is a collection of portal solutions
designed to provide secure access to all databases and documents,
structured and unstructured. It has an open API and a powerful
Web-based report structure for monitoring information use and
importance.
The components of E-Portal Suite are designed to take on one of the
many tasks associated with portal management and customization.
Viador Sage is the access backbone of the structure, connecting users
to information and handling the customization of information
presentation. It is available in four editions, each with a different
level of access to information, and different price. Sage provides
customers the opportunity to pay only for the level of technology that
they actually need. Customers who need full analysis and OLAP report
capabilities will find what they need in the Designer edition.
E-Portal Suite has a thin-client, 100% Java architecture, making
installation and implementation across a variety of server
technologies no problem. The Viador Administrator is designed for
managing large numbers of users and can be monitored via Web access
from virtually anywhere. Security for each document is determined
based on user and group access by Viador Sage. Users can only see
information to which they have been given access. Security measures
are extended outside the enterprise as well, so users will still be
able to access important information from outside locations. This also
enables E-Portal Suite customers to extend access to outside
organizations, partners, suppliers and customers they choose, while
giving the administrator control of access.
Pricing for E-Portal Suite starts at $35,000, increasing with the
number of users. Current Viador customers include Sprint PCS, Xerox
and Charles Schwab.
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