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Web Portals: The New Gateways to Internet Information and Services Arthur Tatnall Victoria University, Australia
IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING Hershey • London • Melbourne • Singapore
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Web portals : the new gateways to Internet information and services / Arthur Tatnall, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59140-438-X (hardcover) -- ISBN 1-59140-439-8 (pbk.) -- ISBN 1-59140-440-1 (ebook) 1. Web portals. 2. Management--Computer network resources. 3. Business--Computer network resources. I. Tatnall, Arthur. HD30.37.W428 2004 025.04--dc22 2004003758
British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
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Web Portals: The New Gateways to Internet Information and Services
Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................. vi Chapter I Portals, Portals Everywhere .................................................................. 1 Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Australia Chapter II On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach ............................................... 15 Wita Wojtkowski, Boise State University, USA Marshall Major, Moffatt Thomas Barrett Rock and Fields, Chartered, USA Chapter III Portal Combat Revisited: Success Factors and Evolution in Consumer Web Portals ........................................................................ 40 John M. Gallaugher, Boston College, USA Charles E. Downing, Northern Illinois University, USA Chapter IV Competitive Dynamics of General Portals ......................................... 64 Sandra Sieber, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain Josep Valor-Sabatier, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain Chapter V Portals – Gateways for Marketing ..................................................... 80 Ian Michael, Victoria University, Australia
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Chapter VI Designing E-Commerce Portal for an Enterprise – A Framework .... 99 Sushil K. Sharma, Ball State University, USA Jatinder N. D. Gupta, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA Chapter VII Portals in Large Enterprises ............................................................. 119 Ian Searle, RMIT University, Australia Chapter VIII Employee Portals: Just the Next Step in the Journey ..................... 172 Andrew Stein, Victoria University, Australia Paul Hawking, Victoria University, Australia Chapter IX A Flexible Evaluation Framework for Web Portals Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis ..................................................................... 185 Demetrios Sampson, University of Piraeus, Greece and Informatics and Telematics Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI-CERTH), Greece Nikos Manouselis, University of Piraeus, Greece and Informatics and Telematics Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI-CERTH), Greece Chapter X Web Portals in Government Service ................................................ 212 Tony Aitkenhead, Multi Media Victoria, Australia Chapter XI Building New Systems for Decision Support in Education: Was There a Baby in That Bathwater? ............................................ 230 Christopher A. Thorn, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Chapter XII Educational Portals: A Way to Get an Integrated, User-Centric University Information System ......................................................... 252 Marko Bajec, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Chapter XIII Intelligent Portals for Supporting Medical Information Needs ....... 270 Jane Moon, Monash University, Australia Frada Burstein, Monash University, Australia Chapter XIV Portal Services for Older Australians ............................................... 297 Jerzy Lepa, Victoria University, Australia Chapter XV Functioning Portal Interfaces to Support Knowledge Enabling ....... 312 Jan Soutar, Victoria University, Australia Beverley Lloyd-Walker, Victoria University, Australia Chapter XVI Developing a Portal to Build a Business Community ...................... 335 Alex Pliaskin, Deakin University, Australia Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Australia About the Authors .............................................................................. 349 Index ................................................................................................... 358
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Preface
The topic of Web portals is a diverse one, and this book provides an overview of the different types of portals and the many and varied business uses to which they can be put. The term “Web portal” is rather overused and quite difficult to define precisely. Furthermore it takes on a somewhat different meaning depending on the viewpoint of the stakeholder. Each of the chapter authors in this book outlines their own definition of the portal and relates this to the content of their chapter. Web Portals: The New Gateways to Internet Information and Services outlines current research relating to portals and attempts to look at how portals might be used by organizations of the future. Chapters cover a wide range of topics, including: the use of portals in marketing, techniques for the evaluation of portals, how portals are used by large enterprises, enterprise information portals, general portals, community portals, human resource management and employee portals, educational portals, medical portals, knowledge management portals, government portals and horizontal industry portals. All contributions to the book are of a high academic standard and have been subjected to a rigorous process of blind peer review by at least two reviewers. Chapter 1 introduces the portal concept by exploring the meaning of the term “portal” and investigating the wide-ranging use of the portal concept. In this chapter Tatnall outlines a categorisation of portals but notes that any current categorisation must inevitably be far from perfect as present categories are not mutually exclusive, and some portals fall into more than one category. The concept of using portals to foster virtual communities is discussed, both in the conventional community sense and also in the business sense. An important direction for portal development is the growth of the market for corporate or enterprise information portals (EIP), and the chapter discusses this, conclud-
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ing with a view that those who are still predicting the death of the portal are unlikely to be right. In Chapter 2, Wojtkowski and Major discuss the enterprise portal, a term they use to refer to a combination of corporate portal and vertical enterprise portal. This term is used to mean a secure, authenticated, personalized portal that extends to a firm’s employees as well as its clients and business partners. Wojtkowski and Major question what such a portal should provide, offer a partial list of portal vendors, and outline the technical aspects of a portal environment, which include: application server, Web server, database, taxonomy, crawler, metadata repository, gadget, categorisation engine, filters, index, virtual card, Web service, user profiles, content management, and enterprise application integration. The chapter concludes with an appendix that provides a primer on the various technical terms relating to Web portals. In Chapter 3 Gallaugher and Downing use the term “Web portal” to refer to the category of sites (such as Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, and Yahoo) that have evolved from early Web search engines but now include features such as calendar management, chat, free e-mail, games, and shopping. The authors discuss the factors that make a market leader in the context of business models and technologies that can easily be imitated. They suggest that these include: the length of time a service has been offered, the brand-related make effects of various leading players, and product features that create virtual communities and other switching costs. The study supports the importance of brandrelated make effects at work in the portal industry during the time period examined. It also offers limited support for first-mover advantages among portal players and demonstrates the positive benefits associated with features that create virtual communities and switching costs, specifically games and chat. Chapter 4, by Sieber and Valor-Sabatier, addresses the overall low profitability of the general portal industry and why, although the industry has great potential for value creation, value appropriation in information-based businesses remains problematic. They argue that the horizontal portal constitutes a critical link in the online value network as it provides a way of organizing content and can capture and canalize incoming traffic. Sieber and ValorSabatier then note that as with most technological change, the early and most obvious changes are of an incremental nature, resulting in cost savings for things we are already doing, but that a more profound effect occurs when we discover that we can do completely new things with the technology. They outline two different business models for general portals. The first is the “pure portal,” such as the original Yahoo! business model, which started with an
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advertising-based revenue model similar in nature to the broadcasting industry. The second is that of online service providers, such as AOL, which combine a pure portal with Internet access and proprietary content. The success of the portal industry is closely linked to marketing, but in the next chapter (Chapter 5) Michael points out that advertisers and marketers are yet to understand the full potential of the Internet. The chapter focuses on portals and their relationship with the marketing function and the behaviour of consumers at portals and other Web sites. Michael argues that a key function of marketing is to match buyers and sellers and to facilitate transactions, but to do this a proper institutional infrastructure is required. He points out that marketers need to be aware of new demographic segments that are being attracted to the Internet for searching and shopping purposes and that one such segment is the older, or “greying,” segment (a line taken a good deal further in Chapter 14: Portal Services for Older Australians). Portals have matured to become a key trading exchange intermediary between consumers and businesses and also between businesses. Michael suggests that portals should be regarded as strategic tools in the marketing process. In Chapter 6 Sharma and Gupta argue that organizations need a single point of online access to their stakeholders through an integrated and personalized enterprise portal. The chapter gives details of such a portal and suggests a framework for developing an enterprise-wide integrated e-commerce portal for evolving organizations. The proposed framework would help to design a distributed, extensible, cross-platform, collaborative and integrated e-commerce portal to integrate a range of features and services, including requests for bids, business links and news, a forum for sharing information, a valueadded service for buyers and a value-added service for suppliers. The authors point out the importance of integrating applications within the portal rather than just a simple collection of content. They note the emerging importance of context personalization for portal applications, based on factors such as a user’s current task, the time of day, accessing device, bandwidth, and location, and how enterprise portals can help make more efficient use of an individual’s time. Sharma and Gupta point out that developing integrated enterprise-wide e-commerce portals to create one integrated storefront to support B2C and B2B electronic business models is one of the major challenges for software developers, requiring integration of many technologies. In Chapter 7 Searle discusses two aspects of the use of portals by large corporations: the roles of portals set up by corporations and the use made by corporations of portals other than their own. Many of the traditional Internet portal applications appear to have no obvious connection with large corpora-
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tions, and Searle outlines how portals can be used by these businesses. Large enterprises have built Internet portals for corporate information, product information, customer service, selling (business-to-consumer, business-to-business), supply chain (collective procurement portals, supply chain management portals), and business-to-employee applications. The uses of portals by large enterprises provided by other companies are also discussed, including: the development and demise of collective procurement portals and the slow development of supply chain management portals. Finally, Searle suggests a number of directions for further research, including: large enterprise plans for collective procurement portals, the potential of supply chain portals that are not dominated by a single buyer, and the potential for increased transparency in the supply chain by development of supply chain management portals. In Chapter 8 Stein and Hawking investigate the application of portal technology to human resource management, particularly in regard to the use of Webbased HR solutions from enterprise resource planning systems vendors such as SAP. They point out that one reason for the development of the portal was to address problems with the large-scale development of corporate intranets. Like a number of the other authors they note that the term “portal” takes a different meaning depending on the viewpoint of the stakeholder: to the business user it is all about information access and navigation, to the organization it is about adding value, to the marketplace it is about new business models, and to the technologist a portal is about integration. Stein and Hawking point out that many leading companies are using enterprise resource planning systems to support their human resource information needs, partly because of the integrative role that human resources has in business processes such as work scheduling, travel management, production planning, and occupational health and safety. In Chapter 9 Sampson and Manouselis present an evaluation framework for addressing the multiple dimensions of Web portals that can affect users’ satisfaction. The objective of this framework is to specify a set of total satisfaction indicators that allows monitoring of the user-perceived quality level of a Web portal, comparing the results from different evaluation groups. The focus is on content, design, personalization, and community support. To demonstrate the application of their proposed framework they introduce, in the context of a summative evaluation, the Greek Go-Digital Programme. This is a national initiative of the Greek government to promote the deployment of e-business in very small and medium enterprises (vSMEs) and their familiarization with the digital economy. It is an awareness and training portal. In their study, issues are introduced by adoption of a quality-oriented approach in Web portal evalu-
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ation that considers the portal as the “product” and the user as the “customer” of the Web portal services. Government portals are rather like business enterprise portals, except being outward rather than inward looking, and in Chapter 10 Aitkenhead investigates the use of portals in the service of government. Government portals are becoming gateways or central access points for many e-government initiatives around the globe and perform this task well as they provide a consistent and easy-to-use interface that allows citizens access to a range of government services. There are many business factors driving the implementation of portals, including: the massive proliferation of Web sites, the large amount of duplicated information, the advantages portals offer in positioning businesses for future integration of information from a single point, and the strengthened security they provide. This chapter presents the findings of a review of two Victorian government portals, each of which has implemented different operational models. The use of portal technology in educational decision support systems is the subject tackled by Thorn in Chapter 11. Decision support is one of the promises held out by proponents of portal technologies, and Thorn notes that while the challenges to improving decision support systems across K-12 school districts in the United States are substantial, the payoffs are also potentially quite large. Repositories and business analytics systems are two of the most common types of knowledge management systems that school districts have attempted to build, and the author argues that efforts to build portals in education in the US are inseparably tied to district knowledge management system development. Thorn argues that portal technology will be crucial to any effort to use information technology effectively to support good decision-making in educational organizations, but unfortunately it is not technology that is lagging in this area. The challenge, he suggests, is to overcome the entrenched bureaucracies of educational systems. Chapter 12 also discusses the use of portals in education, but this time at a university level. In this chapter Bajec discusses the use of portals in institutions of higher education and examines the motivating factors that drive these institutions to use portal-based solutions. Bajec notes that almost all universities are either developing or purchasing portal solutions for their needs and that there are several reasons for this. He suggests that the most common driving forces can be explained as follows: systems integration, utilisation of e-business technology, and providing wider use of data and services of existing systems. Bajec illustrates his arguments by considering the case of the University of Ljubljana, where the use of portal technology was stimulated by
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the renovation of its existing information system. This was necessary because of the organizational changes the university was facing. He argues that portals are a promising technology for helping universities to transform their legacy systems into integrated, user-centric information systems. In Chapter 13 Moon and Burstein review the way portal technology can assist in the search for medical information. In the chapter they review the way portal technology can assist users in broader community contexts and, in particular, how portals are employed for meeting community medical information needs. They consider how medical portals could be improved so that they could assist users with their needs. The authors explore the extent to which these portals behave “intelligently” in addressing users’ needs, discussing what constitutes an intelligent portal and outlining the desirable components and attributes of such a portal and how these can be implemented to meet the needs of diverse users. The analyses of medical portal intelligence issues are discussed in terms of search engines, spell checking, “sounds like” indexing, parsing, ontology, use of thesaurus, personalization, and decision facilities or expert system functionality. Australian medical portals are then analysed to illustrate the problems and opportunities of intelligent community portals. The Web has the potential to be a major source of information for older people, and this is discussed by Lepa in Chapter 14. This chapter reviews the needs of older people and explores two Australian older-person portals: Greypath and About Seniors. Lepa notes that statistics show that the proportion of older people will increase dramatically over the next 25 years and that the Web has the potential to improve the lives of these people. The needs of older people are considered around the following themes: financial security, physical health and well-being, mental health and social environment, and engaging in intellectual endeavours. The author suggests that older people could use specially designed “older person portals” as their first port of call on the Internet and use the links provided to access the informational and recreational activities they are interested in. These portals can also provide an important recreational vehicle through the use of facilities such as e-mail, chat, current affairs (news), and music channels. He describes the establishment of a virtual community where older people can access chat facilities in the three-dimensional Greypath Village. Well-designed portals have the potential to provide a single point of access to information stored in a variety of repositories so that it may be used to support informed decision-making. In Chapter 15 Soutar and Lloyd-Walker discuss how portals can support knowledge enabling and make the conversion of information to knowledge easier and quicker. They note that early claims of
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portals supporting knowledge management initiatives in organizations were generally misleading, but that there has been a move from information portals to knowledge portals that do support the creation of a knowledge-sharing environment. In this chapter they discuss the role of portals in supporting knowledge sharing and innovation diffusion within organizations. Soutar and LloydWalker describe how portals enable information from disparate databases to be integrated, categorised, shared, and used to advantage. A range of portals is discussed, and their role in managing knowledge within organizations established. In the final chapter (Chapter 16) Pliaskin and Tatnall discuss the creation and demise of the Bizewest B-B portal. This innovative project was to create a horizontal portal that would enable the whole range of SMEs in Melbourne’s West to engage in an increased number of e-commerce transactions with each other. The attempt to establish and maintain an inward-focused B-B e-commerce portal to allow SMEs in the Western region of Melbourne to take advantage of emerging technologies was a brave move, but a worthy one, and constituted a very forward-looking, innovative project. Bizewest ceased operations in June 2003, but despite its demise, the emergence and development of the Bizewest portal left a legacy of useful benefits, and its development costs were certainly not wasted. Probably the biggest problem was the attempt to change the culture of the 300 businesses involved. This was a monumental task, and the project was probably doomed to failure right from the outset. This chapter chronicles the development of the Bizewest portal. Arthur Tatnall December 2003
Portals, Portals Everywhere 1
Chapter I
Portals, Portals Everywhere Arthur Tatnall Victoria University, Australia
Abstract In general terms a portal is just a gateway, and a Web portal can be seen as a gateway to the information and services on the Web. This chapter explores the definition of the word “portal” and attempts a categorisation of the various types of Web portals. It outlines some of the many uses for portals and shows that the portal concept is equally useful for accessing corporate intranets as for the public Internet. In conclusion the chapter looks at the proposition that the portal is dead and finds that any announcement to this effect is very much premature. Portals are everywhere and are likely to grow to even greater importance in the future.
Introduction Kate and Leopold (in the film of the same name) travelled through a time portal from the 1800s, and the exploration team in the television series
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Stargate SG-1 travels to the other side of the universe using a portal. The word “portal” has been around for many years and was even referred to in 1595 by Shakespeare in Richard II (Act 3, Scene 3): “See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, as doth the blushing discontented sun from out the fiery portal of the east.” In its simplest form the word “portal” just means a gateway, but often a gateway to somewhere quite different than just the next room or street. The Oxford Reference Dictionary (Pearsall & Trumble, 1996) defines a portal as: “a doorway or gate, etc., especially a large and elaborate one.” In this sense we could, perhaps, refer to the Great Portal of Kiev (Mussorgsky) or to the Pearly Portal. In this chapter, however, we are referring much more specifically to Web portals. The term “Web portal” is overused and difficult to define precisely. In the 15 other chapters of this book each of the authors has provided their own definition of this term, from their own perspective. Many of the definitions are similar, but some definitions are able to provide a little more insight into the use of Web portals. A colleague from my academic department at Victoria University says that there is nothing new about portals, and in this he is both partially right and completely wrong. A simple definition sees a Web portal as a special Web site designed to act as a gateway to give convenient access to other sites. In a sense there is nothing new about this as Web sites have contained hyperlinks to other sites since the Web’s inception. What is new is the way that these special Web sites are now being used to facilitate access to other sites that may be closely related, in the case of special purpose portals, or quite diverse, in the case of general portals. What is also new is that the marketers have discovered the portal concept and its advertising potential.
Portals, Portals Everywhere A Google search of the Web in December 2003 revealed 35.6 million entries for the word “portal”. Even allowing for a considerable degree of overuse and overlap, portals are seen everywhere, and it would be difficult to make any use of the Web without encountering one. Portals also span a bewildering range of topics and interest areas, a small sample of which is provided below. There are government portals such as: www.gouv.qc.ca (Québec), www.ukonline.gov.uk (UK), www.vic.gov.au (Victoria), www.firstgov.gov Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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(USA), and www.deutschland.de (Germany). Science portals include: http:// sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ESD/portal (Goddard Space Flight Centre), www.nature.com/physics, and www.science.gov.au. Those interested in things environmental are catered for by portals such as www.eco-portal.com and www.environment.gov.au. Community portals cover many regions and interest areas, including: www.portalscommunity.com (PortalsCommunity), http:// webdesign.foundlocally.com/OurPortals.htm (Canadian community portals), www.community.gov.au/, http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/ (Melbourne), www.visitmtbeauty.com.au (Mt. Beauty, Victoria) and www.capricornia.org (Rockhampton community groups). Many portals relate to the IT industry, including: www.ieee.org/portal (IEEE), http://portal.acm.org (ACM), www.ifip.org (IFIP), www.cobolportal.com (COBOL), and www.microsoft.com/sharepoint (Microsoft SharePoint portal). There are a number of education portals, such as: www.educatorsportal.com and www.edmin.com (for educational administration), http:// mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~tech/PDE_web2/portals.htm and www.sofweb. vic.edu.au/ (for schools), and www.portal.ac.at (for Austrian academics). Portals relating to other interest areas include: libraries—http:// portal.unesco.org and www.wittgenstein-portal.com, music—www.bachportal.com, sport—www.thebaseballportal.com and http://afl.com.au/, health—www. diabetesportal.com and www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/, and genealogy—www.genealogyportal.com. There is a Britney Spears portal (www.britney-spears-portal.com), a portal for those interested in progressive activism (www.progressiveportal.org), and one dealing with South Asia terrorism (www.satp.org). There is even an anti-portal portal (http://internetbrothers.com/aortal) for those who dislike portals.
What Is a Web Portal? In general terms, unrelated to the World Wide Web, the Macquarie Dictionary defines a portal as “a door, gate or entrance” (Macquarie Library, 1981). More specifically, a Web portal is seen as a special Internet (or intranet) site designed to act as a gateway to give access to other sites. A portal aggregates information from multiple sources and makes that information available to various users. In other words a portal is an all-in-one Web site used to find and to gain access to other sites, but also one that provides the services of a guide that can help to protect the user from the chaos of the Internet and direct them
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towards an eventual goal. More generally, however, a portal should be seen as providing a gateway not just to sites on the Web, but to all network-accessible resources, whether involving intranets, extranets, or the Internet. In other words a portal offers centralised access to all relevant content and applications. Historically the Web portal concept probably developed out of search engine sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, and Lycos, which can now be classified as firstgeneration portals. These sites, however, quickly evolved into sites providing additional services such as e-mail, stock quotes, news, and community building rather than just search capabilities (Rao, 2001). Eckerson (1999) outlines four generations of portals whose focus, in each case, is: generic, personalised, application, and role. Portals may be horizontal or vertical in nature (Lynch, 1998), with sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, and NetCenter being considered as horizontal portals because they are used by a broad base of users. The content area of vertical portals, on the other hand, is tightly focused and geared toward a particular audience (Lynch). The success of a portal depends on its ability to provide a base site that users will keep returning to after accessing other related sites. As an entranceway onto the Web (or an intranet) it should be a preferred starting point for many of the things that a particular user wants to do there. A useful goal for those setting up a portal is to have it designated by many users as their browser startup page.
Types of Portals There is no definitive categorisation of the types of portals, but PortalsCommunity (www.portalscommunity.com/) offers the following list: corporate or enterprise (intranet) portals, e-business (extranet) portals, personal (WAP) portals, and public or mega (Internet) portals. Another categorisation (Davison, Burgess, & Tatnall, 2003) offers: general portals, community portals, vertical industry portals, horizontal industry portals, enterprise information portals, emarketplace portals, personal/mobile portals, information portals, and niche portals. Unfortunately as the categories are not mutually exclusive, some portals fit into more than one while others do not fit well into any. To further complicate any attempt at categorisation, some implementations can span several different portal types, blended into a form of hybrid solution. A discussion of the different types of portals follows.
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Portals, Portals Everywhere 5
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General (or Mega) Portals. Portals can aim to provide links to sites that can be either closely related or quite diverse. In the case of general portals the intent is to provide links to all sorts of different sites of the user’s choosing. Many of these general portals have developed from being simple search tools (such as Yahoo), Internet service providers (such as AOL), and e-mail services (such as Hotmail). They now try to be the “one-stop port of call” for all (or at least many) user needs. An important goal of a general portal is to become the page a user returns to each time they want to access something on the Web. It will be successful if it can provide most of the services, information, and links that users want. General portals often include services such as: free e-mail, links to search engines and categories of information, membership services, news and sports, business headlines and articles, personalised space with a user’s selections, links to chat rooms, links to virtual shopping malls, and Web directories. General portals make their money by selling advertising material. The success of a general portal depends on it generating a large volume of visitor traffic, and this involves attracting new visitors, keeping them at the site for as long as possible, and convincing them to return (Sieber & Valor, 2002). Vertical Industry Portals are usually based around specific industries. They aim to aggregate information relevant to particular groups, or “online trade communities” of closely related industries to facilitate the exchange of goods and services in a particular market as part of a value chain. Vertical industry portals often specialise in business commodities and materials such as chemicals, steel, petroleum products, or timber. Some specialise in services like cleaning, food, transport, staffing, or publishing. Others specialise in interest areas such as camping, hiking, or fishing equipment. Horizontal Industry Portals. Portals can be described as horizontal when they are utilised by a broad base of users across a horizontal market. Horizontal industry portals are typically based around a group of industries or a local area. Bizewest (see Chapter 16) was an example of a horizontal industry portal. Community Portals are often set up by community groups such as eLaunceston (www.elaunceston.com/) and Cape Breton, Canada (www.centralcapebreton.com/) or based around special group interests such as GreyPath (www.greypath.com), iVillage (www.ivillage.co.uk/), and Women.com (www.women.com). These portals attempt to foster the
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concept of a virtual community where all users share a common location or interest and provide many different services depending on their orientation. The extent to which some community portals represent the interests and views of their entire community is, of course, open to interpretation. Enterprise Information Portals. The term enterprise (or corporate) information portals (EIP) is now often being applied to the gateways to the corporate intranets that are used to manage the knowledge within an organisation. These are designed primarily for business-to-employee (B2E) processes and offer employees the means to access and share data and information within the enterprise. An EIP may include facilities such as: a categorisation of information available on the intranet, a search engine covering the entire intranet, organisational news, access to e-mail, access to common software applications, document management, links to internal sites and popular external Web sites, and the ability to personalise the page. Variations on EIPs include business intelligence portals that are designed to act as gateways to decision-making processes and to provide competitive intelligence, business area portals that support specific business processes such as personnel or supply chain management, and facilities designed to support the field sales forces. E-marketplace Portals. These extended enterprise portals often offer access to a company’s extranet services and are useful for business-tobusiness processes such as ordering, tendering, and supply of goods. An example is provided by the Swiss company ETA SA Fabriques d’Ebauches (www.eta.ch/), a member of the Swatch Group that produces watches for brands including Omega, Rado, Longines, Tissot, Certina, and Swatch. The group consists of a number of individual companies that focus on producing components and movements for watches. The portal was set up principally to improve cost efficiency and facilitate quicker order processing between members of the group (Alt, Reichmayr, Cäsar, & Zurmühlen, 2002). E-marketplace portals can also be used for business-to-customer transactions, and a classic example is provided by the bookseller Amazon.com (www.amazon.com). Another example comes from the Association for Computing Machinery (http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm) digital library. Personal/Mobile Portals. Following the trends towards mobile (or pervasive) computing, personal/mobile portals are increasingly being
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•
embedded into mobile phones, wireless PDAs, and the like. Some appliances are also being equipped with personal portals aimed at allowing them to communicate with other appliances or to be used more easily from a distance. Information Portals. Although these, in most cases, can also be classified into one of the other categories, information portals can also be viewed as a category in their own right as portals whose prime aim is to provide a specific type of information. The sports information portal ESPN (http://msn.espn.go.com/) is one example of an information portal. Another is PortalsCommunity (www.portalscommunity.com/), a portal dedicated to providing information about portals. Specialised/Niche Portals are designed to satisfy specific niche markets. In many cases these can also be classified as information portals. For example, ESPN (http://msn.espn.go.com/) is targeted towards 18 to 34 year-old males, while iVillage (www.ivillage.co.uk/) is targeted towards women. Other specialised portals provide detailed industry information, often available only for a fee.
And All the Web Did Shrink Grodner (2003) outlines how global companies use portal technology to create online virtual communities. They do this, he notes, in order to improve productivity, enhance communications, and gain competitive advantage by providing real-time access to critical business information. Other authors (such as Lawrence, Corbitt, Fisher, Lawrence, & Tidwell, 2000) refer to portals that focus on aggregating information relevant to specific interest groups as “online vertical trade communities”. Virtual Web communities are seen to offer the potential of a high level of collaboration amongst their geographically dispersed users and to facilitate the rapid dissemination and sharing of relevant content. Grodner points out that for consumers, the concept of a virtual community can be used as a way to bring together individuals with similar interests. In the corporate world, companies can make use of virtual communities to facilitate working with other related companies. Portals are also of interest to the scientific research community. An article in Portals magazine (Roberts-Witt, 2003) describes the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) in the USA (www.nbii.gov and a number of Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
8 Tatnall
private sites) as a government-to-government/partner/citizen portal, based on Plumtree Corporate Portal software. The NBII portal allows biologists (researchers and students) to share geographic and geospatial data, without the need to know exactly where the data is housed and to whom it belongs. Research by Tatnall, Burgess, and Singh (2004) indicates that small businesses can also benefit from the use of portals. These benefits include: •
•
•
•
•
•
Provision of a secure environment for online trading: portals generally have a payment infrastructure that enables small businesses to integrate their accounts receivable and payable to the portal back-end systems. Search engines, directory services, and shopping bots that list the portals will automatically enable Web users to find the gateway to small online shops on the Web via these portals, saving substantially on costs. New partnerships: e-commerce opens up the opportunity for businesses to sell to new buyers, tap into the supply chain and win new business, offer complementary products with other businesses, and procure goods electronically. Community building and regional relationship features such as chat rooms, message boards, instant-messaging services, online greeting cards, and other Web services are often included in the portal infrastructure. Strategy, management, and business trust: portals enable businesses to adopt a common e-business structure that helps them to attain management support or share ideas with others businesses. Improved customer management: portal managers can make deals with Internet retailers for the “eyeballs” that will also benefit small businesses that are part of the portal.
Lawrence et al. (2000) liken a portal to the front page of a newspaper or magazine, offering directions to the location of relevant information. Hanson (2000) stresses the importance of rapid access as “most users will abandon the search if their desired location is not in the first or second screens of information.” Yockelson (2002), on the other hand, thinks that the portal itself is nothing special: “It may be nothing more than a Web-user interface, with built-in access to data or applications.” He argues instead for the benefits of a portal framework that brings with it “the notion of context and technologies that support the delivery of information and services in context.”
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Portals, Portals Everywhere 9
The marketing value of portals has not gone unrecognised, and Schneider and Perry (2001) note that Web managers have discovered that increased sales and advertising income can result from the portal’s ability to attract more people and retain them longer. They point out that Web portal companies have added sticky features like chat rooms, e-mail, and calendar functions in order to retain visitors longer at their sites. Kleindl (2001) notes that portal sites will soon attract 40% of all commerce revenue and gain 67% of advertising dollars.
Nor Any Better Link As well as their use in accessing information on the Internet, portals are also being used to considerable advantage in conjunction with corporate intranets. Enterprise (or corporate) information portals with document management, enterprise content indexing, and team collaboration features are becoming a popular means of aggregating information from many different sources into one convenient place (Microsoft, 2001). These portals offer knowledge workers a new way to organise, find, and share information. The use of corporate portals, or enterprise information portals (EIP), as they are generally known, has undergone considerable growth in recent times, and Roth (2001b) quotes research by the META Group that 85% of organisations in the US will have deployed a portal by 2004. Paul (2002) points out that the term “enterprise portal” is not just a fancy name for intranet as users can customise an enterprise portal to add or subtract internal or external information sources and applications according to their liking. Gill (2002) suggests that portals should now be viewed not as applications, but as an infrastructure to access enterprise information or applications. META Group (Roth, 2002) notes that portal functionality has evolved from a content-centric form (2000), to providing application access (2001), to being useful for collaboration (2002). Common Web applications currently being deployed by organisations include: employee services (76%), knowledge management (67%), and customer support (63%; Line56 Research, 2003). In 2001 Roth (2001a) included IBM, Plumtree, SAP, and PeopleSoft amongst the leading providers of corporate portal software but indicated that the portal market was only at about 20% market penetration. In 2002 AMR Research (2002) pointed to Plumtree as the highest-ranked provider of enterprise portal framework software and noted that Microsoft’s SharePoint Portal Server did
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10 Tatnall
not (then) constitute a complete enterprise portal framework. By October 2003 Microsoft had improved its position, with the greatest share of the portal software market held by: Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite, and IBM WebSphere Portal (Line56 Research, 2003). Microsoft indicates that its SharePoint Portal Server dashboard site (Microsoft, 2001) lets users: browse through information by categories, search for information, subscribe to new or changing information, check documents in or out, review a document’s version history, approve documents for publication, and publish documents. A portal’s ability to facilitate better document management and publishing is particularly important as, because there is little or no organisational framework to direct users, large and complex information sources can be difficult to navigate and use. SharePoint Portal features like version tracking, the use of descriptive information (metadata), publishing and document control based on user roles, automated routing of documents to reviewers, and Web discussions by multiple document reviewers, can make document management much easier (Microsoft). As most organisations have information that is stored in multiple locations and in a variety of formats, another important benefit of portal technology is improved indexing and searching services. Useful SharePoint Portal features include: a single location to search for information stored in many different places, keyword searches that examine the full text of a document and the document’s properties, browsing by topic to find information, automatic categorisation of documents, “best bet” classification for documents that are relevant to a search, and subscriptions to keep the user up-to-date on information of their choice (Microsoft, 2001). Research by the Delphi Group (2002) shows that the most important considerations by organisations deploying corporate portal software are: a focus on collaboration, seeking integration capabilities, use of multifunction applications, and targeting of multiple business functions. In a report on the corporate portal market, Plumtree Software (2003a) points out that organisations deploy corporate portals for many reasons, but the most common is to allow their employees to find information and to use applications on their own. The report goes on to note that portal software is maturing: where once it was often just a simple interface for accessing multiple systems, it has become a platform for delivering new, composite applications. Not all is completely well with corporate portal implementations, however, and Valdes, Gootzit, and Phifer (2002) and Plumtree Software (2003b) note that analysts estimate that 40% of all
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Portals, Portals Everywhere 11
corporate portals are empty. Plumtree (2002) introduces the concept of the “Enterprise Web” consisting of four elements: foundation services, integration products, portal platform, and composite applications. They offer this as an open environment for managing and delivering Web applications and services from different vendors in a technology that spans rival platforms and business systems. The portal is the delivery framework for applications created from this foundation.
Conclusion The demise of the portal has been predicted for a long time and particularly since the dot-com crash of several years ago. In 1999 Online Publishing News (1999) ran a story entitled “The Portal is dead. Long live the Vortal?” suggesting that general portals had seen the end of their usefulness, and vertical industry portals would grow in importance. A recent report by Gartner (Phifer, 2003) titled “The Portal is Dead. Long live the Portal” takes this theme further and argues that portals are evolving into integrated software suites containing portal functionality. White (2003) notes that portals are undergoing a metamorphosis in which they are merging with technologies such as content management, collaboration, and business intelligence. Predictions that the portal would disappear into application servers have also proved untrue (Plumtree Software, 2003a). Like Mark Twain’s (Partington, 1996, p. 706) exclamation in 1897, however, reports of the portal’s death appear to have been greatly exaggerated. The portal is an evolving entity that has an important part to play in the future of both corporate intranets and the World Wide Web. With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Partington, 1996, p. 211), I will conclude this introductory chapter with the following lines: Portals, portals everywhere and all the Web did shrink. Portals, portals everywhere nor any better link.
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12 Tatnall
References Alt, R., Reichmayr, C., Cäsar, M. A., & Zurmühlen, R. (2002). Evolution of electronic catalogs to customer process portals—A structured approach at ETA S.A. In 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference—eReality: Constructing the eEconomy. AMR Research. (2002). The portal framework: The new battle for the enterprise desktop. Boston, MA: Author. Davison, A., Burgess, S., & Tatnall, A. (2003). Internet technologies and business. Melbourne, Australia: Data Publishing. Delphi Group. (2002). Enterprise portals: Total market perspective. Boston, MA: Author. Eckerson, W. (1999). Plumtree blossoms: New version fulfils enterprise portal requirements. Retrieved March 2003 from http://www.eglobal.es/017/017_eckerson_plumtree.pdf Gill, P. J. (2002). Portal vision. Retrieved December 2002 from http:// otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/o2-sep/o52coverstory.html Grodner, K. (2003). Creating virtual communities. Portals, 3, 39-40. Hanson, W. (2000). Principles of Internet marketing. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College. Kleindl, B. A. (2001). Strategic electronic marketing: Managing e-Business. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College. Lawrence, E., Corbitt, B., Fisher, J., Lawrence, J., & Tidwell, A. (2000). Internet commerce: Digital models for business. Sydney, Australia: Wiley. Line56 Research. (2003). Enterprise Web and portal technology benchmarking. Retrieved December 2003 from http://www.line56.com/ research/download/L56_Web_prt_tech2003_1.pdf Lynch, J. (1998). Web portals. PC Magazine. Macquarie Library. (1981). The Macquarie dictionary. Sydney, Australia: Author. Microsoft. (2001). Introducing Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001— White paper. Retrieved February 2002 from http://www.microsoft.com/ sharepoint/portalserver.asp
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Portals, Portals Everywhere 13
Online Publishing News. (1999). The portal is dead. Long live the vortal? Retrieved December 2003 from http://www.onlinepublishingnews.com/ htm/n99815oln1.htm Partington, A. (Ed.). (1996). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Paul, L. G. (2002). Portal power. CIO Magazine. Pearsall, J., & Trumble, B. (Eds.). (1996). The Oxford English reference dictionary. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Phifer, G. (2003). The portal is dead, long live the portal. Retrieved December 2003 from http://hermes.wits.ac.za/gartner/research/113400/ 113432/113432.html Plumtree Software. (2002). The Enterprise Web: A new paradigm for building and managing Web applications. San Francisco, CA: Author. Plumtree Software. (2003a). The Corporate Portal Market in 2003: Empty Portals, The Enterprise Web, Composite Applications. San Francisco, CA: Author. Plumtree Software. (2003b). Plumtree Software “no empty portals” white paper: Eleven Enterprise Web customer case studies. San Francisco, CA: Author. Rao, S. S. (2001). Portal proliferation: An Indian scenario. New Library World, 102(9), 325-331. Roberts-Witt, S. L. (2003). Biology 101: The NBII portal is helping scientists and students across the country. Portals, 4, 28-30. Roth, C. (2001a). Enterprise portal frameworks. Stamford, CT: META Group Research. Roth, C. (2001b). Simplified approach to portal requirements gathering. Stamford, CT: META Group Research. Roth, C. (2002). State of the portal 2002. Stamford, CT: META Group Research. Schneider, G. P., & Perry, J. T. (2001). Electronic commerce. Boston, MA: Course Technology. Shakespeare, W. (1595). Richard II. In The Complete Works of Shakespeare (pp. 358-384). London: Spring Books.
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Sieber, S., & Valor, J. (2002). Horizontal portal strategies: Winners, losers and survivors. In 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference— eReality: Constructing the eEconomy. Tatnall, A., Burgess, S., & Singh, M. (2004). Community and regional portals in Australia: A role to play for small businesses? In N. Al-Qirim (Ed.), Electronic commerce in small to medium enterprises: Frameworks, issues and implications (pp. 307-323). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Valdes, R., Gootzit, D., & Phifer, G. (2002). Management update: Six ways that portal projects can fail or succeed. Stamford, CT: Gartner. White, C. (2003, July). Is the portal dead? DM Review. Yockelson, D. (2002). Portals keep sizzling. Portals, 3, 40-42.
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 15
Chapter II
On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach Wita Wojtkowski Boise State University, USA Marshall Major Moffatt Thomas Barrett Rock and Fields, Chartered, USA
Abstract In this chapter we present our views and observations concerning portals. We introduce the notion of a portal, review several possible characterizations, and focus our discussion on one type of portal—the enterprise portal. We review what functionality the enterprise portal should provide and discuss, in brief, why interest in portals and associated technologies remains strong. We ponder the ecosystem of the portal components that include wireless applications and discuss why portals might be useful for information intensive small and medium-sized enterprises. We offer a general list of portal vendors supplying a variety of solutions and the most current software, services, and relevant hardware vendors offering solutions for the small and medium-sized enterprises. We conclude the chapter with our views concerning the portals market.
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16 Wojtkowski & Major
What Is a Portal? Let us start with a general definition. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000) defines a portal as “a gate; an opening for entrance; as the portal of heaven.” The notion of portal discussed in this chapter is not so lofty an opening as that; however, it is an important window to an enterprise and its valuable intellectual assets. The most current edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2003) available online (http://www.bartleby.com/61/37/P0453700.html) also offers this definition of a portal: “website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to a search engine.” We need to note that the word “portal,” in a technology sense, is overused and difficult to define. For example, there are portals on the Internet for general consumer entertainment at Yahoo (http://my.yahoo.com), information at Brint (http://www.brint.com), specific population groups like the Austrian Academic Portal (http://www.portal.ac.at/), and regional portal sites for international enterprise such as NEC (NEC global site at http://www.nec.com, or NEC US portal at http://www.necus.com/, or NEC European portal at http:// www.neceurope.com/). Each of these portals can be customized by the users to better meet their needs and to fight information overload. All the same, in the most simple of terms, a portal is a window to the Internet. Moreover, the innovative ways of leveraging the Internet for communal and corporate purposes have generated various meanings for the term portal.1 Let us consider some examples (Collins, 2001, 2003; Goodman & Kleinschmidt, 2002; Strauss, 1999): •
Corporate Portal—usually structured around roles that are found inside an organization.
•
Enterprise Information Portal—expands the corporate portal to include customers, vendors, and other roles outside the organization. Vertical Enterprise Portal—delivers organization-specific information in a user-centric way. Vertical enterprise portals generally require a login and an authenticated presence for personalization. Consumer Portal—exemplified by my.yahoo.com. Often includes shopping, weather, stock prices, news, search engines, chat groups, etc. Portals of this type are generally customizable with stock tickers, calendars, e-mail, weather, news.
•
•
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 17
We now arrive at our description of the term. In this chapter the term portal will be used to describe a combination of a corporate portal and a vertical enterprise portal, and we will refer to it as an enterprise portal.2 For the purpose of this chapter we will identify such a combination simply as “a portal.” Thus we propose to understand this term to mean a secure, authenticated, personalized portal that extends to a firm’s employees as well as its clients and business partners. The question we now ask is this: What should such a portal provide to those who use it?
What an Enterprise Portal Should Provide According to a leading portal technology practitioner, (Collins, 2001, 2003; Finkelstein & Aiken, 1999), a portal used in a corporate setting should provide: • • • • • •
a consistent view of the enterprise; information association and search capabilities; direct access to corporate knowledge and resources; direct links to reports, analysis, and queries; direct links to knowledge experts; individual identity and personalized access to content.
On another hand, one of the major providers of portal software and enterprise portal solutions, Hummingbird Ltd. (http://www.hummingbird.com/products/ eip/), proposes that a truly effective portal must include: • • • • • • • •
a single point of access (single login); unified search across all information sources; personalization; applications integration; collaboration; system security; scalability; openness.
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18 Wojtkowski & Major
Figure 1. Hummingbird’s portal product elements
(Source: http://www.hummingbird.com/products/eip/)
In addition to the attributes identified by the leading practitioners (first list), Hummingbird’s portal (second list) calls for (among other things) scalability. This is important because scalability of any portal solution makes it useful to both large and medium-sized enterprises. An example of Hummingbird’s essentials of the enterprise portal solution is shown schematically in Figure 1. These apply to any enterprise portal. Note the emphasis on simplification of the access to all enterprise applications, knowledge assets, resources, and data integration. Integrated document and content management, business intelligence, and knowledge management tools
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 19
Figure 2. An example of My Page, a personalized portal page from Plumtree Software
(Source: http://www.plumtree.com)
are also part of this solution. Moreover, these are to be available to employees, business partners, and customers in a personalized, secure, centralized workspace that allows collaboration and can be event-driven. To give the reader an idea of the possible layout of an enterprise portal’s Web page that is personalized, we call attention to another vendor’s product (http:// www.plumtree.com). Figure 2 shows an example of the customized and personalized component of an enterprise portal called My Page from Plumtree Software.3 It can be observed from this example that through a personalized portal page such as My Page, the user is able to access services and content (both static and dynamic) as well as aggregate disparate applications (these are identified in Figure 2 with heavy arrows and oblongs containing the explanatory text).
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20 Wojtkowski & Major
What is important to realize from this example is this: the personalized portal page is centered on the needs of a specific user, combining a diverse set of applications in a single experience. By examining Figure 2, the reader may note that the portal user builds personalized portal pages from portlets. Portlets— also referred to as gadgets, applets, nuggets, Web parts, or connectors4 (Collins, 2003; Moore, 2002)—are configurable components that integrate information and services from enterprise systems and the Internet, such as email messages, inventory reports, or Internet news. Thus a portal is a Webbased environment that ideally, according to Hummingbird and other providers of portal solutions (see later in this chapter), should be “easily tailorable to meet organizational and personal requirements and be accessible anywhere, anytime” (Hummingbird, 2003)5.
Portal Defined In the context of this chapter, we propose the following broad definition of a portal: A portal is a collection of technologies (i.e., HTML, XML, Web services, LDAP directory, databases) that function together as a presentation tool to securely display corporate data, add to it information on the Internet, and customize and simplify access to that information. A portal grants access for organizational employees, clients, and business partners to information for which they are allowed access, and it hides information which has not been approved. It gives this customized access through a secure login to a directory and from that directory, the rights and privileges that are granted access to portal applications and data.
Let us now consider the presentation role that the portal plays. To that end we propose the information ecosystem view, as shown in Figure 3. In this generic information ecosystem view, the portal is the aggregator and presenter to a widely varied group of users. What the reader should take notice of from Figure 3 is that a given portal can be viewed on a variety of devices and thus have a different look depending on what device is used to attach to it and what role the authenticating user holds within the organization.
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 21
Figure 3. Generic portal ecosystem components
LDAP Directory i re W ss le
Cell phone
M
Laptop computer
Employees, Clients & Business Partners
od em
Wireles s
HTML Web Server and other unstructured information Internet or Intranet Portal Server
Hand held computer
Databases and other structured information
or m L de DS Mo ble Ca
Desktop Computer Document and Content Management
Portal Action Request: Inquiry in Brief Now we turn to the workings of a portal. When a user requests actions, such as searches or information retrieval, the portal server locates and initiates the appropriate gadget. These work to perform the requested task and send the results back to the portal server, which formats and sends the reply back to the client. Gadgets can be a simple pass-through to an HTML page or they can be complex applications. Both the portal itself and the gadgets run on a servlet engine inside an HTTP Web server. An HTTP Web server is software that renders and presents HTML pages to browser applications. A servlet engine is a persistent applet or computer program that runs within an HTTP Web server and takes specific requests away from the Web server, processes them, and then hands them back to the Web server in HTML format for it to render. An applet is a program that runs from within another application and cannot be executed directly from the operating system. A servlet engine in this case provides a method for applications like the portal and its gadgets to execute within. The portal and gadgets are executed through the URL address in a
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22 Wojtkowski & Major
browser and intercepted by the servlet and then rendered back through the browser by the Web server. The open source Apache HTTP Web server (http://httpd.apache.org/) may serve as an example of the Web server. The servlet engine example could be Tomcat servlet applet (http://jakarta.apache.org/ tomcat/index.html), which is written in Java (http://java.sun.com). Both the Apache Web server and the Tomcat servlet can be successfully used on both the Red Hat 7.1 Linux and Novell NetWare 6 server operating systems.
Technical Components As noted earlier, a fundamental goal of a portal is to make available an organization’s information resources that exist in both structured and unstructured form (Finkelstein & Aiken, 1999). To repeat what was stated earlier (see also Figures 2 and 3), there are several technical capabilities that are essential to portals.6 These are: • • • • • •
content aggregation and publishing; search tools, search engines and taxonomy generators; application integration, including e-commerce and collaboration applications; personalization, data capture, collaborative filtering and data mining; security/permissions services through a directory; links to multiple internal and external entities.
Although individual portals may combine any or all of these capabilities, depending on the desired business value and tolerance for related costs, they all share the fundamentals of providing access to information within a useful context.
Portal Environment What follows is based on the discussion and information available on an excellent generic portal site, http://www.portalscommunity.com/ (Portals Com-
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 23
munity, 2003). We highly recommend this site for readers interested in an unbiased view concerning portals technology and the portals market. Here we discuss, in brief, the elements of the portal environment. The portal environment (see also Figure 3) should include these elements: •
•
•
•
Application Server—Application servers are typically J2EE compliant and provide the underlying development and runtime infrastructure for the portal. Examples of application servers include Sun ONE, BEA WebLogic, IBM Websphere, Oracle 9iAS, and Sybase Application Server. Many of the application server vendors are incorporating portals as add-ons to their base product. For example, IBM Websphere Portal Server, Oracle Portal, BEA Portal, and Sybase Enterprise Portal are all built on top of the corresponding application server and in some cases are sold as one package. Several of the stand-alone portal products, such as Plumtree, Epicentric, and Corechange have Java components or are Java-based and take advantage of an application server. Web Server—The Web server works in conjunction with the application server to provide the runtime environment for client requests. The Web servers used with portals are standard HTTP Web servers, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Apache, and so on. When a customer brings up the portal page, the Web browser makes a request of the Web server. The Web server then passes the request to the application server. The portal (and its associated gadgets) runs on top of the application server. Database—Most portals have an underlying database (such as Oracle, DB2, Sybase, or SQL Server) that they use to keep track of information specific to the portal—such as users, personalization settings, available Web services/gadgets, and security. This use of the database is in addition to a transactional system’s database (for example, ERP, CRM, or SCM system) that a portal might query in order to present application-specific data to customers. Taxonomy—Taxonomy is a classification scheme to organize a collection of information. Ideally, taxonomy would take a group of documents and make it easy to browse, search, or otherwise navigate information that the user is interested in. Taxonomy is analogous to a folder structure, with the additional functional components of metadata for document classification as well as the rules for categorization. Most enterprise portals have
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24 Wojtkowski & Major
•
•
•
•
•
•
taxonomy for this purpose; some may have automatically generated taxonomies based upon the metadata provided. Crawler—A crawler is an automated process that reads, indexes, and classifies documents at a predetermined interval. A Web crawler, for instance, would crawl target Web pages periodically to determine if the content has changed. The content is then indexed into the taxonomy so that customers can easily find it. The crawler doesn’t necessarily make another copy of the crawled document; rather it indexes it by creating a virtual card that describes the document. The card then lives in the portal index. Metadata Repository—A metadata repository contains metadata about the content within the portal and the structure of that content. This includes metadata about the taxonomy, as well as metadata for the individual documents. For example, each document placed in a folder called Clients might have a metadata field called “Client” which would have one or more values. The value of the Client field for a particular document is metadata about that document. Gadget—This is a user interface for presenting data and functionality from multiple applications on a single Web page. Gadgets encompass the presentation layer and business logic. They also tie into back-end data sources and are given different names by vendors (portlets, blocks, Web modules, Web parts). Many portal vendors have gadgets for connecting to enterprise systems (such as SAP) as well as for collaboration, news, and other functions. Categorization Engine—A categorization engine is used for sorting documents into the folders of taxonomy. The categorization engine may do this based on metadata in the documents, business rules, the content of the document, search criteria or filters, or some other scheme. Filters—A filter is generally available in taxonomy to restrict the documents that are admitted into a particular folder or that are returned as part of a search. A filter can be word based (for example: if a document has the word “IBM”), concept based (example: if the document is like this other document), or rule based (example: if the field called Client has a value of IBM). Index—An index is a collection of information that allows for fast query and retrieval. Within the context of a portal, an index is usually a combination of a full-text index and a metadata repository for the documents/content that are included within the portal.
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 25
•
•
•
•
•
Virtual Card—Within an index or metadata repository, a virtual card is a description of a single document or piece of content within the portal. The card usually contains information about where the content physically resides and contains the values of one or more metadata fields about that document. The card is the “placeholder” for the document within the portal. Web Service—A Web service is a program that accepts and responds to requests over the Internet. Typically, a Web service accepts requests in an XML-based format. The actual format of the request and the response depends on the XML standards that are being used. One such standard is SOAP. There are public registries and languages—such as UDDI, WSDL—which are used to catalog the different available Web services (see Appendix). A calling program can query the registry (UDDI) to find an appropriate Web service, then use WSDL to figure out which parameters the service needs, and finally use a calling protocol and XML standard like SOAP to actually make the call to the Web service. User Profiles—Each portal contains a profile for each of its users. This profile is used for customization and personalization. Each of the gadgets in a portal has access to this user profile and can use it to store preference information about a user or a class of users. This profile is also how the user configures the home page of a portal and chooses which gadgets show up and what information they should show. Content Management System—Most enterprise portals contain a content management system, which allows approved users to submit information into the portal. There is typically an approval process that eventually results in the content becoming available in the correct part of the portal’s taxonomy. A content management system can deal with documents in their original formats (for example, Microsoft Word or PDF) or might contain Web editing features to allow users to author Web pages. EAI (Enterprise Application Integration)—EAI serves as the umbrella term for all software and services meant to integrate enterprise applications with one another. An EAI layer is needed so that queries can be coordinated and results consolidated. Given the complexities of each type of application (for example: sales, manufacturing, service, purchasing), this can be a difficult and expensive proposition. A number of vendors have released software that makes this effort much simpler. Crossworlds, WebMethods, Tibco, NEON, and MQ Series may serve
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as examples of vendors offering such solutions. EAI impacts the portal because the portal ideally will show consolidated information from multiple back-end systems.
Opportunities and Objectives An enterprise portal is becoming a key component of the information technology suite for many organizations (Collins, 2003; Conigliaro et al., 2003;). That is why the portal market is evolving rapidly (Forrester Research, 2003). As we noted before, a portal may include business intelligence applications, enterprise application packages, content management systems, and Web services. In this section of the chapter we take a look at the opportunities and objectives that could be met through a portal project.7 We list the attributes of a portal so that the likelihood of leveraging a portal for achieving user interface integration as well as business process, application, and data integration is clearly identified. To that end we present this information in the form of a summary table (Table 1).
Table 1. Opportunities and objectives that can be met through a portal OPPORTUNITIES AND OBJECTIVES THAT COULD BE MET THROUGH A PORTAL Attribute Opportunities and Objectives Retrieve information from corporate IT systems and present the Role-Based Access results according to the roles, specific tasks, and preferences of individual employees. Present employees with information relevant to their daily tasks Role-Based Access without making them search for it. Gather information about each employee, facilitating communication Role-Based Access between the people who need information and the people who can supply the information. For instance, an account manager may need to learn the details of a customer’s tax audit from the consulting team leader who was responsible for composing and documenting the results. By knowing the name of the customer, the account manager would be able to use a few mouse clicks to locate the name of the team leader and contact him through e-mail, telephone, or other tools available. Allow employees to act on information presented in the desktop Single Interface without requiring them to switch to a different system or interface for the purpose of sharing the information and collaborating with other employees. Present a desktop interface through a Web browser that requires Single Interface minimal technical training. Support multiple business processes for a single department, a single Single Interface process across multiple departments, or multiple processes across multiple departments.
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 27
On Portal Vendors From our discussion so far, the reader may conjecture that portal technology is both infrastructure and a software application. Those who want to implement portals in organizations are thus faced with various levels of vendor risk, technology risk, and budget risk. Such risks are of different magnitude for different portal archetypes.
Portal Archetypes We now divide portals and the technology involved into the discrete divisions of small (simple) or large (complex) in order to clearly demonstrate to the reader that there exist options for small organizations that do not have to involve large expenditures. •
Simple Portals—small business or departmental. These portal products are relatively easy to deploy and are often free, included with an operating system, or low cost. Examples of this include IBuySpy (a free Microsoft .Net portal at http://www.asp.net/), Novell’s Novell Portal Services (included with NetWare 6 at http://www.novell.com/products/ portal/), and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (at http:// www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/). Microsoft has a version of SharePoint called SharePoint Team Services that is included free with Microsoft
Table 2. Service solutions for small- to medium-sized enterprises Company Cylogy http://www.cylogy.com/ Service for small to medium-sized enterprises and not-for-profit. Initium Technology http://www.initiumtech.com/ Strategic technology consultancy.
Infoscaler http://www.infoscaler.com/ Architecting and developing scalable e-business applications.
SERVICE SOLUTIONS Solution Web application development. Core services include user interface design, application architecture, business process modeling, relational database design, programming, and application deployment. CRM strategies. Implementation of the mid-market CRM solutions to execute those strategies. For example, implementation of SalesLogix, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that has received numerous industry awards. E-business consulting services. Specializes in scalable and robust Web development, e-commerce development, database design, e-business integration, and intranet and portals development.
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Table 3. Hardware solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises HARDWARE SOLUTIONS Company Solution SOHO3. SonicWALL, Inc. http://www.sonicwall.com/ Comprehensive Internet security. Internet Security Appliance, a flexible firewall solution for small businesses and branch offices seeking network security. Offers a variety of configuration designs to meet the network size and connectivity requirements of small businesses. Ingrian http://www.ingrian.com/ e-Transaction Privacy. Data privacy. Comprehensive set of software/hardware platforms that deliver complete data privacy across the Internet and within the enterprise.
FrontPage. SharePoint Team Services requires Windows 2000 Server to run it on. Of course there are other providers of portal solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises. We list these in Table 2 and identify the type of solution they offer. In Table 3 we identify some of the interesting hardware vendors that also serve this market. Our source is Infoworld at http://www.infoworld.com/. We now turn to large portals. •
Large Portals—complex architecture. For anything larger than a nonmission-critical implementation, most companies usually choose a sophisticated portal product. Portal software producers approach their portal development with background and experience in a particular market segment or to solve a particular business problem. By focusing on a particular segment of the business software market, the software vendor may have a stronger offering in that particular area. One example of this is Documentum, a company that has a background in document management (http://www.documentum.com/about_us/ fact.html). They were one of the first to introduce an enterprise-scale document management system. As a result of this history, Documentum portal products focus on the document and content management side of the portal (See also Appendix). In the current large portals market many players are fiercely competing (Forrester Research, 2003). This competition includes: .Net and Java players (in the Web services), application server vendors, enterprise application integration (EAI) and business process management (BPO) vendors, and packaged application vendors (CRM, ERP, and SCM).
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 29
Partial List of Portal Vendors A partial list of portal vendors (and their Web sites) is shown in Table 4. Many of these entries are based on the recommendations of Collins (2001, 2003). We identify the following categories of vendors: Table 4. A partial list of portal vendors Vendor Web site Established Applications Vendors with Portal Tools Computer Associates www.ca.com IBM www.ibm.com Oracle www.oracle.com PeopleSoft www.peoplesoft.com SAP www.sap.com Sun www.sun.com
Vendors with Decision Support or Knowledge Management Expertise Brio Hummingbird MicroStrategy Plumtree Sterling Software Viador
www.brio.com www.hummingbird.com www.microstrategy.com www.plumtree.com www.sterling.com www.viador.com
Portal Start-Up Vendors 2Bridge Broadvision Corechange CoVia DataChannel Epicentric Hyperwave InfoImage Intraspect Knowledge Track Sagemaker
www.2bridge.com www.broadvision.com www.corechange.com www.covia.com www.datachannel.com www.epicentric.com www.hyperwave.com www.infoimage.com www.intraspect.com www.knowledgetrack.com www.sagemaker.com
Component Products Autonomy Excalibur InfoSeek Semio Verity Viador
www.autonomy.com www.excalib.com www.software.infoseek.com www.semio.com www.verity.com www.viador.com
Miscellaneous Digital Dashboard IONA Radnet Sybase TIBCO TopTier Unitas Verano
www.microsoft.com www.iona.com www.radnet.com www.sybase.com www.tibco.com www.toptier.com www.unitas.com www.verano.com
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• • • • •
Established applications vendors who offer portal tools. Vendors with decision support or knowledge management expertise. Portal start-up vendors. Component providers. Miscellaneous category.
This is a fast-moving market, and especially start-up vendors can constantly be added to or removed from this list.
Conclusions and Closing Observations Interest in portal solutions remains strong (Sribar & Lynn, 2003). According to a Goldman Sachs January 2003 IT manager survey (Conigliaro et al., 2003), “enterprise portal software” is one of the “highest priorities,” ranked behind only security technology and wireless networks. Two types of players are currently competing to gain control of the enterprise portal market: pure-play and infrastructure. The pure-play vendors offer an independent layer to accommodate various competing systems. Vendors in this segment promote flexibility and claim to effectively solve business problems of enterprises that are running operations on various platforms and building services in a wide range of languages. Examples of the key pure-play vendors include Plumtree and Epicentric. On the other side, the infrastructure vendors claim to deliver portal technology as an essential link in the emerging Web services market. This segment includes IBM, BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Microsoft. These vendors advocate scalability and access to serious application server resources, including load balancing and clustering. They consider the portal as a vital part of the infrastructure, tightly linked with the application server and Web services. According to infrastructure vendors, pure-play portal technology cannot utilize all the reliability, scalability, and development tools of an application server. In our opinion, however, a business selecting a portal vendor should look to meeting the core purpose of the portal first. After that core need is met, then one should look for portal products that can be used to meet some of the organization’s other needs.
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 31
It is clear that portals and associated technologies are very useful for large enterprises. However, many research questions concerning such portals still remain unanswered. For example, questions dealing with the utilization of Web services (InfoWorld, 2002). Web services have the potential to transform not only businesses and their IT architecture, but to alter the workings of organizations (Ramel, 2003). What are the key challenges and opportunities when using Web services to accomplish user interface integration with a portal and integration of business processes as well as applications and data integration? In our opinion, research questions concerning portals for small and mediumsized enterprises are also worth pursuing. For example, for what size and type of organization is the information value substantial enough to warrant the expense of a portal as a presentation layer to data, information, reports and applications? Perhaps variables that factor into this question are unique to each organization. It will be interesting to investigate efficacy of portals for small and medium-sized enterprises. Especially valuable will be theoretical and practical examination of the appropriateness of portals for information-intensive small businesses, such as law firms.
Endnotes 1
2
3
4
In addition to major consumer @eb portals like Yahoo, we are witnessing a growth in corporate portals referred to as enterprise resource portals; there are also vertical, affinity, or niche portals and industry or B2B portals (Goodman et al., 2002). In 1998, Merrill Lynch published a groundbreaking investment article on the enterprise information portal market. It was this article that prompted practitioners such as C. Finkelstein, author of Building Corporate Portals with XML, to begin to focus on the portal market. Merrill Lynch’s research article was the first to use the term “enterprise information portal.” Plumtree Software is a leading provider of portal software, with over 360 customers, including Ford and GE. Later in this chapter we list major players in the portals software market. In this chapter we use the term gadget.
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6
7
Of course accessibility “anywhere, anytime” creates problems of security for an enterprise. However, security issues are beyond the scope of this chapter. In the Appendix we examine, in brief, the alphabet soup of protocols, standards, technologies, and products that make up a portal. Standards and technologies pondered include HTML, XML, XSL, XSLT, LDAP directories, and content management. Of course, an important component of any development project, including that for a portal, is knowledge of current industry standards for developing solutions and how they relate to each other. A brief summary of the most common ones is provided in the Appendix.
References American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from http://www.bartleby.com/61/ 37/P0453700.html Collins, H. (2001). Corporate portals. New York: AMACOM. Collins, H. (2003). Enterprise knowledge portals. New York: AMACOM. Conigliaro L. et. al. (2003). IT spending survey, 8, 6. Finkelstein, C., & Aiken, P. (1999). Building corporate portals with XML. New York: McGraw-Hill. Forrester Research. (2003). Process portal platforms (TechRankings). Retrieved from http://www.forrester.com/TechRankings/CategoryMain/ 1,5821,48,00.html Goodman, A., & Kleinschmidt, C. (2002). Frequently asked questions about portals. Retrieved from http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=9 Hummingbird Ltd. (2002). Hummingbird Portal™– Product overview. Retrieved from http://www.hummingbird.com/products/portal/index.html Hummingbird Ltd. (2003). Products overview. Retrieved from http:// www.hummingbird.com/products/eip InfoWorld. (2002, August 26). Examining Web services from all angles. Retrieved from http://archive.infoworld.com/tc/tcwebservices.html
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Moore, C. (2002). Plumtree portal tackles HR. InfoWorld. Retrieved from http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/08/26/020826hnplumtree_1.html Novell. (2002). Novell portal services software development kit. Retrieved from http://developer.novell.com/ndk Open Software Services.(2002). Content management systems. Retrieved from http://opensoftwareservices.com/Members/jeff/webdocs/CMS Plumtree Software. (2002). Overview of corporate portal return on investment. Retrieved from http://www.plumtree.com/products/platform/benefits/ Portals Magazine. (2003). Retrieved from http://www.portalsmag.com PortalsCommunity. (2002). Fundamentals. Retrieved from http:// www.portalscommunity.com/library/fundamentals.cfm Ramel, D. (2003, May 9). Web services highlights from around the Web. Computerworld. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/ developmenttopics/development/webservices/story/0,10801,75175,00. html Ramos, N., & Wiener, S. (2003). Enterprise portal implementation framework: Crossing boundaries and delivering value. Giga. Sribar, V., & Lynn, D. (2003). Portals for CIOs: Credibility for sale. META Group. Strauss, H. (1999). All about Web portals: A home page doth not a portal make. In R. N. Katz & Associates, Web portals and higher education (pp. 33-40). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Webopedia. Retrieved from http://www.webopaedia.com
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Appendix In this Appendix we describe, in brief, the alphabet soup of protocols, standards, technologies, and products that make up a portal.
HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a presentation language that makes it possible to display the same data in the same way on multiple platforms. Webopedia (2002) has the following to say about HTML: HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. The correct structure for an HTML document starts with (enter here what the document is about) and ends with . All the information you’d like to include in your Web page fits in between the and tags. There are hundreds of tags used to format and layout the information in a Web page.
Tags in HTML are defined by a W3C standard (http://www.w3c.org). As a result of being standards based, the tags in HTML Web pages cannot be defined arbitrarily by a developer.
XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a tag-based language that is a way to store data and describe the data’s context at the same time. It allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations (Webopedia, 2002). Different than HTML, XML allows developers or users of XML to define their own tags as needed. This sophisticated data approach separates content from layout and allows for multiple modes of presentation. books.xml, a common XML example is given in the following:
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 35
Gambardella, Matthew XML Developer’s Guide Computer <price>44.95 2000-10-01 <description>An in-depth look at creating applications with XML. Ralls, Kim Midnight Rain Fantasy <price>5.95 2000-12-16 <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen of the world. Corets, Eva Maeve Ascendant Fantasy <price>5.95 2000-11-17 <description>After the collapse of a nanotechnology society in England, the young survivors lay the foundation for a new society.
It is this self-describing nature of XML data that gives this standard its power. Whereas HTML is used to tell Web browsers how to show information to the end user, XML is more typically used to send information between programs. The XML files usually do not have information about the display of the information—the program that receives the data, often by using an XSL style sheet and XSLT, usually handles this separately. The structure of an XML file is usually defined by its DTD (document type definition) or XSD (XML Schema Definition).
XSL Extensible Style Language (XSL) is a specification for separating style from content when creating HTML or XML pages. The specifications work much Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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like templates, allowing designers to apply single style documents to multiple pages. XSL is a standard like HTML and XML that is offered by the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3c.org). W3schools.com’s (2002) XSL tutorial specifies that XSL consists of three parts: • • •
XSLT (a language for transforming XML documents). XPath (a language for defining parts of an XML document). XSL Formatting Objects (a vocabulary for formatting XML documents). …think of XSL as a language that can transform XML into XHTML, a language that can filter and sort XML data, a language that can define parts of an XML document, a language that can format XML data based on the data value, like displaying negative numbers in red, and a language that can output XML data to different devices, like screen, paper or voice.
This combination of self-described data in XML and a definition of how that data should be formatted in XSL gives a flexible and powerful presentation capability to both structured and unstructured data. While XML documents contain data, XSL documents contain rules for “transforming that data” into a presentation that the user can understand. This presentation format might be HTML for Web browsers or it might be WML for wireless devices or PDF for printing out the information.
DTD and XSD Document type definition (DTD) and XML Schema Definition (XSD) are ways to define the structure and layout of XML documents. DTD and XSD become important for validating that an XML document is in the right format for passing information between different systems or for passing information from a backend system to the portal.
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a set of open standards for accessing information directories. A directory typically holds information about
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 37
each user (i.e., name, address, and password), what groups they belong to, and what rights and privileges they have on the local network. An example of the LDAP directory is Novell’s eDirectory 8.6.2 (http://www.novell.com/products/edirectory/).
WSDL Web Services Description Language (WSDL) allows a Web service to describe what actions it supports. A “stock quote” Web service, for example, might have two actions that other programs can call—getStockQuote, which takes a ticker symbol and returns the closing stock price, and getTickerSymbol, which takes a company name and returns one or more ticker symbols. WSDL is an XML-based language that allows both calling programs and Web services to describe legal ways to invoke the program. WSDL is important for portals because portals will typically aggregate information from multiple Web services onto a single screen and so need to communicate with each one in the appropriate format.
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is an XML-based standard for making function calls across the Internet to another application. SOAP provides underlying calling protocols (which can be used as an alternative to HTTP GET/POST), a wrapper so that the calling application can send parameters to the program it is calling, and a method for getting results back from that program. Because SOAP is XML based, it is completely platform independent. SOAP is quickly becoming a leading protocol for invoking and getting results from Web services.
UDDI Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) refers to a specification for finding Web services and a public registry where Web services can publish information about themselves. UDDI can be used to get back XMLbased “descriptive information” about Web services. This descriptive informa-
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tion might be in an XML format such as WSDL. UDDI has broad support from all segments of the Internet industry.
WSUI Web Services User Interface (WSUI) is a specification for standardizing the display of Web services to end users. This extends the traditional Web services model, which is used to get and retrieve XML data, by providing a framework for how that data will be displayed to end users. WSUI is akin to a standard way to describe gadgets. In the WSUI model, a gadget makes a call to a Web service, gets back XML, and then uses XSLT to transform that XML into HTML, which can then be displayed within the portal.
Document Management and Content Management In a typical small Web site, content contributors pass information to a Webmaster, who puts the information onto the Web site. As the size and complexity of a Web site grows, there comes a point when the Webmaster as content manager model is no longer feasible because it creates information bottlenecks. It is at this point where a content management system is added to the site. The document flow must change to one where the individual contributors have a publishing system that empowers members to use the Web to collaborate. Content management system vendors include Vignette (http:// www.vignette.com/), Interwoven (http://www.interwoven.com/), and Documentum (http://www.documentum.com/). These vendors have different approaches to the storing and presentation of content, but they all work to solve publishing, storage, and workflow challenges of large Web sites.
Web Services Sometimes called application services, Web services describe a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available, and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and
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On Portals: A Parsimonious Approach 39
with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other’s IT systems behind the firewall. Unlike traditional client/server models, such as a Web server/Web page system, Web services do not provide the user with a GUI. Web services instead share business logic, data, and processes through a programmatic interface across a network. It is the applications that interface, not the users. Developers can then add the Web service to a GUI (such as a Web page or an executable program) to offer specific functionality to users. Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding, and because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. For example, Java can talk with Perl; Windows applications can talk with UNIX applications. Web services do not require the use of browsers or HTML.
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40 Gallaugher & Downing
Chapter III
Portal Combat Revisited: Success Factors and Evolution in Consumer Web Portals1 John M. Gallaugher Boston College, USA Charles E. Downing Northern Illinois University, USA
Abstract What determines a market leader when business models and technologies can be easily imitated? This work examines this question within the context of the market for free, consumer-oriented Web portals. Factors considered include the length of time a service has been offered, the brand-related make effects of various leading players, and product features that create virtual communities and other switching costs. This analysis demonstrates that there are strong make-related premiums
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Portal Combat Revisited 41
among leading portal players, suggesting that brand value may be a critically important asset for industry players. The study also offers qualified support for the first-mover hypothesis and the benefits of chat and gaming features and notes a lack of significant benefit from leadership in various technology-based service innovations.
Introduction Creating and sustaining a competitive advantage is challenging for most firms; however, this challenge may be particularly difficult for businesses offering services over the World Wide Web. By 2003 over 2,000 Internet start-ups had gone under or merged with other companies (Mullaney, Green, Arndt, Hof, & Himelstein, 2003). Those few sector-dominating firms were beginning to emerge from their respective packs of competitors. Many of these firms, such as eBay, Yahoo, and Monster.com, are what can be referred to as “bits-based” businesses (Negroponte, 1995), firms that hold no inventory and provide products and services that are entirely digital. Identifying the determinants of market leadership among technology-dependent firms remains an ongoing challenge despite extensive research into the strategic value of information systems. Examining the factors associated with market leadership among Internet rivals is particularly interesting, given that firms use identical technology based on open standards to interface with the customer and given that one’s competition is typically just “a click away.” While Internet firms use technology almost exclusively to interact with their customer base, resource-based theory suggests that technology alone cannot yield sustainable competitive advantage (Clemons, 1991; Mata, Fuerst, & Barney, 1995). The question remains then— how are firms able to dominate their market and capture the broadest customer base when competitors can easily match a firm’s feature innovation? This chapter examines previous literature as it relates to IS strategy, market entry, brand value, and Internet features in an attempt to assess those factors at work in early stage competition among the major free consumer Web portals. Accepted techniques from prior IS research used to examine competition in software markets are applied to measuring and assessing online competitors. Results of this study provide insights regarding the factors at work in the early stage competition and indicate where competitive advantage lies and why the market has evolved as it has. The conclusion of this chapter corroborates the
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empirical findings of early market competition by comparing these results with observations of subsequent market evolution. The study concludes with a summary of the current state of the market and continued challenges.
Context—The Web Portal Industry Examining competition among Web portal firms provides an interesting research context for several reasons. These include immense interest in the Internet, the enormous initial market valuations placed on Web portals and the subsequent valuation collapse of many of these firms, the difficulties in crafting a sustainable business in an environment where consumers increasingly demand free services,2 the likelihood that portals represent a first step in the evolution of free information services delivered over public networks, and the fact that many portal features are beginning to appear in other online enterprises. In the context of this study, the term “Web portals” refers to the category of firms that have evolved from early roots as World Wide Web search engines but may now include features such as calendar management, chat, free e-mail, games, and shopping, among others. During the time of this study, the market consisting of free Web portal services was dominated by four firms—Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, and Yahoo. These firms controlled the majority of both advertising dollars (the primary revenue stream for these firms) as well as visitor traffic to free general-interest portals. The growing importance of this industry within the United States economy has been acknowledged by the fall 1999 inclusion of Yahoo as one of the firms making up the S&P 500 index. In examining market leadership we chose to focus this analysis on factors associated with market reach. In this study, market reach refers to the percentage of the Internet population visiting a particular portal during a given period. This was done for the following reasons: 1) Market reach is the most cited measure used for discussing competition in the Web portal industry and as such is the primary indicator used in assessing market leadership. 2) This method is also consistent with the traditional market share approach used in examining competition in software markets (Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996). Market reach is similar to the share measure but allows for the fact that a user may visit more than one service in a given period.3
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Influencing Market Dominance It would be impossible to conduct a study that examined all potential factors associated with market dominance. Noting this, we have chosen to focus on four areas that have received attention in the research and practitioner literature but have yet to be empirically explored in the context of e-commerce firms. These factors include early-mover advantages, brand-related make effects, virtual communities, and non-community features that create switching costs. A description of each, along with the reasons (theoretical and practical) for considering these factors, follows below.
Early-Mover Advantages It has been suggested that the venture capitalist axiom “speed is God, time is the Devil” has never been more applicable than to the context of Internet competition (Gallaugher 1999). For example, Amazon.com launched in July 1995, 22 months ahead of leading book chain Barnes & Noble. At Q1 2000, first mover Amazon was selling more than 4.5 times as many books online, with a total sales volume nearly 8 times larger than Barnes & Noble. Similarly, prior to 1996 Charles Schwab and Fidelity competed as near-equal peers with respect to their share of the discount brokerage business. Schwab launched its Internet trading operation in May 1996; Fidelity followed 8 months later. By 1999, Schwab was the leader in online trading volume; Fidelity—despite having more competitive rates—was in fifth place. Strategic management researchers have long been concerned with whether or not moving first in an industry offers a firm an advantage over rivals that follow. However, there is significant controversy regarding the pros and cons of moving first (for an excellent summary, see VanderWerf & Mahon, 1997). Moving first can allow a firm to gain early market share, establish a reputation as an industry pioneer, define standards, develop relationships with suppliers and distributors, and begin generating revenues to foster future growth. However, those firms that do move first incur risk as market pioneers. It can be expensive to develop a pioneering product (the first product or service in a category) and to generate consumer awareness with a constituency unfamiliar with the offering (Urban, Carter, Gaskin, & Mucha, 1986). Expenses may involve not only creating product and firm recognition, but also generating awareness of the new product or service and providing consumer education.
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44 Gallaugher & Downing
And while pioneers are vulnerable to the risks and missteps of moving early, followers may take less time to deploy rival products and require fewer funds to copy the innovation (Mansfield, Schwartz, & Wagner, 1981). Because computing power continues to increase exponentially relative to cost, information-based industries may be particularly vulnerable to investment asymmetries between first and subsequent movers (that is to say, first movers may spend more than later movers). Several cases have claimed the value of the first-mover advantage in the development of information systems (for an overview see Newmann, 1994). In studies of why dominant firms fail, Christensen (1997) advises a pioneering role, suggesting that firms experiment with innovations and take a stake in industry innovators in order to avoid being shut out of later competition. Early theories of Internet strategy have emphasized the value of moving early (Downes & Mu,i 1998; Hagel & Armstrong, 1997). However, to our knowledge there has been no empirical research regarding early-mover advantages involving Internet businesses. Moving early may not yield sustainable advantages in industries where switching costs are low or nonexistent and where customers can readily shift their business from supplier to supplier (Shapiro & Varian, 1998). Low switching costs and distribution advantages helped Microsoft match Netscape’s dominant lead in the Web software market despite the latter’s considerable head start (Cusumano & Yoffie, 1998; Gallaugher & Wang, 2002). In order to shed light on this conflicting theory, this work investigates the role of moving early.
Brand Value (Make Effect) Early Internet strategists have suggested that brand loyalty may be weaker for online firms (Kalakota & Whinston, 1996). For example, a recent study examined the high rate of customer churn (customer turnover) in the fee-based online service industry (Parthasarathy & Bhattacherjee, 1998), suggesting that consumers may lack brand loyalty. Loyalty among some online firms may decrease as product comparisons can be made with very little effort on the part of consumers and as deep-pocketed newcomers secure virtual distribution through bundling agreements. In the portal industry, such agreements include licensing virtual real estate under a browser’s search button or bundling a service with an Internet service provider (Cusumano & Yoffie, 1998). Despite suggestions of weakening consumer loyalty, it has also been argued that a strong brand may be a vital asset to online firms (Gallaugher, 1999). A Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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strong brand provides Internet businesses with benefits in three critical areas: 1) brands lower customer search costs, 2) brands proxy quality, and 3) brands inspire trust. Brand-related make effects (premiums associated with a given provider) have been considered in earlier studies of IS markets such as spreadsheets (Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996) and online services (Wang, Gallaugher, & Vasudevan, 1996). If dominant brands exist in the portal industry, then a significant make effect for a given service should be evident after adjusting for features offered and the time the service has been available.
Stickiness (Switching Costs) Recent popular Internet business literature has referred to the strategy of creating “stickiness” (Seybold, 1998). The idea behind stickiness is that firms should create ties between the service and the consumer in order to encourage repeat visits to a Web site. IS and strategy researchers know this concept as switching costs. Shapiro and Varian (1998) emphasize the importance of establishing switching costs in industries where customers may otherwise sample nearly identical offerings from competitors. Seybold suggests that the more information that a customer “leaves behind,” the greater the likelihood that he or she will return to that service. Sources of switching costs for Internet firms include e-mail, calendar, and Web hosting services (also known as homesteading). As Table 1 illustrates, many firms have placed high valuations on successful Internet services that attempt to establish switching costs. Customers of these services are reluctant to switch providers given that a change of service involves time, effort, and potential of
Table 1. Deals to acquire switching cost services Date Jun-00 Jan-99 Aug-98
Service AnyDay.com GeoCities WhoWhere
Feb-98 Tripod Jan-98 HotMail Oct-97 Four11 / Rocketmail
Features Calendar Page hosting E-mail, Page hosting Page hosting E-mail E-mail
Purchaser Palm Yahoo Lycos
# of Users 3 million 3.5 million 10.6 million
Deal $ $80 million $3.56 billion $133 million
Lycos Microsoft Yahoo
1 million 9 million 1 million
$58 million $400 million $92 million
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lost contact with those unaware of one’s new address or URL. These sorts of switching costs may be particularly important in preventing the earlier cited penchant for customer churn in the online services industry (Parthasarathy & Bhattacherjee, 1998). As such, one would assume that firms that offer features to create and leverage switching costs would be able to maintain and grow market presence over time.
Virtual Communities In their book NetGain, Hagel and Armstrong (1997) suggest that virtual communities are a potential source of substantive value for Internet operations. They encourage firms to grow and cultivate services such as chat or gaming that bring consumers together in some sort of online dialog. The value of virtual communities is derived from network externalities (sometimes referred to as network effects or Metcalfe’s law). When network externalities are present, the value of a particular product or service increases as its installed base of users expands (Farrell & Saloner, 1985). Given that each new member of a virtual community brings the ability to interact with other users, the value of a virtual community has the potential to increase exponentially with each adopter. Network effects can also fuel awareness of a firm’s offerings. Firms that move early in information-based Internet businesses can leverage network-effectfuelled techniques such as viral marketing (Gallaugher, 1999)—using the firm’s growing customer base as a low-cost means to promote and establish a new enterprise (Jurvetson, 1998). Blue Mountain Arts, Hotmail, and ICQ are all examples of leading Internet destinations that have each leveraged this strategy to create a multimillion-customer installed base. However, virtual communities benefit from Metcalfe’s law beyond mere promotion because users generally see larger communities as more valuable than smaller ones. For example, gamers are attracted to places where there are the most competitors, collectors are attracted to auctions with the most buyers and sellers, and chat users are attracted to destinations where there is likely a critical mass of like-minded individuals. Failure to quickly attract a critical mass of virtual community users may doom an otherwise high-quality offering. For example, Apple’s eWorld online service was widely regarded as superior to AOL; however, the service remained a virtual ghost town as users were attracted to AOL’s larger communities (Wang et al., 1996).
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Table 2. Virtual community acquisition deals Date Feb-02 Jun-00 Nov-99 Aug-98 Jun-98 Apr-98
Service HotJobs eGroups Gamesville PlanetAll Mirabilis/ICQ WebChat
Purchaser Yahoo Yahoo Lycos Amazon AOL InfoSeek
# of Users 8 million 17 million 2.2 million 1.5 million 11 million 2.7 million
Deal $ $439.1 million $428 million $207 million $87.9 million $287 million $6.7 million
The substantial valuations placed on virtual communities (Table 2) suggest that Internet firms see benefit to securing virtual communities, with many compelled to play “catch up” and match the efforts of their rivals. Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee (1998) and Wang et al. (1996) offer evidence of the existence of positive network externalities in the subscription-based online services industry; however, the impact of network externalities in free information industries remains largely unstudied. If virtual communities do generate growth in a service’s subscriber base, then it is assumed that firms that have established virtual community features such as chat and multiplayer games will generate benefits that positively impact the firm’s market position versus competitors that do not offer such features.
Modelling Portal Combat The traditional approach used in the IS literature when comparing the market leadership of one product relative to others in its class has been to examine market share (Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996; Gallaugher & Wang, 1999). The concept of market share is less applicable in the context of Web portals since consumers may patronize more than one portal during a given time period. Given this nonexclusivity, market penetration is best measured by market reach, or the percentage of the overall customer population using a particular service. Using this construct, aggregate reach percentages among the leading players may exceed 100% yet still reflect a firm’s relative market position compared with its rivals.
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The approach to constructing the general model is otherwise similar to the studies cited above. In order to enable an exploration of the factors that we are interested in, four additional characteristics are needed in addition to market reach: 1) the length of time a service has been operational, 2) an indication of the service’s make or brand, 3) the consideration of features that foster virtual community, and 4) the consideration of non-community features that establish customer switching costs. A fifth characteristic is also considered—features that neither provide switching costs nor virtual community but that may enhance the utility of the service. While not the focus of this study, these later factors are included as control variables. The general model is presented as follows: Rit = f(Ait, Mit, Cit, Sit, Fit) where:
(1)
Rit = market reach, Ait = age, or time since service launch, Mit = make effect, indicating the brand of a service, Cit = features that establish virtual communities, Sit = features that create customer switching costs, and Fit = other features that may enhance the utility of the service, for product i during time period t.
Data A single data set consisting of 88 total observations (n = 88) was prepared for this study. The data set reflects a cross-sectional time series during the early stage of Web portal development during the 22 months from March 1997 to December 1998. This study restricts its investigation to leading pure-play portals. At the time of this study, these “Big Four” were made up of Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, and Yahoo. All firms considered during this period were publicly traded companies whose primary product offering is a consumer Internet portal. Not considered in the study are fee-based services such as AOL or fee/free hybrids such as MSN. Also excluded from the study are vertical or niche portals as well as firms such as AltaVista or Inktomi that provided OEM services to leading players during the time of the study. The dependent variable REACH represents the percentage of the Internet population that visited a particular Internet domain in a given month. These data were obtained from industry research organization MediaMetrix, whose primary service is measuring Internet audiences. The firm uses proprietary
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software to collect data from a representative sample of over 40,000 individuals. The age variable reflects the number of months a portal has been in operation, with the first month expressed as Month 0. As in earlier studies (Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996) it is included to quantify the length of time a competitor has operated and to moderate this against the percentage scale of a firm’s relative market share. The make effect of a given portal brand was represented by a one-zero indicator variable for three of the four portals, Excite, Lycos, and Yahoo (the fourth, Infoseek, was eliminated to avoid auto-correlation among the residuals that would have resulted from including indicators for all four portals; Neter, Wasserman, & Kutner, 1990). For precedent on the use of one-zero indicators for measuring make effect of players in IT industries see Brynjolfsson and Kemerer. Unfortunately, due to the lack of empirical research in this industry, clear constructs for virtual community, switching cost, and other feature variables do not exist. As such, data were selected via a content analysis of trade press reports, press releases, and industry resources such as searchenginewatch.com. The variety of sources consulted allowed for cross-checking and corroboration among multiple sources and, we believe, for a highly consistent and reliable data set. In the rare case where a discrepancy was noted among sources, the portal firm was contacted for clarification. The use of such industry and companysupplied sources to acquire time-reflected data is similar to that used in Rao and Lynch (1993), among others. As was noted in earlier studies, it is common for features to overlap multiple inputs in the theoretical model. For example, Brynjolfsson and Kemerer (1996) found that the significance of standards features may proxy network externalities, but such features also increase overall product quality. Interpretation of significant features where a variable may impact multiple constructs (such as virtual community or switching cost) will be saved for the discussion and interpretation. A description of all variables considered in the empirical test model is presented in Table 3. It is acknowledged that availability of a feature does not indicate use. One of the goals of this study is to explore competition among free Internet services using established techniques employed by previous studies of priced IS products (e.g., Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996; Gallaugher & Wang, 1999; Gandal, 1994; Rao & Lynch, 1993; among others). For this reason features are measured by one-zero indicators of availability. The Internet may eventually offer us more robust monitoring tools to improve upon this approach. However, the data used in this paper may already offer a more reflective representation
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Table 3. Variable names and descriptions Var. Name REACH AGE EXCITE LYCOS YAHOO AUCTION CALENDAR CHAT CLASSIFIEDS E-MAIL GAMES ISP SHOP HOMESTEAD
Description Percentage of the Internet population accessing a portal in a given month Age of Web site in months, calculated assuming T=0 as month in which the service was rolled out 1if observation represents Excite 1 if observation represents Lycos 1 if observation represents Yahoo 1 if service offers auctions 1 if service offers a personal calendar service 1 if service offers online chat 1 if service offers online classified ads 1 if service offers free e-mail 1 if service offers multiplayer games 1 if the service has a co-marketing deal with an Internet service provider 1 if the firm offers a shopping site 1 if the firm offers free Web page hosting (homesteading in industry speak)
of overall product use than the previous approach of using sales-based market share data, given that the latter may reflect products that have been acquired but never used.
Results Summary Multiple regression is one of the most common empirical techniques used in the development of econometric models of IS industries (Brynjolfsson & Kamerer, 1996; Gallaugher & Wang, 1999; Gandal, 1994; Rao & Lynch, 1993). A series of regressions was performed to fully explore the presented propositions and the impact of the various variables considered. These results are presented in Table 4. The four models in the table—(a), (b), (c), and (d)—indicate the examined factors and positive feature variables that are significant at or above the 90% confidence interval. Multicollinearity was tested for in each model using both the VIF and Belsley-Kuh-Welsch diagnostics (1980), and in each model these results indicated that the independent variables were not significantly confounded with each other. Model (a) represents a refined regression considering all possible variables in the data set. The results of this regression clearly suggest that the make effect for given brands is quite strong. Among the three make indicators considered,
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Table 4. Regression results a) refined model b) brands & age alone c) age effects alone d) features alone Variable Coef T-stat Coef T-stat Coef T-stat Coef T-stat (Constant) 0.164 45.486 *** 0.135 11.924 *** 0.041 1.011 0.167 7.604 *** AGE 0.001 2.689 *** 0.006 4.698 *** YAHOO 0.226 41.834 *** 0.229 40.985 *** EXCITE 0.037 7.048 *** 0.050 8.359 *** LYCOS -0.022 -4.127 *** -0.013 -2.282 ** AUCTION CALENDAR CHAT 0.065 2.479 ** CLASSIFIEDS E-MAIL GAMES 0.019 4.265 *** 0.044 1.807 * ISP SHOP HOMESTEAD Adj. R-sq. 0.972 0.969 0.195 0.117 F 768.547 683.061 22.073 6.764 Significance: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01
Yahoo enjoyed the greatest leadership-associated brand premium, with the Yahoo brand carrying a nearly 23% market penetration advantage over its rivals. While Excite enjoys a brand premium of roughly 4%, the Lycos brand, ceteris paribus, seems to carry slightly negative make effect in the model. This finding is consistent with criticisms of the Lycos brand in the business press (Wallack, 1999). Also interesting in the results for Model (a) is the fact that none of the feature variables except games exhibited a significant positive relationship to market penetration. The significance of multiplayer online gaming can be cautiously interpreted as supporting the influence of both network externalities and switching costs. To the extent that consumers visit a Web site to engage in multiplayer games, the user is participating in a virtual community. The impact of virtual communities is difficult to separate from the added influence of switching costs, as a user’s network of fellow players represents a lost resource if one switches to a rival service. The benefits of online gaming have been suggested in the popular business press (Gunther, 1999) and by the fall 1999 acquisition of the Gamesville network by Lycos. At the time of the acquisition Gamesville not only claimed 2.2 million active users, the service held users for a longer amount of time (roughly four hours on average) than any other Internet site. While these results suggest the benefits of virtual communities and services that offer switching costs with respect to market reach, future studies might also
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52 Gallaugher & Downing
examine the length of time per visit since this can be key for determining how much advertising and cross-promotion a site can do per visitor. Since this is an exploratory study, several additional analyses were performed to investigate the influence of additional factors studied and to examine the robustness of results. In order to explore further the impact of brand-related make effects, Model (b) was created eliminating all feature variables except AGE. A firm’s age may proxy a user’s time/brand related quality perception (Szymanski, Troy, & Bharadwaj, 1995) in addition to indicating a firm’s market entry relative to peers. Model (b) shows that even without considering features, the original assertions regarding make effect hold. All non-feature related variables considered in the analysis register as significant, along with a continued strong dominance by the Yahoo brand and directionally similar significant results for the other two brands. The positive significance of the age variable in Model (b) suggests limited support for the first-mover hypothesis—that is, firms offering services longer than rivals enjoy market reach leadership. Model (c) further explores this finding by including only the age variable in the regression. The adjusted rsquared value of Model (c) indicates that the age variable alone explains roughly 20% of the variability of the data. Although there may be some overlapping influences among early-mover and make effects that are impossible to split out of the age measurement, the positive significance of this variable is interpreted as offering qualified support for the importance of first-mover and make effects. Given the rapid rate of innovation in the Internet industry in general and the portal industry in particular, it is interesting to note the impact of the feature indicators on market penetration. The final model, (d), considers the positive benefits of just the feature variables. Such one-zero indicator constructs have proven significant in past analyses of IT markets (Brynjolfsson & Kemerer, 1996; Gallaugher & Wang, 1999; Gandal, 1994; Rao & Lynch, 1993); however, the analysis here shows a decidedly smaller explanatory power of the model considering the benefits of the feature variables when compared to the other models. The positive impact of the games and chat variables suggests the influence of virtual community and switching costs (through the potential loss of online companions for service switchers); however, their combined power describes less than 12% of the variability in the data. Other variables considered in the study do not appear to yield market-reach-related benefits. This suggests that the bulk of the performance of firms examined is explained by make and age variables, with features yielding very little effect.
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Interpretation and Conclusion Interest in the Web portal industry is clearly evidenced by the dramatic growth of Internet use and the disparate financial performance of the major players. Yet this industry has received little substantive, quantitative empirical attention among IS researchers. It is hoped that the research presented here has shed light on the factors that have led to the growth and dominance of leading portals, and the competitive factors at work in the industry. The study provides strong support that brand-related make effects were at work in the portal industry during the time period examined. For practitioners, this result suggests that establishing a strong brand early in an industry’s development may be a critical mechanism for attracting consumers and sustaining growth. Early practitioner writings dismissed the value of brands among e-commerce firms, suggesting that only the value of services will determine a firm’s dominance (Dyson, 1997). However, this study has shown not only that brand appears to be important, but that it may be more important than feature innovation in attracting customers in situations where competitors are closely matched. This might also be seen as justification for spending heavily on advertising and other marketing expenses early in a firm’s development (however, as many dot-coms have learned, marketing alone will not make up for a poor business model with bleak revenue prospects). These results are also interesting for researchers given the conflicting earlier research on the importance of brand-related make effects. Make effects were not recognized as significant by Brynjolfsson and Kemerer (1996) in their study of the spreadsheet market. However, Wang et al. (1996) found support for make-related effects in their study of the online services market. One possible explanation for the discrepancy in earlier studies and the significance of make effects here is that the portal industry during the time of this study, like that examined in Wang et al., was at a relatively early stage of development.4 This suggests a moderating impact of industry maturity on the influence of make effect—in other words, brand may be more important at earlier stages than at later stages after a shakeout has occurred. This study also offers limited support for first-mover advantages among portal players. This is particularly important given the controversy discussed earlier regarding the benefits versus risks of moving first (VanderWerf & Mahon, 1997). The findings of this study are consistent with those demonstrating that later entrants should plan on achieving less share than the pioneering firms if they enter with a parity product (Urban et al., 1986). However, caution is advised Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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when interpreting the influence of first-mover effects—the age of a firm did not appear as strongly significant as brand-related make effects, and it is possible that some unmeasured interaction between brand value and the age of the firm exists. The study also demonstrates the positive benefits associated with features that create virtual communities and switching costs—specifically games and chat. The significance of games is consistent with suggestions that online games are among the most popular Internet activities and that games attract users for visits of the longest duration (Lawrence, 1999). The relationship between market reach and games and chat may also be a result of so-called “viral marketing,” or the propensity of a feature to be promoted by the firm’s customers (Gallaugher, 1999). Individuals inclined toward multiplayer games and online chat may encourage friends and colleagues to join a service so that they can interact online. Such features would expand reach as their popularity increases. These results could be used by cash-strapped firms for justifying investment expenses in these features and in estimating the value of potential merger and acquisition partners that leverage similar assets. The lack of significant benefit from the other feature variables examined provides an equally interesting result. The resource-based theory of business strategy (Clemons, 1991; Mata et al., 1995) offers a possible explanation as to why most features did not offer market penetration benefits. Internet firms interface with customers using similar technologies based on open standards, so virtually any innovation introduced by one firm can be imitated by competi-
Table 5. Response time for second mover introducing various portal services Service AUCTIONS CALENDAR CHAT CLASSIFIEDS E-MAIL GAMES ISP SHOP HOMESTEAD
Response Time (in months) 3 4 4 1 3 2 3 Less than 1 2
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tors. These innovations therefore do not represent resources that are sufficiently rare or unique to yield a sustainable advantage. Although innovations that create switching costs and virtual communities have the potential to yield growth-related benefits to the firm, if these features are rapidly matched by competitors then the benefit to the initial innovator may be nullified. Also, by examining rapid innovation among online competitors, this study offers quantitative insight into the notion of “Internet time” suggested by Cusumano and Yoffie (1998). Internet time refers to an environment in which competitors innovate and make matching product introductions at accelerated rates. Table 5 demonstrates that such a hypercompetitive environment was present in the portal industry by depicting the time for second movers to match the innovations of the lead innovator for those features considered in this study. The average matching time for a given service was roughly 2.5 months. The innovations examined may not yield sustainable market penetration advantages due to the competitive intensity in the industry and the ability of closely matched rivals to duplicate a given innovation. However, the accelerated rate of feature-forfeature matching among competitors suggests that responsive innovation may be a competitive necessity among participants. Considering this result, resource-constrained firms may elect not to pioneer innovations that can be developed easily; instead, if a firm feels it can be a fast follower, it might allocate critical resources such as cash and staff only after a rival has made an initial move. As with all empirical work, certain limitations of this study must be acknowledged. First, while the approach and methodology used in this work are consistent with those used in similar investigations, it is recognized that this study is limited by the coarseness of the data used, the subset of available variables, and the possible influence of examined variables across multiple features. Second, the time series of observations used in our study can be a possible limitation. Markets may go through developmental stages that have not been adequately expressed by theory or captured using existing modelling techniques. Even if this is the case, the study makes an important contribution as an analysis of early-stage competition. Third, the results and interpretations may be subject to particular contexts, each subject to its own random evolution patterns (Leydesdorff & Besselaar, 1994), complicating generalizability to other industry settings. Despite these limitations, we are confident that this work provides important implications for both researchers and managers.
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Current Environment and Future Directions Despite these limitations, the results and conclusion of this study have held robustly over time. This concluding section provides a brief overview of the status of major players and relates these to the study’s findings on early market competition. Yahoo’s dominance and the struggles of rivals underscore the longer-term benefits of brand value identified in this study, as well as the relative lack of importance of technology-based innovation in this sector. As of April 2004, Yahoo was the clear dominant player among the once Big Four, with its monthly market reach increasing to some 60% of all Internet users. Yahoo was also the only profitable firm of the four studied. During the second quarter 2004, Yahoo reported its highest revenue in its history, with profits doubling from the previous year. Despite an attempt to increase revenues via fee-based services, Yahoo continues to earn the majority of its revenue via advertising, underscoring the differences between the firm and fee-based rivals that depend largely on ISP revenues (most notably, AOL and MSN). This strategy of offering a free product with the hope that users will pay for complementary fee-based services has been demonstrated as an effective one in other technology industries (Gallaugher & Wang, 2002). Further, Yahoo’s strong brand may be taken as a signal of firm durability, a particularly important characteristic for consumers of those portal services that are higher in switching costs. Yahoo’s success is in stark contrast to the fate of the other three firms examined in this study, with those firms having lower brand premiums experiencing significant and continued declines in reach as well as in financial performance. Lycos merged with Terra Networks in 2000, and while the merger has given Lycos access to content from media giant Bertlesman, as well as to Terra’s ISP and wireless customers, Lycos has seen traffic fall precipitously, with reach now rating below 20% of all Internet users. Terra doesn’t expect the portal to turn a net profit until at least 2005, with rumors circulating of a possible sale. InfoSeek was acquired by Disney in 1999 and rechristened as Go. Its failure to make money caused Disney to stop Go’s own internal search capabilities abruptly in early 2001 and to eliminate the Go tracking stock. Today, Go remains operational, but all searches are powered by Google and are forwarded to a google.com domain. In May 2003, the portal reached only roughly 13% of Internet users. Excite’s fall from grace was perhaps most dramatic. The
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firm was purchased by @Home for $7.2 billion in 1999, but in 2001 was sold to iWon as part of a bankruptcy proceeding for less than $10 million. The portal’s reach has fallen below 9%. While the study demonstrated the value of brand, this brand relationship fuelled reach, which in turn helps create economies of scale among the winners (Porter, 1985). An additional factor in Yahoo’s success is the firm’s scale-based financial efficiency. For example, Yahoo handles banner and rich-media ad sales in-house rather than sharing revenues with a third-party ad network (revenues from paid search are still shared with providing partners). Ad networks may require as much as a 50% revenue split for handling ad sales. This dramatically improves the firm’s margins when compared to firms that outsource ad sales to a third party, and it is noted that only a firm with large scale (in this case, customer reach) would be big enough to efficiently handle sales in-house. The study also provided tentative support for the importance of network effects and timing, and we’ve observed additional developments in the industry suggesting this phenomenon remains at work. For example, the bidding war for the HotJobs recruiting site suggests the value that firms place on network effects. HotJobs was to initially have been acquired by Monster.com, the leading Internet job site. However, Yahoo’s $436 million counteroffer eventually won. Job sites benefit from network effects in that there is a positive feedback loop between firms advertising jobs and job seekers (more job seekers attract more ads, which attract more job seekers…). While Yahoo’s acquisition of HotJobs suggests a strategy of expansion through complementary services (Gallaugher & Wang, 2002; Rochert & Tirole, 2001), the benefits of network effects are demonstrated in Monster’s continued dominance of the online job placement industry. Notably, these network effects may be fueled by an early-mover advantage. Monster.com was one of the Internet’s earliest dotcom domain registrants and the first commercial online job placement destination. Finally, we point to the developing market in paid or sponsored search results as an opportunity to examine critical strategic questions for Internet firms, particularly those around brand, sustainability, channel pressure, and the impact of innovation. The two pioneering leaders in this space are Overture (now owned by Yahoo) and Google. Each provides syndicated search results to their partners. Overture offers only paid links—these appear as “sponsored” links, often shown at the top of search results returned from Web sites such as Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, and others. Google’s revenue model includes providing search results for portals—a service that includes an index of well
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over 1 billion online documents. Google also offers paid or sponsored links as well as ranked sponsorships, where the most clicked-on ads bubble to the top of sponsor listings. Overture and Google have both grown consistently over the past few years, challenging the assumption that Internet advertising and Internet data services are dying industries. Paid search grew 40% in 2002, becoming a $1.4 billion market that now makes up nearly one quarter of the Internet advertising market. Text-based paid-search ads cost an average of 35 cents a click, a cheaper form of lead generation than even Yellow Page advertising (Elgin & Mullaney, 2003). Syndicating suppliers of paid-search listings typically keep 40% of revenue and share the rest with portal partners. Overture took in some $668 million in sales in 2002 and was more profitable during that period than Yahoo, its largest and most lucrative customer. As of this writing, it is estimated that privately held Google has lower revenues but stronger profits than Yahoo’s Overture business (Elgin et al., 2003). It should be noted that competition and mergers have created a degree of channel pressure with existing partners that has soured prior relationships (Gallaugher, 2002). For example, after Yahoo’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Overture, Lycos dropped; while in early 2004, Yahoo ended its relationship with Google. It seems clear that a firm would not be interested in contributing to the profitability of its greatest rival. While this study has noted that innovation among major portal features did not lead to substantial reach benefits due to the rapidity of competitor response, both Overture and Google have grown financially due to their early innovations in revenue-generating services largely ignored by the major portals. Overture, the pioneer in paid search, began offering services in 1998. The firm’s success can in part be attributed to network externalities—the more portal customers the firm partners with, the broader the reach that it can provide to advertising clients. Google’s success stems from focusing on improved indexing and search technology. Google’s focus on search came at a time when portals were competing on non-search features (Table 5). Indeed, most portals viewed search as a generic function and outsourced the function to third parties. Google’s focus on text-based links was also at a time when firms were investing heavily in rich-media advertising. While technology innovation alone rarely yields sustainable advantage, the delay in portal response to Google’s innovation has allowed the firm to create what is now one of the Internet’s strongest brands. Google.com has became the Internet’s leading search destination, eclipsing Yahoo for search. Google is now the second-strongest portal brand behind Yahoo and the fourth most visited site on the Web (Elgin & Mullaney, 2003). Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
Portal Combat Revisited 59
The initial success of Overture and Google has increased the possibility of competition with partners and with each other. While Overture has dropped its aspiration to become a stand-alone destination (the firm was formerly known as GoTo and ran the GoTo.com portal), its growing revenues are increasingly causing larger clients to pressure the firm. Overture’s network effects remain strong as long as the portal market remains fractured. However, as the market consolidates and a smaller number of very large portals generates an increasing portion of Overture’s revenue, Overture sees its bargaining power weaken as a customer oligopoly forms (Porter, 1985). Similarly, firms are seeking to benefit from competition among Overture and Google. AOL’s US operations, once one of Overture’s largest clients, dropped the firm in May 2002 in favor of Google’s sponsored links. Overture has sued Google for patent infringement regarding the latter’s use of paid search and also purchased the AltaVista search engine, a service that may compete with Google’s search syndication business. AltaVista was an early provider of portal search services and was Yahoo’s search partner prior to Google. Key challenges for Google include managing channel pressure with existing partners and sustaining its initial brand advantages despite the relatively low switching costs in Internet search. Firms as diverse as Compaq, Sony, and Intel have found that their supply chain partners have limited expansion into new product areas when they feel this expansion may threaten partner revenues (Gallaugher, 2002). Google’s syndicated search business remains similarly vulnerable. As Google.com continues to gain reach as a stand-alone destination, large customers such as Yahoo have a decreasing incentive to partner with a firm that it may also see as a competitor. Yahoo has recently aggressively moved to differentiate itself from Google, offering a fast-loading user interface at search.yahoo.com and purchasing Inktomi, a rival provider of Internet search technology, a possible precursor to dropping Google as the firm’s search provider. In June 2003, MSN also began prototyping a search technology to rival Google’s. MSN currently relies on Inktomi for search. Now that Inktomi is owned by Yahoo, MSN has an added incentive to gain search independence. Search technology has relatively low switching costs. And while Google has attempted to introduce features to further bind it to a user’s experience, such as the Google toolbar and investments in blogging providers, a key question will be whether these efforts and the Google brand are strong enough to sustain challenges by these new rivals. The portal landscape will undoubtedly continue to be a fruitful context for strategy, e-commerce, and information technology researchers for years to come.
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60 Gallaugher & Downing
Endnotes 1
2
3
4
Portions of this chapter were originally published as Gallaugher, J.M. and Downing, C.E., “Portal Combat: An Empirical Study of Competition in the Web Portal Industry,” Journal of Information Technology Management. Vol. 11, No. 1-2, 2000, pp. 13-24 and are reprinted here with permission. User surveys suggest there are fewer customers willing to pay for services when free substitutes seem readily available. The trend also reflects experiences of firms that have initially offered free content but attempted to move to a fee-based model (e.g., Microsoft’s Slate and Individual’s NewsPage). This more accepted definition of market reach differs from the concept of reach offered by Evans and Wurster (1999), which also includes the number of products a firm offers. Results related to this concept are discussed in this paper’s conclusion. Spreadsheets were a relatively mature product during the time frame examined by Brynjolfsson and Kemerer (1996); however, online services enjoyed a consistent period of growth during the time studied by Wang et al. (1996). A recent study demonstrated that early adopters of online services tended to rely less on word-of-mouth from peers and more on external influencing factors (of which brand could be considered one). Since the Web portal market grew tremendously in overall installed base during the course of this study, this study’s findings of positive makerelated effects are consistent with those of Wang et al.
References Belsley, D., Kuh, E., & Welsch, E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: Identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. New York: Wiley. Brynjolfsson, E., & Kemerer, C. F. (1996). Network externalities in microcomputer software: An econometric analysis of the spreadsheet market. Management Science, 42(12), 1627-1647. Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator’s dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Clemons, E. K. (1991). Corporate strategies for information technology: A resource-based approach. IEEE Computer, 23-32. Cusumano, M. A., & Yoffie, D. B. (1998). Competing on Internet time: Lessons from Netscape and its battle with Microsoft. Boston: Free Press. Downes, L., & Mui, C. (1998). Unleashing the killer app: Digital strategies for market dominance. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Dyson, E. (1997). Release 2.0. New York: Broadway Books. Elgin, B., & Mullaney, T. (2003, March 20). Search engines picking up steam. BusinessWeek, 3825, 86. Evans, P., & Wurster, T. S. (1999). Getting real about virtual commerce. Harvard Business Review, 77(6), 85-96. Farrell, J., & Saloner, G. (1985). Standardization, compatibility, and innovation. Rand Journal of Economics, 16(1), 70-83. Gallaugher, J. (1999). Challenging the new conventional wisdom of Net commerce strategies. Communications of the ACM, 42(7), 27-29. Gallaugher, J. M. (2002, July). E-commerce and the undulating distribution channel. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 89-95. Gallaugher, J. M., & Wang, Y.-M. (1999). Network effects and the impact of free goods: An analysis of the Web server market. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 3(4), 67-88. Gallaugher, J. M., & Wang, Y.-M. (2002, December). Understanding network effects in software markets: Evidence from Web server pricing. MIS Quarterly, 22(4), 303-327. Gandal, N. (1994). Hedonic price indexes for spreadsheets and an empirical test for network externalities. Rand Journal of Economics, 25(1), 160170. Gunther, M. (1999). The newest addiction. Fortune, 140(3), 122-124. Hagel, J., & Armstrong, A. G. (1997). Net gain. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Jurvetson, S. (1998, November). Turning customers into a sales force. Business 2.0, 103-108. Kalakota, R., & Whinston, A. B. (1996). Frontiers of electronic commerce. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Lawrence, S. (1999, September 2). Playing around. Iconocast. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Leydesdorff, L., & Besselaar, P. V. D. (1994). Evolutionary economics and chaos theory: New directions in technology studies. New York: St. Martins Press. Mansfield, E., Schwartz, M., & Wagner, S. (1981). Imitation costs and patents: An empirical study. Economic Journal, 91(364, 907-918. Mata, F. J., Fuerst, W. L., & Barney, J. B. (1995). Information technology and sustained competitive advantage: A resource-based analysis. MIS Quarterly, 19(4), 487-505. Mullaney, T. J., Green, H., Arndt, M., Hof, R. D., & Himelstein, L. (2003, May 12). The e-biz surprise. BusinessWeek, 60-66. Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital. New York: Knopf. Neter, J., Wasserman, W., & Kutner, M. H. (1990). Applied linear statistical models (3rd ed.). Reading, MA: Irwin. Newmann, S. (1994). Strategic information systems: Competition through information technologies. New York: Macmillan. Parthasarathy, M., & Bhattacherjee, A. (1998). Understanding post-adoption behavior in the context of online services. Information Systems Research, 9(4), 362-379. Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive advantage. New York: Free Press. Rao, H. R., & Lynch, B. D. (1993). Hedonic price analysis of workstation attributes. Communications of the ACM, 36(12), 95-102. Rochert, J., & Tirole, J. (2001). Platform competition in two-sided markets. In Joint Workshop on Industrial Organization (pp. 1-47). Seybold, P. B. (1998). Customers.com. New York: Times Business Press. Shapiro, C., & Varian, H. (1998). Information rules. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Szymanski, D. M., Troy, L. C., & Bharadwaj, S. G. (1995). Order of entry and business performance: An empirical synthesis and reexamination. Journal of Marketing, 59(4), 17-33. Urban, G. L., Carter, T., Gaskin, S., & Mucha, Z. (1986). Market share rewards to pioneering brands: An empirical analysis and strategic implications. Management Science, 32(6), 645-659. VanderWerf, P. A., & Mahon, J. F. (1997). Meta-analysis of the impact of research methods on findings of first-mover advantage. Management Science, 43(11), 1510-1519.
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Wallack, T. (1999). Yahoo’s GeoCities buy boosts CMGI. Boston Herald, p. 33. Wang, Y.-M., Gallaugher, J. M., & Vasudevan, S. P. (1996). The determinants of network growth: The case of commercial online information services. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Information Systems (pp. 235-248).
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64 Sieber & Valor-Sabatier
Chapter IV
Competitive Dynamics of General Portals Sandra Sieber IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain Josep Valor-Sabatier IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain1
Abstract The arrival of the Internet offers both opportunities for incremental efficiency gains and complete industry redefinition, presenting new value propositions and hence leading to the emergence of new businesses and industries. One particular case is that of the general portal industry, consistently the most visited sites on the Web. Nevertheless, and despite the ongoing concentration of the market, overall profitability remains low. In this chapter we argue that, although the industry has great potential for value creation, value appropriation in information-based businesses remains problematic. Still, interest in this industry is huge, which is understandable if one analyzes the industry within its online value network. As we show, the horizontal portal constitutes a critical link in this network as it provides a way of organizing content, which seems to be the king of the future, and can capture and canalize the incoming traffic of the Internet service providers. Still, they face a number of hurdles to capture the value they generate and become profitable.
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Competitive Dynamics of General Portals 65
Introduction New technologies, and the arrival of the Internet in particular, have had a profound impact on today’s businesses. As with almost all technological change, the early and most obvious changes are of incremental nature, resulting in cost savings as it gets cheaper to do things that we are already doing. Nevertheless, a second more profound effect may be observed over time as we discover that we can do completely new things with that technology or that the technological change transforms the nature of the businesses, hence opening new value proposition opportunities (Christensen, 2000). The Internet is such an enabling technology (Porter, 2001) that it has allowed companies to affect both their demand and costs at the same time, creating what Kim and Mauborgne (1997) call “value innovations.” These changes are hard to forecast and to analyze as industries become reshaped, and markets therefore shift toward a new equilibrium. One of these markets is the general portal market. In addition, to forecast whether a business model is viable one has to differentiate between value creation and value appropriation. Three years ago it was believed that the disruptive nature of Internet technology changed the fundamentals of business. A new era of competition in which none of the old paradigms were valid was heralded. However, the collapse of the technology market and the high-profile failures of many of the upstarting dot-coms have shown us that the old business rules still apply. The new e-businesses had shown great value propositions on the value creation side, be it either through the reduction of transaction costs, search costs or enhanced customization opportunities (Cassiman & Sieber, 2002). Still, value appropriation appeared to be very problematic. Although new products and pricing mechanisms may help companies in appropriating the created value, recent reality has shown us that both increased rivalry and constant entrance of new competitors, as well as increased market transparency, pose significant challenges to value appropriation by firms. In this chapter we focus on a particular business activity that the Internet has allowed to emerge: general portals. Up to this moment the industry is still reconfiguring, and the main players have adopted differing approaches in their competitive positioning. We will analyze their strategies introducing the online value chain (Valor & Hess, 2002), dividing the overall value systems into different steps that represent more or less profitable value propositions. We will show how value creation and value appropriation occur on each of the steps.
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This framework allows us to better understand the overall value propositions and value appropriation opportunities of the main players. We will focus on three main observed strategies: pure players, forward integrators, and backward integrators, analyzing their long-term feasibility.
Evolution of the General Portal Industry Early in the 1990s the first horizontal or general portals2 were born as simple search engines or directories, offering Internet users an efficient way to filter through the immense amount of information available on the Web. Over time, other services have been added to the search engines, including e-mail, chat, and other information services, as well as the possibility to customize the start page of the portal, for example, with MyYahoo!. Since then, portals have evolved into full-service hubs of electronic commerce, mail, online communities, and customized news. They offer end users a place to start their exploration of the Internet, linking them to Web sites according to their interests. Portals have consistently been the most visited sites on the Web. Since many Web surfers arrive first at portal sites, these companies are in a very powerful position, giving them huge leverage over retailers and other firms that need to be on their sites. Nonetheless, with the exception of a few portals such as Yahoo and AOL these businesses are generally not profitable. There are two fundamental business models for general portals. One is the pure portal, such as the original Yahoo! business model, which started with an advertising-based revenue model similar in nature to the broadcasting industry. Pure portals attract an audience by packaging and promoting content and generate revenues by selling advertising (usually rectangular banners) and by selling “anchor-tenant” positions. Pure portals do not provide Internet access. Although this business model was heralded as a paradigm of the new economy, Yahoo, the biggest portal in the world, did suffer enormously in the stock market crash of March 2001 as its revenues fell when advertising prices dropped fivefold from 1996 to 2001, reporting losses from previous gains. At the time its strategic long-term feasibility was put into question. Starting in late 2002 Yahoo! has enlarged its product and service portfolio by offering broadband access in alliance with SBC as well as other value-added services.
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Competitive Dynamics of General Portals 67
A second business model is that of online service providers (OSP), such as AOL, which combine a pure portal with Internet access and proprietary content, thus adding Internet access (subscriptions or percentage of phone-call charges) and pay-per-view fees to advertising and tenant placement revenues. In this way AOL, despite of having some problems after its merger with Time Warner, did better than Yahoo! in the low times from March 2001 to December 2002 maintaining earnings and valuation. A whole range of portals have either closed or repositioned their businesses. Disney, for example, which was drawing over 13 million unique users a month, decided to close their flagship portal Go.com after having invested several billion dollars in its Internet division. Similarly, Excite@ Home went out of business on February 28, 2002. The industry is consolidating and first-tier portals (AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, and Terra Lycos) are capturing 70 to 80% of the visits, and the top 10% of portals derive 71% of the industry’s revenue (Rayport & Wirtz, 2001). Second-tier portals are fading as there is simply too little left over for them to run profitable businesses. Still, even for the survivors of the initial shakeout, the future does not seem too bright, and although scale is clearly important for success in the portal industry, other factors definitely influence their overall performance, as we will analyze in the next sections.
Value Creation and Value Appropriation in the Portal Industry Portals have considerably reduced the users’ search costs on the Internet, hence creating positive value for their customers (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 2000). In addition, their customization features, such as providing an e-mail account or giving the possibility to personalize the portal’s home page, increases the created value even further. Nonetheless, value appropriation is difficult due to several factors. First, rivalry among portals is intense, with large, deep-pocketed firms competing in the general portal area and an increasing number of specialists entering vertical markets. Once companies have invested in building the necessary infrastructure they compete aggressively to build the user base to take advantage of low variable costs for serving new customers. Mobility barriers among rivals are low, implying that for every strategy that seems to be working, there are very few ways to keep the competition from copying the strategy almost instantly
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68 Sieber & Valor-Sabatier
(e.g., personal home pages such as MyYahoo!). The one asset that cannot be imitated is unique and exclusive content. The ability to build and maintain partnerships will be critical to firms’ success, as portals are becoming increasingly dependent upon third parties for much of their content, services, and technologies. Second, despite efforts to increase customer loyalty though customization, switching costs for visitors to general portals are low. Unlike OSPs, which charge monthly fees to subscribers (at least in the US), pure portals such as Yahoo! have no contract to bind users to their site. In addition, as users become more experienced with the Internet they may migrate to more sophisticated or focused portals, such as vertical portals. Also, low switching costs limit ecommerce revenue growth since users that initially purchase by passing through the portal may bypass the portal and go directly to the e-tailer’s site for future purchases, thus disintermediating the portal from the transaction process. Third, technological changes often require new technological architecture within the portals. Because of low switching costs, it is critical to manage such changes well, as delays or interruption in service may lead users to move to competitive providers. Maintaining service is complicated by the fact that many portals depend on third parties for critical elements of their architecture. Firms are spending considerable amounts of money and resources to provide a variety of communications services (e-mail, instant messaging, calendaring, and chat rooms). They provide these and other basic communications services free of charge to users but have not yet determined an effective means of generating revenues from them. Finally, in efforts to differentiate themselves and increase customer loyalty, portals are investing millions, sometimes billions of dollars to obtain exclusive content. The battle for such content is, in principle, driving content prices up and availability down. However, as MacKie-Mason and Varian (1997) point out, a pricing information services problem exists, as the pricing-by-replication scheme breaks down and completely new pricing schemes have to be developed (Cox, 1992), although there are still several problems remaining to be solved before such schemes can become widely used. Once up and running, portals are global businesses. However, unless they offer local content and language, they will struggle to transfer success in their home markets to foreign markets. Portals will also have to expand into devices beyond the PC, primarily to wireless devices. These devices require a different platform or version of the portals’ service due to the lower resolution, functionality, and memory of the non-PC devices.
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Competitive Dynamics of General Portals 69
Strategic Challenges for Value Appropriation Following the previous analysis we can derive a number of conclusions about the competitive challenges that portals are facing today. First, a portal’s success depends on generating the maximum visitor traffic possible, hence overcoming perfect market transparency and lack of differentiation. This involves attracting new visitors to their site, keeping visitors at the site for as long as possible, and convincing them to return (increase site “stickiness”); attracting users that are interesting for advertisers; deriving better demographic and behavioral information from users; and encouraging users to utilize the majority of the services and products offered by the portal. Second, portals must continually enhance the customers’ experience. If users cannot accomplish what they set out to do at a site, they will go somewhere else. The content must be: 1) updated frequently, 2) of local interest, 3) easily and quickly accessible, and 4) accessible on an increasing range of Internet-access devices. General portals are increasing their borders to the maximum so the user does not have to leave or be redirected to another Web page. An important strategy for enhancing users’ experience and achieving stickiness is to create a community feeling for the visitors, a goal made possible by chat technology. In this sense, portals should pursue systems competition rather than component competition (Farrell, Monroe, & Saloner, 1997). Third, advertising on the Internet still offers tremendous potential, as it currently accounts for less than 1% of all advertising spending (on- and off-line) worldwide. Most Internet advertising is concentrated among a few of the top Web properties (AOL and Yahoo! commanded 30% of the total in 1999); however, smaller sites are gaining advertising share (AOL and Yahoo! combined for 55% of the total in 1996). A growing source of revenue is coming from e-commerce. The interactive advertising element of e-commerce is made possible by Web tracking software that traces the source of the purchase to the banner ad. While these commissions are still a relatively small percentage of a portal’s total revenue, they are increasing rapidly. Also, firms are spending considerable money and resources to establish and maintain their brands. Due to the increasing number of competitors, it has become more difficult and expensive for portals to obtain quality television, radio, magazine, Internet, and other advertising space. Firms are expanding their services to find new ways of differentiating. Many are expanding into the corporate market by providing enterprise portal services, similar, for example,
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70 Sieber & Valor-Sabatier
to MyYahoo! but focused on employees and their management of information at work. Such portals are attempting to expand beyond the provision of content to the provision of online solutions. Investments in these types of initiatives seem to be increasingly important to reach a differentiation advantage. Finally, because of the growing range of Internet devices being used, particularly wireless, portals are forced to partner with other companies to ensure a presence in all devices. For example, both AOL and Yahoo have signed multiyear contracts to provide content to Sprint PCS, a wireless operator in the US. Nevertheless, and despite all these challenges and continuing reports of losses, the horizontal portal industry remains of strategic importance to its main players. This is because of its strategic importance to other complementary industries, for which it is necessary to analyze the competitive dynamics of horizontal portals within a wider network, including at least Internet access providers (IAPs) and content providers. Therefore, to shed some light into the competitiveness of portals we will resort to the traditional value chain model, introducing the online value network in the next section of this chapter.
The Online Value Network In our view, the horizontal portal industry has to be analyzed from a broader perspective, as it forms part of what Valor and Hess (2001) have called the online value network. As industry transformation has taken place especially in those industries where information plays a key role, be it as content (such as the media industry), as communication of information (such as the telecommunication industry), or as infrastructure for information (such as the computer and electronics industry), all involved industries are suffering fundamental changes and are nowadays immersed in a process of industry convergence, during which industries with new competitive dynamics have emerged. Changing value propositions are being driven by advances in information and communication technology—namely, growth in the use of the Internet. The result of these changes is an interconnected, information-based economy that has created a new connection between the customer and products or services (Sieber & Valor, 2003). We refer to the industries making up this connection as the online value network (Valor & Hess), shown in Figure 1. Focus has to be on where the value is and who is capable of capturing the network. To identify this value,
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Competitive Dynamics of General Portals 71
Figure 1. The online value network (Valor & Hess, 2001) • In ternet Service Provider (ISP) • Online Service Provider (OSP) • Telecommunications • Content Providers • E - commerce - E - tailers - Infomediaries - Market Makers
• Application Service Provider (ASP) • Telecommunications • Software and Hardware Vendors
•
Online Content and E-commerce
• Plai n old telephone service (POTS) • Cellular Network • Cable • Digital TV • Satellite • Radio
• Quicken Personal Financial Management • Microsoft Money
• Windows • Linux • Macintosh
CLIENT SOFTWARE Portals – Content Aggregators
1 2
Hosting ASP 3
Network Infra structure
Internet Access
4
5
Portals Carriers (backbone) • Telecommunications • Network Equipment • Web Servers and Software
Local Loop 6
User Hardware 7
• Personal Computer (PC) • Mobile Phone • Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) • Television • Game Console
Operating System 8
Web Browser 9
Software Application
Customer
10
• Internet Explorer • Netscape Navi gator
competitive factors, strategic approaches, and trends within each stage of the network have to be analyzed, as well as those affecting the entire network. Of course profits need not be immediate, but they must be achievable within a realistic or survivable time frame as many former dot-coms have learned. While we would hope to identify factors that enable firms to not only capture but to sustain value, we have to acknowledge that in the volatile Internet environment, key factors can and do change. In this way, for example, the merger of America Online and Time Warner, completed in January 2001, aimed at becoming “the world’s first Internetpowered media and communications company which will connect, inform and entertain people everywhere in innovative ways,”3 shows that the transformation of the traditional movie, media, and telecommunication companies has just begun and that industry convergence will be ongoing. AOL Time Warner provides content through a variety of companies of the publishing (Time Inc. and Time Warner Trade Publishing), filmed entertainment (Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), music (Warner Music Group), and interactive video (AOL Time Warner Interactive Video) industries. These contents are aggregated through their interactive services and properties (America Online) and brought to the customer using their own Internet access provider (America Online) as well as their own networks (Turner Broadcasting and Home Box Office) and cable systems (Time Warner Cable). Thus AOL Time Warner has opted for an integrated strategy, as it wants to be present in both the content, content aggregation, Internet access, and telecommunication steps of the online value network. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
72 Sieber & Valor-Sabatier
Content Providers and E-commerce Taking into account the framework presented in the previous section, we consider that a full comprehension of horizontal portal strategies cannot be achieved without taking into account the strategies of content providers. The first stage in the value network consists of two different segments: 1) content providers and 2) e-commerce companies. Content providers include individuals or companies that develop and/or distribute goods that can be digitized into bits, such as text, data, audio, and video. E-commerce includes those individuals or organizations that trade or facilitate trade over the Internet. The content provider segment consists of a large and varied range of companies that produce and deliver information and entertainment products that can be digitized, such as news, music, and movies. The focus here is on two types of content providers: 1) originators—those who create the content, such as writers or musicians; and 2) packagers—those that traditionally have packaged and often delivered this content, such as movie producers, newspapers, or book publishers. Content (digitizable goods) defies the basic economic law of scarcity because when it is sold, the seller still possesses it and can continue selling it—it never gets used up. Once a physical object is sold, on the other hand, the seller no longer owns it. Another unique factor of content is its cost structure. Producing information is costly (high fixed costs, normally sunk costs), while reproducing it is not (marginal costs of close to nothing); thus, profits increase rapidly as sales increase. In addition, there are normally no capacity limits to the production of additional copies. Despite the importance of high-quality content on the Internet, a second, increasingly important, content has emerged. This content, contained in chats, forums, and discussion groups, is produced by their users, and therefore its production costs are insignificant. In addition, it creates network externalities, which in turn create stickiness and hence foster further production of more content that again will attract more traffic to the site. Information can be distributed globally, immediately, and at a very low cost. The reduced cost of reproduction and distribution makes managing intellectual property critical. In the music industry, for example, musicians and record producers are battling to protect their property against rights to download music using MP3 and Web sites like KaZaa, Gnutella, and Audiogallaxy. Content packagers that package unique content (such as books or music) are
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threatened with disintermediation as the changing cost and distribution factors enable originators to bypass them. As a result, access to exclusive content is critical to achieve differentiation and avoid disintermediation. Competition for such content is intense, causing prices, and therefore barriers to entry, to rise. On the other hand, information commodities such as CD phone books are not viable because competition tends to push the price to marginal cost, in this case, essentially zero. As a result, giving information away on the Internet is no surprise. As Evans and Wurster (1999) explain, the Internet blows up the traditional trade-off between richness (detail) and reach (audience size). Companies can now provide instantaneous, detailed, interactive, multimedia, customized information (richness) to global audiences (reach). This enables content companies to move from a broadcasting model, in which one message is sent out to a large audience, to a narrowcasting or pointcasting model, in which the content can be tailored to each individual. The Internet also creates an important shift in bargaining power from the seller to the buyer by allowing the user to actively control the process of communication. For example, users can selectively choose or personalize the information they want to receive.
Strategic Challengers for Content Providers and Their Consequences for Horizontal Portals The originators of content can use the Internet to appropriate more of the value they create. For example, well-known authors such as Stephen King can now sell books online to readers to capture all of the profits, thereby disintermediating publishers, wholesalers, and retailers. Many traditional intermediaries of original content have had to form exclusive partnerships or acquire the content originators. For other packagers, for example, newspapers, the uniqueness of their offering depends on the way in which they select and present the information. Since these companies are not threatened with disintermediation by the originator, they stand to benefit much more from the changes brought on by the Internet. For these packagers, company image is critical because it carries the brand name and reputation, which are important distinguishing factors for content in the Internet’s crowded environment. A major threat to these packagers is the
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new online intermediaries because strong branding in the off-line world does not translate automatically into a strong branding position online. For example, on the Internet, the largest financial information providers in the world today are not the Financial Times (FT), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Reuters, or Bloomberg but rather AOL and Yahoo!, and therefore horizontal portals are raising a considerable threat to the positioning of these companies. The Internet enables all content providers to increase profits through more effective price discrimination strategies. Because the Internet enhances a firm’s ability to learn about individual customers, firms can more effectively identify customer groups and offer different prices to the different segments based on their level of demand. If groups are difficult to identify, a versioning strategy can be used. In this case, firms can offer different versions of the same product, and customers can self-select the appropriate version based on their needs or level of interest. For example, charging more for earlier releases than for later releases of the same product or charging more for full access than for limited access. The increased ease of access to content through the diverse platforms (PCs, TVs, mobile phones, and PDAs) that the Internet enables is bringing the client closer to the primary source of the content. This phenomenon is moving the media companies to the extremes of the network: the content or the user. The companies that stay in the middle of these two extremes risk being disintermediated. These factors are accelerating consolidation in the media sector as packagers are acquiring content, for example, the AOL-Time Warner merger. This process of concentration is also driven by the challenge of both generating content and managing distribution and technology in just one company.
Internet Service Providers and Internet Access Providers In addition to content providers and e-commerce, looking at the portal industry from an online value network point-of-view also suggests that one should take into account that this industry is intertwined with Internet service providers. ISPs (also called Internet access providers, or IAPs) are businesses that provide services to connect individuals and companies to the Internet. An
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extension of the ISP is the online service providers (OSP), such as America Online or Microsoft Network (MSN). The OSP provides an integrated offering by combining Internet access with a portal that includes exclusive and proprietary content. ISPs mainly generate revenue by charging user subscription fees. Currently consumers have several ways to connect to the Internet (DSL, cable, wireless) though most still connect through “plain old telephone service” (POTS). This method involves: 1) dialing up the ISP over a modem and sending data requests over the telephone line, 2) the ISP then sends the data request over another telephone line to the appropriate server, 3) the server sends the requested data back to the ISP, and 4) the ISP sends the data to the individual requesting it. Only a small percentage of ISPs are profitable for a number of reasons. Barriers to entry are low because of the relatively inexpensive infrastructure required to start providing access. Acquiring users is expensive, requiring huge investments in advertising to build brand. Switching costs are low because there is little opportunity for pure ISPs to differentiate themselves aside from providing better service or higher speed access, making differentiating strategies difficult to sustain. The commodity status of access has led to a price war. Some firms have adopted an advertising revenue model, thereby providing free Internet access for consumers who are willing to provide personal information and permit a permanent space on their screens for advertising. Although free ISPs spend much less acquiring customers, the amount they generate in advertising revenue is still lower than the actual cost of operating the network. Economies of scale enable the firm to purchase access at lower rates and, if part of their business model, to attract more advertisers. Economies of scope enable the firm to capture the maximum profit possible from each subscriber, but the success of bundling access with additional services depends on the quality of the customer base and the likelihood of that customer base wanting other services. For example, customers attracted to the free ISP model may not be willing to pay for additional services and may not be attractive for advertisers. Regulation is important in determining the revenue model ISPs can pursue (see Srinagesh, 1997). In the US, consumers pay a flat rate for local phone calls regardless of how many local calls they make. This is referred to as un-metered service. In Europe, however, local calls are metered; therefore, on top of a flat monthly rate, users are charged based on the total minutes of local calls made. As a result, ISPs in the US generate revenue by charging a monthly access fee,
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usually around $20, while in Europe, ISPs provide free access and generate revenue by taking a percentage (from 5 to 25%) of the local calls made to access the Internet.
Strategic Challenges for ISPs and Their Consequences for Horizontal Portals From the previous analysis, we conclude that some of the main strategic challenges for ISPs have some important consequences for the horizontal portal industry. In this sense, ISPs need to have, at a minimum, the equipment and access to at least have a POP (point-of-presence—the place where they realize the physical connection to the Internet) within their geographic market. In addition, larger ISPs often have their own high-speed networks; therefore, they are less dependent on the telecom suppliers and can offer better service to their customers. Therefore, competitive strategy in this stage of the online value network primarily involves combining additional value-added services to the basic service of Internet access. The goal is to differentiate the service, to create customer switching costs, and to offer more profitable services to both grow and profit from the installed base. This is exactly what AOL believed when it decided to acquire Time Warner. AOL is the largest ISP worldwide. Time Warner is the largest content provider. To sustain its competitive advantage AOL felt it had to provide exclusive content that would allow the company to charge for it as well as increase customer loyalty. Telecoms are creating their own ISPs, which greatly increases the level of competition. They are taking advantage of their brands and relationships with the customer. The access business can generate lots of additional traffic that passes through their networks. Although additional revenue from access alone may be small, it opens the door to new business areas that can generate new income sources, such as access to the Internet through mobile phones. In addition to telephone firms and ISPs, cable and satellite companies are also competing in the race to deliver broadband service. Their technologies are able to create a broadband “last mile” to the home that can be used to attack the local telecom’s narrowband local loop. Since AOL and other ISPs do not have automatic or guaranteed access to customers who use such broadband technologies to get onto the Internet, broadband may have the power to determine who wins and who loses in the Internet access industry.
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The revenue structure of ISPs shows that consumers have not shown a willingness to pay for value-added services, such as e-mail, as 70% of total income comes from consumer access subscription fees. The remaining 30% of revenues is generated by expanding into hosting for businesses that are migrating to the Web. Alternative sources of revenue will continue to increase in importance, leading ISPs to converge with other stages of the network. Primarily, ISPs are becoming OSPs—portals with Internet access.
Conclusions: Possible Future Avenues of Horizontal Portals Horizontal portals are key players within the broader value network. Hence, and taking into account that the volatility of the Internet may provoke the appearance of new factors that may induce new and dramatic shifts, some main conclusions may be drawn from the previous analysis. 1.
2. 3.
4.
5.
Horizontal portals create value for many users, but they seem unable to appropriate any, therefore being forced to enter the markets of infrastructure and access providers, and content owners. The industry is subject to large economies of scale, prompting consolidation. An advertisement-based business model is unlikely to succeed given the low audiences of most portals and the lack of focus of horizontal megaportals. Click rates are low, and advertising opportunities are ample for advertisers. Portals need proprietary content to differentiate from their competitors. Of this, content provided by users in the form of chats and clubs is the most effective as it costs only the fixed infrastructure and provides both network externalities and stickiness to the site. Pure-play Internet access providers have most of the same problems as portals as they cannot differentiate their offer much, having to resort to competition in price. Bundling Internet access with telephony or cable access seems the obvious strategy due to economies of scope to the provider and client.
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6.
The bundling of IAP-portal-content provider may be the only possible strategy given the idiosyncrasies of each business that impede them to effectively compete in isolation in their step on the value chain.
Endnotes 1
2
3
Acknowledgment: We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the PwC&IESE eBusiness Center. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the 15 th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference (Bled, Slovenia, 2002). The current expanded and updated version draws on input from the Bled participants. The authors also would like to acknowledge the useful comments of Rafael Andreu, Joan Enric Ricart, Lori Rockett, and the two anonymous reviewers. Any errors of fact or interpretation are the sole responsibility of the authors. According to whatis.com (www.whatis.com), “portal is a term, generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web (WWW) site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site.” General or horizontal portals address the entire Internet community, while specialized or vertical portals focus on a specific community of interest (PortalsCommunity.com). AOL Time Warner Press Release, January 11, 2001.
References Brynjolfsson, E., & Smith, M. (2000). Frictionless commerce? A comparison of Internet and conventional retailers. Management Science, 46(4), 563-585. Cassiman, B., & Sieber, S. (2002). The impact of Internet on market structure. Economia Industrial, 339(111), 13-24. Christensen, C. (2000, March). Meeting the challenge of disruptive change. Harvard Business Review, 66-78.
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Cox, B. (1992). What if there is a silver bullet and the competition gets it first? Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, 10(6). Evans, P., & Wurster, T. S. (1999). Blown to bits: How the new economics of information transforms strategy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Farrell, J., Monroe, H. K., & Saloner, G. (1997). The vertical organization of industry: Systems competition versus component competition. (Working Paper). Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkeley. Kim, C., & Mauborgne, R. (1997, January-February). Value innovation: The strategic logic of high growth. Harvard Business Review, 103-112. MacKie-Mason, J. K., & Varian, H. R. (1997). Economic FAQs about the Internet. In L. W. Knight & J. P. Bailey (Eds.), Internet Economics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Porter, M. (2001, March). Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, 63-78. Rayport, J. F., & Wirtz, B. W. (2001, March 22). Latest developments in electronic business: Trends and strategies in the new economy. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, p. 30. Sieber, S., & Valor, J. (2003). Market bundling strategies in the horizontal portal industry. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 7(4), 37-54. Srinagesh, P. (1997). Internet cost structures and interconnection agreements. In L. W. Knight & J. P. Bailey (Eds.), Internet Economics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Valor, J., & Hess, M. (2001). The online value network. Economía Industrial, 4, 31-41.
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Chapter V
Portals – Gateways for Marketing Ian Michael Victoria University, Australia
Abstract Marketers need to understand the role portals play in the search behaviour of consumers for various products and services over the Internet. Portals, which simply mean gateways to the Internet, are slowly reaching a mature phase of the product life cycle. Many claim that their roles are changing to become more or less like very large “aggregators” for the marketing of products and services. There needs to be a good understanding of the importance and value portals can bring to the marketing function in terms of advancing the concept of relationship marketing, and also understanding key consumer behaviour habits at Web sites, in order to design real “userfriendly” portal models for marketing.
Introduction Marketers and advertisers are yet to understand the potential of the Internet. Action is being taken with online portal companies such as Yahoo!, who have
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recently launched an online marketing solutions resource centre to educate them. According to some pundits, the age of the portal, which simply means a gateway to the Internet for consumers to access information and purchase various products and services, is slowly reaching a mature phase. Some predict that portal companies like America Online, Yahoo! and RealEstate.com are in the process of transforming themselves from portals to aggregators, bringing millions of customers cheap Visa cards, lower long-distance rates, and lesscostly insurance products. The marketing function that now uses the Internet to a greater extent needs to be aware of the potential of portal sites and the importance and impact they can have in introducing customers to search and shop for products in an online environment. The aim of this chapter is fourfold: • • • •
It first defines the concept of a portal; then the past, current, and future states of e-commerce and portals are discussed. Next, discussion focuses on portals and their relationship with the marketing function. This is followed by theoretical models of portals. Finally discussion centres around the behaviour of consumers at portals and other Web sites.
Portals—A Sneak Preview The word portal is often used for Web sites that function as an entry to a repository of information on almost any topic on the Internet. Some of the more popular portals that Web surfers are familiar with are sites like America Online (AOL) and CompuServe, along with directories and search engines like Yahoo and Alta Vista. During the past few years, numerous research articles have been published that aim at defining what exactly constitutes the term portal. These definitions are based on varied viewpoints; however, one binding thread among all is the agreement that a portal is a “gateway to the World Wide Web.” A portal is defined as an entrance point to online content. The portal concept has evolved across a number of markets and applications. Customer portals focus on individual customers and offer one-stop Internet access. By providing
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a number of services, such as searches, shopping, e-mail, and games, portals allow individuals to avoid browsing the Web but to in fact rely on and stay at one Web site like a “one-stop shop.” Accordingly, portals drive eyeballs and hence create and drive advertising revenue and alliances. The concept of a single public port to given content on the Internet is used as a means of pulling in a large number of users. As an example AOL acts as a portal site to general Web content, specialised content created by the AOL company, and content from partners such as Time Warner (Kleindl, 2003). Sadeh and Walker (2003) suggest that one of the many useful applications of the Web in general is the creation of the concept of Web portals, often referred to simply as “portals.” According to these authors, a portal is a Web site or Web service that provides information content to a specific community. Web portals include wide-reaching online services such as AOL and MSN, as well as services targeted at very specific communities—for example, a community interested in cancer research. A universal function of a Web portal is that it allows individuals to receive news, find and talk to one another, build a community, and find links to other Web resources of common interest. In order for a portal to be successful it must carry out the key function of becoming a starting place for an online searcher to begin trying to locate content. In research conducted using academic library portals, it was found that portals need typically to provide a gateway to an academic institution’s resources by listing them for users and creating a direct link to the native interface of each resource (Sadeh & Walker, 2003). A relatively new feature that enabled users to employ a library portal’s search interface to search simultaneously or sequentially in heterogenous resources that do not share metadata schemes or search-and-retrieval techniques was found to be extremely useful by searchers for information. According to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the US, integrated, cross-database searching through a wide range of resources will be the core feature of library portals as they become more entrenched in the future (Jackson, 2002). In other discussions as to what constitutes a portal, its functionality was emphasised as being an entry to a repository of information on almost any topic on the Internet. Portals are classified as either being large, branded gateways like AOL and MSN or popular directories and search engines such as Yahoo and Alta Vista. There has been some lively debate on the question of what actually constitutes a site to be classified as a “portal.” As already suggested the debaters agree on one issue, and that is that by definition a portal is a “gateway” to the Internet (Glaner-Hobel, 2002). To Caitlin Fitzsimmons (2003), the term
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portal has multiple meanings, from a simple Web site with extra links to a complex employee intranet. Essentially a portal provides its users –—employees, customers, suppliers, and other partners—with centralised access to content and applications. In its most basic form a portal simply aggregates content from disparate data sources. Some of the more basic and simple definitions come from Glaner-Hobel, whose view of a portal is simply “Whatever you need it to be!” meaning it should have the capability to adapt itself to the current requirements of an individual using it and should also be a sort of “home base, a single entry point to resources from a range of other Web places.”
Past, Current, and Future Growth of E-Commerce and Portals The concept of business and consumer portal took shape sometime around 1999. Prior to that, search engines and directories concentrated on their core business and offered little else apart from searching. It was around then (1999) that major Internet players like Yahoo and AltaVista adopted the “portal” strategy of broadening Web services with the aim of attracting a larger audience to their sites. A range of features such as licensed content, commercial links, and free e-mails was included at their Web sites. By mid-1999 most search engine companies began to extend their core online business activities to include what can be referred to as a “portal business model” over the Internet. Around that period of time there were 10 main competitors in the portal arena, which included the likes of Alta Vista, AOL, Excite, GeoCities, InfoSeek, Lycos, MSN, Netscape, Netcenter, Snap! and Yahoo! According to figures from IDC, a research company, it was found that ecommerce in Australia is set to grow from $4.8 billion in 2002 to around $18 billion in 2006. The research also found that the most popular products that are purchased over the Internet were LCD notebooks and digital cameras, which account for more than 50% of sales. The key factors for a major shift to online purchase seem to be longer working hours, more expensive petrol, and the desire to spend more quality time with friends and family. Some other drivers of online sales include the falling cost of speedier Internet connections, which significantly increase the appeal of sitting in front of the computer. The everlooming fear of online credit card fraud, which many researchers have found to
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be a turnoff for consumers, is still rife. The rise in e-commerce growth around Australia is proving to be a boom for the growth in shopping portals. The same research also found that consumers enjoyed using and shopping at portals as they cut through a lot of information and search engine clutter. Some of the wellmanaged portals in Australia are as follows: www.pointbis.com, www.auseverything.com.au/shopping/australia.htm; and www.ggod shoppingguide.com.au (Henderson, 2003). Around the middle of 2000, there were some interesting debates amongst various circles as to whether this portal fairy tale had come to an end and whether the marketing function had turned their backs on portals. However research has confirmed that even if the hype had died, the technology itself never went away; it was also mentioned that corporations behind the scenes continued with portal projects and began to discover some real business benefits. Analyst Gartner predicts that portals will remain the main consumer of Web services through to 2006. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is a good example of a high-profile organisation with a Web service based on portal management using Microsoft’s .NET platform. The Tax Agent Portal, which went live in November 2002, is an outward-facing operation for ATO clients rather than simply being employee focused. On another note an IDC survey of 250 Australian and business leaders across small, medium, and large enterprise sectors shows portals are yet to gain mainstream acceptance. Some 44.4% of respondents in this research survey had not even heard of the concept of an enterprise information portal (Fitzsimmons, 2003). According to Morgan Stanley Dean Writter, only four or five successful Internet portals will remain in the Asian Internet sector by 2004, after a period of savage consolidation worth US $17 billion market capitalisation. These few successful portals are those that have built themselves on brands, scale, scalability, technology, and, crucially, quality content. In a study conducted in India assessing success factors for portals, the above variables were found to be the key success factors (KSFs; Subba Rao, 2001). The liquor industry in Australia was an early one to invest in portal technology and used it to attract consumers to purchase and businesses to conduct ecommerce-type transactions. These smaller liquor industry retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers in early 2000 joined forces to form a business-to-business network with the intention to rival large competitors like Foster’s and Southcorp, who managed portals like Totalservice.com and Artesian.com. The 28 stakeholders, which mostly included small liquor manufacturers and only two
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industry heavyweights (BRL Hardy and Brian McGuigan Wines), launched this new portal company and called it 4liquor.com.au (Caruana, 2000). In the Indian market it was found that there have been strong trends for portals to engage in various forms of strategic alliances to retain and attract a larger number of Web surfers, searchers and shoppers. The most popular of these alliances are with communication and ISP access providers, a key objective being to achieve user retention. Some prominent Indian examples include Indiainfo’s (http://www.indiainfo.com) alliance with VSNL (http:// www.vsnl.com), India’s largest ISP, with 3.8 million connections (Subba Rao, 2001). In the not too distant future it is envisaged that portal strategy may not only focus on offering services directly to users but also concentrate on being infrastructure providers. There is interesting research with connections being made between the concept of “branding” and its implications and relationships with portals. Well-known dot-com brands such as Yahoo impose their own wellknown brand whilst acquiring new portal companies; on the other hand, brands such as Lycos tend to retain the brand names of their acquisitions. Some examples of where a portal brand name has been retained are Wired digital, Who Where, and Tripod. Newly formed portal companies are always on the lookout to increase access to potential users. Companies such as Microsoft and AOL have enticed potential users with free hardware; others have sought deals with the traditional bricks-and-mortar companies like Radio Shack (MSN), Tandy (MSN), Circuit City (AOL), Wal-Mart (AOL), K-Mart (Yahoo), and Best Buy (MSN). Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances are all features of competitive behaviour in the portal market, especially between the so-called new and old media. Network television companies like ABC and NBC have teamed with Go Network, and in Australia Snap has teamed with the Nine Network (Meisel & Sullivan, 2000). Power and Jerjian in The Battle of the Portals (Lawrence, Corbitt, Fisher, Lawrence, & Tidwell, 2002) predict that pocket portals, an electronic device combining PCs, mobiles, Internet, and portal, will act as electronic butlers. In further predictions Jesse Berst (Lawrence et al.) stresses that following the proliferation of portals over the last two years, the emphasis will switch to hubs and home bases. Accordingly the hub becomes the focus of activity, not just the gateway, and the home base is a Web site to which a user returns in between searching other sites.
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The Marketing Function and Portals A key function of marketing is to match buyers and sellers and facilitate transactions. To do this a firm needs to create the proper institutional infrastructure. It has been found that digital information goods such as news articles, digital images, or music allow perfect copies to be created and distributed almost without cost via the Internet. With the introduction of the Internet as a commercial medium for businesses to conduct their activities, it has been found that the technology is leading to aggregation, and this is fast becoming a profitable strategy for marketers as the marginal production costs are low and consumers are homogenous. Several Internet-based technologies assist buyers searching: multimedia, high bandwidth, and rating sites provide more product information. These search engines can be hierarchical directories like Yahoo, generic tools like Alta Vista (in early 1998), or specialised tools that work best in the context of specific markets like Pricewatch, ComputerESP for computers, or Expedia and Travelocity for travel (Bakos, 1998). Customer portals can and should provide company-specific information for customers, such as product information, inventory and order tracking, help desk applications, and other services (Kleindl, 2003). Marketers should begin considering portals as the brains of the organisation as they can provide employees with vital information for success. In a hypercompetitive marketplace, it can secure the survival of the organisation. The method is cost-effective because portal technology uses artificial agents, tiny programs to find and organise information, rather than salaried employees. For many marketers new product development is an extremely viable strategy to counteract high levels of competitiveness in the marketplace. In this situation the strategic use of information gathered pertaining to customers’ needs can trigger the development of new products and services. Since the possession of knowledge and information translates into capabilities and profits, the primary goal of management today is to discover relevant information and knowledge in a timely manner and convert it into a competitive advantage. On another token portal technology appears to be a one-stop shop solution to the information problem created by the World Wide Web, as it is possible to tailor and customise information to suit each and every customer. Some suggest that with portal technology it is possible for an individual to buy a newspaper that can be tailor-made to suit their specific information needs. This newspaper can contain a section on industry news, another on company
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news, and a third on all financial reports: all of this information may be very relevant to the person. If such a newspaper could be economically produced, the reader would not need to buy a whole newspaper to read but just a few pages. Such customisation can be achieved economically with portal technology because the artificial agents used in portals are programmed to search and index sites containing information the user specifies as relevant (Kotorov & Hsu, 2001). Slywotzky (2000) extends this concept of customisation of products and services using portal technology to new heights. According to the author, customers will soon be able to describe exactly what they want, and suppliers will be able to deliver the desired product or service without compromise or delay. This innovation is what the author calls “choiceboard”; this concept includes interactive online systems that allow individual customers to design their own products by choosing from a menu of attributes, components, prices, and delivery options. The role of the customer in this system shifts from passive recipient to active designer. The shift is just the most recent stage in the longterm evolution of the customer’s role in the economy. Slywotzky cites various studies that suggest for most of the 20th century, customers were “product takers” and “price takers,” accepting suppliers’ goods at their (suppliers’) prices. As the 21st century unfolds these customers are armed with more options and more information, and this makes them look further, bargain harder, and eventually search for and find lower prices. Though the technology existed towards the latter part of the last decade of the 20th century, evidence proves customers were still product takers. It was further illustrated that with a “choiceboard” system, marketers will see a major shift of customers becoming product makers rather than product takers. By providing a number of services, such as searches, shopping, e-mail, and games, portals allow individuals to avoid browsing different Web sites but to stay at one single portal site. Since the site drives eyeballs, it in turn will drive advertising revenue and alliances. The concept of a single public port to access content is used as a means of pulling in a large number of users (Kleindl, 2003). It has been suggested that whilst the information technology impact on marketing will render rivalry between competitors more intense, it has additional benefits in that it creates opportunities in developing competitive advantage through the creation of new business interrelationships within the value system. This expansion of competitive scope will see an increased ability to coordinate value activities regionally, nationally, and globally. Malone and Rockart (1993) noted that this may come in one of three possible methods: first, Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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an electronic communication effect whereby IT will allow for a greater amount of information to be communicated in the same amount of time, thus reducing the costs of communication; secondly, an electronic brokerage effect whereby organisations employ IT to enable them to connect to buyers directly; and thirdly, an electronic integration effect whereby IT enables each of the activities within the value system to interface together to exchange information, potentially reducing transaction, quality, and relationship costs (Casagranda, Nicholas, & Stevens, 1998). At the extreme, some argue that disintermediation (removal of intermediary organisations from the value system) will be commonplace (Benjamin & Wigand, 1995), while others suggest that the Internet will entrench existing intermediary relationships and may in fact encourage a new generation of intermediaries that will exist only in cyberspace— cybermediaries (Sarkar, Butler, & Steinfield, 1995). In a study conducted mainly in Canada and to a much lesser extent in the US, it was found that owners and operators of small bed-and-breakfast-type accommodations increased their international popularity by advertising via the portal of the local chamber of commerce site owned by the local governments. To advertise their Web sites, the respondents linked them to tourist boards or chambers of commerce (69.6%) and reprinted their stationery (71.6%). Many of these owner/operators felt that the international exposure the Internet was offering was an advantage, and they also stated that advertising via the government portal was one of their best marketing tools, especially in an international marketing context (Lituchy & Rail, 2000).
Insight into Web and Portal Models for Marketers Palmer and Griffith (1998) proposed a pioneering Web-marketing model that included two main elements: technical characteristics and marketing functions. According to the authors, a Web or portal site should contain clear “technical” characteristics that should include: audio, video, navigability, hyperlinks, and use of frames. The other element that is key to Web and portal design, according to them, should be an emphasis on the “marketability” of the site. This marketability of the site needs to include variables such as: information (general data instructions), usage, promotions, online sales, and service/support. These factors should then be combined to create the basics of Web marketing and site
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design. The more information-intense the product, the more likely the Web site will utilise promotional activities to stimulate repeat customer patronage. Lockett and Blackman (2001) are other notable contributors to this concept of Web and portal design for the enhancement of the marketing function. They were responsible for creating the terms “site-centric” and “symbiotic Web”; a portal or Web site is either “site-centric” or “symbiotic.” The construction of a site-centric model involves a range of techniques that can be used to attract customers to a central site that offers a range of products and services. This Web creation strategy involves a significant investment in the construction of an Internet-enabled product or service; this is done through advertising the service to attract a user base and then by using feedback to adapt the site to specific target-market needs. This “site-centric” model is the main method used by organisations like Yahoo! and eBay in the creation of their portals as part of their marketing strategy. The second, “symbiotic,” model is unique to the Internet. With symbiotic marketing the processing required for a service is centralised, but other sites are encouraged to incorporate the input and output of the service within their own site. The most high-profile company to do this is Amazon, which encourages third-party Internet sites to become associates and to provide Amazon services on their Web sites through a number of marketing and financial arrangements. Companies are encouraged to either link directly to the Amazon home page, to an Amazon associates search box, or to individual products. A large number of Internet sites have joined the Amazon associates program and receive a 5% referral fee for each item purchased. There are approximately 200,000 Web sites that have enrolled in the Amazon associates program: big brands like Excite Inc., Microsoft, and Netscape Communications Corporations are some notable names. This symbiotic strategy does well for Amazon, as they are able to raise their profile on the Internet, thus attracting more customers. A study also found that a very small number of companies actually use this “symbiotic” model of portal design (Lockett & Blackman, 2001). In a study regarding the usability of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) portals by users of BT Cellnet’s Genie and Vodafone’s Vizzavi (two of the UK’s largest WAP portals), Condos, James, Every, and Simpson (2002) concluded the following: • •
Make good and careful use of graphics. Avoid long lists and indicate the length of these lists.
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• • • • • • • •
Make important options visible to the user. Provide clear, helpful, and meaningful error messages. Avoid dead ends. Format and present content appropriately. Offer consistency in navigation and naming of menu options. Provide users with sufficient prompting. Minimise user input. Structure tasks to aid user’s interaction with the system.
Subba Rao (2001) states that the word portal became popular sometime during 1998 alongside all the usual technological buzzwords floating around. The first Web portals were basically online services such as AOL that just provided access to the Web; however, most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep large audiences. Portals need not necessarily create content themselves but host it by packaging content from third-party providers. They should organise this bearing in mind its suitability to their target audience. This strategy should allow the company to create revenue through advertising. The writer is of the view that there is no single model of what constitutes a portal; however, to enable a site to be classified as a portal the following set of core functions should be present in a site. These functions are defined as the “4Cs Concept” and they are: • • • •
Connection—to the Internet. Content—in the form of appropriate news, entertainment, and instructions for users. Commerce—involving access to electronic shopping and other commercial activities. Community—ground rules and tools that define a community of interest and enable participants to interact.
Subba Rao’s (2001) study further emphasises that portals should include the following:
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• • • • • • •
• • • •
Ability to attract and retain users. Ability to personalise information. Facility to allow users to intuitively navigate through the portal to the right information a person is seeking. An efficient and fast search engine to retrieve exact information. Provision of scope for secure e-commerce transactions. Product catalogues online and facility to place orders for items. Extensive value-added features to attract users to make visits again for example, to be able to track stock portfolios, e-mail, chat, auctions, bookings. Vertical portals bonding users into a community. Well-focused information on the vertical segment it caters to. Facilitation and promotion of interaction among users. A good business directory as an added advantage.
In a study of Australian government portals and Web sites it was found that most were confusing and that this risked alienating online visitors. Research by the Sydney-based interface-usability consultant The Hiser Group found users of government Web sites had a poor understanding of the structure of government bureaucracy, making it difficult for them to access particular information or services. Their study included different age-group members who had varying Internet experience, and these participants visited government sites (in October 2002) to perform a number of basic tasks. Some of the tasks included paying council rates online, renewing car registration, buying an e-tag (for use on Melbourne’s toll roads), checking eligibility for a health-care card, and looking for information on immunising a baby. The Web sites examined in the study include those that provide access to a single level of government, such as the federal government’s central online portal (www.fed.gov.au), the Victorian government (www.vic.gov.au), and the City of Stonnington (www.stonnington.vic.gov.au) in Melbourne. The sites also included multiple layers of government, such as the Victorian government’s “Multiple Service Express” (www.me.vic.gov) or the Tasmanian government’s “Service Tasmania Online” (www.service.tas.gov.au). The findings suggest that users tended to look for information using topic categories, and if they kept getting lost amongst the quagmire of information they quickly became frustrated and
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moved between sites. Some of the participants were even found to be unaware that they had left a government Web site (Adams, 2003).
Consumer Behaviour at Web Sites and Portals—Some Lessons for Marketers The growth of the Internet and its immense capability of providing consumers with product and service information have empowered the consumer immensely. Consumers are becoming more mature, sophisticated, and intelligent and are further demanding higher levels of product information before making purchasing decisions. The rapid advancement in Web technology has enhanced the decision-making outcome for most who use the Internet to search and shop for products. The creation and subsequent growth of software and technological devices, such as smart agents that are linked to portals, have provided an intelligent interface to the consumer. These computer decision aids improve transactional efficiency by providing merchandising and sales information to consumers, offering sales support, and facilitating sales promotions, while at the same time enhancing the consistency, availability, and quality of support to consumers. In a study to test the relationship between the use of these smart agents, or “query-based decision aids” (QDBAs), as they are referred to, it was found that the greater the amount of relevant information the decision maker has, the greater is his confidence in his judgement. The research study developed and tested a general model for understanding the influence of query-based decision aids on consumer decision making in the e-commerce environment. The results show that the use of a well-designed QBDA leads to increased satisfaction with the decision process and increased confidence in judgements. The research subjects who had access to the QBDA perceived an increased cost saving and a lower cognitive decision effort associated with the purchase decision. The subjective reports show that subjects who had access to the QBDA both liked the interface more and had more confidence in their judgements as compared to subjects who did not have access to the QDBA (Pereira, 1999). The frequency of purchase and perceived risk also provides a good buyerbehaviour framework that can help match agents’ functions to buyers’ needs. When buyers purchase a product frequently they develop structured information requirements and choice processes. The use of simple agent components Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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can provide marketers with tools to enable online searchers a choice of product support (Sproule & Archer, 2000). Meisel and Sullivan (2000) found that most Web surfers and shoppers want portals to conduct five important functions for the user; they are as follows: • • • • •
Provide an easy, convenient, and organised way for users to use the Internet. Act as a filter, hence helping in the decision-making process for purchase online. Assure users of the integrity of the sites for Web transactions. Provide users with access to propriety content and/or communication technologies like Internet telephony and e-mail. Facilitate the electronic equivalent of one-stop shopping for the user.
Though little has been done by way of research, marketers need to be aware of new demographic segments that are being attracted to the Internet for searching and shopping purposes. One such segment is the older, or “greying,” segment. In a recent survey commissioned by the American Association of Retired Persons it was confirmed that the digital divide was shrinking in the US. Almost half the respondents stated that they regularly exchanged e-mails with their 50-plus parents, while grandchildren increasingly served as the family help-desk for inter-generational communication hiccups. American Demographics magazine identified the 55-plus age group as the fastest growing segment of Web newcomers, and corporate engineers are bent on designing Web pages sympathetic to visual and motor impairments so as to make them as age-friendly as possible. The Australian Seniors Computer Club is testing adaptive technology for IBM that will enable older people with arthritis or fading eyesight to customise Web pages in larger print or with text read out loud, giving the company an edge in a market estimated to be worth $40 billion and booming. Recent US surveys tracking computer use report that senior citizens online spend most time e-mailing family members and accessing digital photographs of the clan (Legge, 2003). There is growing empirical evidence that e-tailers are failing to deliver the standards of service that are expected by consumers. A survey of 9,500 online shoppers by BizRate.com indicated that 55% abandoned their carts prior to check out (Shop.org, 2001). Worldwide $6 billion per year is being lost
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through failed purchase attempts (Blank, 2000). A Verdict (2000) research survey of 2,000 people found consumers are being put off from shopping online because of poor after-sales service and unreliable delivery. Some major problems cited included a lack of weekend/evening delivery and complicated systems for returning unsuitable or unsatisfactory merchandise. In a study by Lindquist and Kaufman-Scarborough (2000), it was found that 77% of women browse online then buy in a store; 54% of men do this. In the early days of the Internet, male users heavily outnumbered females, but this is now changing, with 50% of US e-shoppers now female (Cyr, 2000). In addition Internet shoppers are becoming more mainstream, with more e-shoppers coming from the less affluent socio-economic groups and many new sales arising from consumers more representative of the general population. Some results of the study’s findings indicate that some segments of the consumer market do prefer to shop in shopping centres and find this more enjoyable and sociable; the same study found that the Internet needs to emphasise more trust as there is still concern for safety of financial transactions and credit cards (Dennis, Harris, & Sandhu, 2002). Some studies indicate that the main reason individuals use the Internet is for gathering information that falls into two categories, namely: personal needs covering leisure (sport, films, games, specific niche hobbies, chat), medical information, news and politics, and local community and historical information, and business needs covering technical resource information, academic research, and company information. The Internet supports the information search stage of the buying process; research has found that consumers do use the Internet for the decision-making process in consumption behaviour. It has also been found that Web advertisements were seen as a high distraction when individuals are online. Individuals do not appear to look at them much and are particularly annoyed by banner and pop-up boxes. Off-line advertisements are considered useful for directing people to online sites, so this reinforces the importance of an integrated relationship marketing/ marketing communications approach. Respondents to a study conducted by Evans, Wedande, Ralston, and van’t Hul (2001) found that people online used hyperlinks to find virtual community sites; this finding should be of significance to organisations that own portals. Further it was found that individuals valued using friends’ word-of-mouth in selecting portals, search engines, and general Web sites. The study also found that a large percentage of respondents do not like participating in an online community environment, especially if they perceived it to be overly commercial. Some recommendations of this research
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stress the need for marketers to provide virtual communities, especially bulletin boards, in order to facilitate three-way communication with the company and consumer, and between consumers. Hanson (2000) found that most Web users start their online activities at one of the main search or directory portal sites, hence making portals an important source of traffic that can be obtained for free. Managing an organisation’s portal presence requires traffic-building efforts that combine strategic and tactical activities. A key strategic initiative to manage one’s portal presence is classifying a site carefully using proper keywords, descriptors, and categories. This is very important, especially for directories that group sites into specific classification systems. Marketers of portals should work with the directory personnel to make sure that the latter correctly locate the company’s site to provide a steady stream of visitors. Hanson further suggests that there needs to be a continuous tactical attention to effectively leverage the portals, especially search engines. He states that consumers search using a range of methods that could include things like keywords in search engines, meta tags, and various other links. These variables should then be kept in mind by marketers and be used strategically with search engines to enable the search engine to retrieve proper results for the searcher/surfer. A Web site manager must monitor and improve the chances of material being found and retrieved early in the list of results of these pages.
Conclusion Portals, as the definition suggests, are “gateways” to the Internet and should be regarded as strategic tools in the marketing process. Marketers need to keep abreast of the growth, potential, and changing nature of these sites, which play a key introductory role for Web searchers. They are best summed up as very large aggregators that will become more and more of a “one-stop shop” for consumers. Portals were among the first pure e-commerce-type entities to focus and create online brands. Examples of these are the popularity of brands such as Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Amazon, Travelocity, and the like. It has been found that consumers rely on branded names, especially in this mire of products and services available over the Internet. Research is also proving that if in doubt, consumers are straightaway attracted to the online brands they are familiar with. Little wonder that Amazon is supposedly the most successful pure
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online company and brand. Portals have matured to become a key trading exchange intermediary between consumers and businesses and also between business and other businesses. The portal’s focus is now on convenience, price, and variety. In their role as business-to-business exchanges, portals are rapidly taking a form to create strategic alliances between like-minded companies. A recent example has been the announcement by Optus with a launch of a large business-to-business portal for the AUD $60 billion construction industry in Australia. Whatever shape or business models portals may take or be forced to acquire in the future, it now seems assured that these “gateways” will be the key in our future cyber journey.
References Adams, D. (2003, June 24). Navigating the .gov sites. The Age (Next), p. 3. Bakos, Y. (1998). The emerging role of electronic marketplaces on the Internet. Communications of the ACM, 41(8), 35-42. Benjamin, R. I., & Wigand, R. T. (1995). Electronic markets and virtual value chains on the information superhighway. Sloan Management Review, 36(2), 62-72. Bradlow, T. E., & Schmittlein, D. (2000). The little engines that could: Modeling the performance of World Wide Web search engines. Marketing Science, 19(1), 43-62. Brook, S. (2003, July 11-13). Portals set rivalry aside to push online message. The Australian, p. 32. Caruana, L. (2000, April 4). Liquor portal cheers alliance. The Australian, p. 24. Casagranda, J. L., Nicholas, J. A., & Stevens, M. P. (1998). Creating competitive advantage using the Internet in primary sector industries. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 6, 257-272. Condos, C., James, A., Every, P., & Simpson, T. (2002). Ten usability principles for the development of effective WAP and m-commerce services. Aslib Proceedings, 54(6), 345-355. Dennis, C., Harris, L., & Sandhu, B. (2002). From bricks to clicks: Understanding the e-consumer. Qualitative Marketing Research: An International Journal, 5(4), 281-290. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Evans, M., Wedande, G., Ralston, L., & van’t Hul, S. (2001). Consumer interaction in the virtual era: Some qualitative insights. Qualitative Marketing Research: An International Journal, 4(3), 150-159. Fitzsimmons, C. (2003, March 18). Portal power. The Australian, pp. 1,4. Glaner-Hobel, C. (2002). Internet portals for chemists. Online Information Review, 26(3), 146-163. Hanlon, M. (1999). Optimisation is the key. Marketing & eBusiness, 49-53. Hanson, W. (2000). Principles of Internet marketing. South-Western College. Hayes, S. (2003, April 1). Online ads strong and growing. The Australian, p. 30. Henderson, L. (2003, April 22). Express checkout. The Australian, pp. 1, 6. Hock, R. (2001). The extreme searcher’s guide to Web search engines. Medford, NJ: Information Today. Kleindl, B. A. (2003). Strategic electronic marketing—Managing e-business. South-Western College. Kotorov, R., & Hsu, E. (2001). A model for enterprise portal management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(1), 86-93. Lawrence, E., Corbitt, B., Fisher, J., Lawrence, J., & Tidwell, A. (2002). Internet commerce—Digital models for business. Queensland, Australia: Wiley. Legge, K. (2003, August 2-3). Oldies cruising to get online. The Australian, p. 6. Lituchy, T. R., & Rail, A. (2000). Bed and breakfast, small inns, and the Internet: The impact of technology on the globalisation of small businesses. Journal of International Marketing, 8(2), 86-97. Lockett, A. & Blackman, I. (2001). Strategies for building a customer base on the Internet: Symbiotic marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 9, 47-68. Mackenzie, K. (2003, April 1) . LookSmart search is paying off. The Australian, p. 32. Malone, T. W., & Rockart, J. F. (1993). How will information technology reshape organisations? Computers as coordination technology. In S. P. Bradley, J. A. Hausman, & R. L. Nolan (Eds.), Globalisation, technol-
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ogy and competition: The fusion of computers and telecommunications in the 1990’s (pp.37-56). Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Meisel, B. J., & Sullivan, S. T. (2000). Portals: The new media companies. Journal of Policy, Regulation, and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information, and Media, 2(5), 477-486. Palmer, W. J., & Griffith, A. D. (1998). An emerging model of Web site design for marketing. Communications of the ACM, 41(3), 45-51. Pereira, E. R. (1999). Factors influencing consumer perceptions of Webbased decision support systems. Logistic Information Management, 12(1/2), 157-181. Rowley, J. (2000). Product searching with shopping bots. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 10(3), 203-214. Rowley, J. (2003). Information marketing: Seven questions. Library Management, 24(1/2), 13-19. Sadeh, T., & Walker, J. (2003). Library portals: Towards the semantic Web. New Library World, 104(184/185), 11-19. Sarkar, M. B., Butler, B., & Steinfield, C. (1995). Intermediaries and cybermediaries: A continuing role for mediating players in the electronic marketplace. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 1(3). Slywotzky, J. A. (2000, January/February). The age of choiceboard. Harvard Business Review, 40-41. Sproule, S., & Archer, N. (2000). A buyer behaviour framework for the development and design of software agents in e-commerce. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 10(5), 396-405. Subba Rao, S. (2001). Portal proliferation: An Indian scenario. New Library World, 102(1168), 325-331. Yuan, Y., Caulkins, J. P., & Roehrig, S. (1998). The relationship between advertising and content provision on the Internet. European Journal of Marketing, 32(7/8), 677-687.
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Chapter VI
Designing E-Commerce Portal for an Enterprise – A Framework Sushil K. Sharma Ball State University, USA Jatinder N. D. Gupta The University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA
Abstract Portals have become the Web interface of choice for providing business users with rapid access to the information and services they need to help them do their jobs more efficiently, make better informed business decisions, and enable their organizations to become smarter, thus more competitive. Appropriate deployment of portal, content management, and collaboration technologies is essential to business success. Integrated e-commerce portals let organizations reach out to customers around the globe—inexpensively and around the clock. Integrated e-commerce portals deliver industry-leading tools for building sales, reducing costs, and making companies more efficient in a Web-enabled world. This chapter suggests a framework for developing an enterprise-wide integrated ecommerce portal for evolving organizations. The proposed framework Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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would help to design a distributed, extensible, cross-platform, collaborative, and integrated e-commerce portal.
Introduction Currently, customer expectations are increasing at the same rate as information and communication innovations in the marketplace. The traditional organization structures and business models are no longer sufficient to deliver products and services. Organizations are changing enormously in their design, business models, and strategies to reach global customers (Wingenroth, 1999). Today, enterprises are challenged to do things faster, better, and more cost-effectively in order to remain competitive (Hoven, 2001; Spring & Sweeting, 2002). As a result, there is a strong need to share knowledge in a way that makes it easier for individuals, teams, and enterprises to work together to effectively contribute to an enterprise’s success in an increasingly global and competitive economy (Goldman, Nagel, & Preiss, 1995; Hoven; Reich et al., 1999). Current market trends, global competition, and technological innovations drive enterprises to practice the concept of real-time enterprises. These are organizations that enable the automation of processes spanning different systems, media, and enterprise boundaries. Real-time enterprises provide real-time information to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners and try to make sure that any piece of information is always current. Real-time enterprises represent the future of knowledgeenabled business processes wherein digitized organizations interact with increasing and relentless speed and any specific “event” results in a real-time “response.” For this purpose, enterprises of all sizes have invested heavily in a variety of e-business initiatives, including informational Web sites, transactional e-commerce sites, Web-based applications, and partner- and internal employee-facing portals. In doing so, enterprises have successfully expanded the number of channels through which they can sell their products and the number of modes used to interact with customers, partners, and employees. Multiple locations, mobile employees, and increasing use of portable devices such as PDAs and cell phones lead to demand for anytime, anywhere access to enterprise information. Enterprises are deploying enterprise portals to improve employee productivity. A structured commerce Web portal enables secure access to information and provides a broad array of modular resources
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and services, such as publishing e-mail, discussion forums, surveys, help desks, and online e-commerce. Before the Internet, external interactions (i.e., with customers and partners) happened via only one mode—the phone. With the growth of e-commerce, customers and partners now interact with an enterprise via phone, Web, and e-mail. In response, enterprises are increasing investments in enterprise portals. Creating an effective interaction solution for a company is also a tremendous challenge compounded by the increasing use of a variety of mobile devices by employees, customers, and suppliers. An enterprise portal is a single point of integrated, personalized, online access. It can also be defined as a Web site offering a broad array of resources and services for members, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, chat groups, and online shopping malls (Zahir, Dobring, & Hunter, 2002). An enterprise portal could also be defined in simple terms: a gateway to network-accessible resources (intranet, extranet, and Internet). Commercial examples of portals include my.oracle.com, my.yahoo.com, excite.com, and many others. Individual organizations are increasingly building their own corporate portals for both Internet and intranet use. According to Delphi Group, the enterprise portal software market is growing, as shown in Table 1 (Rose, 2003; Watson & Fenner, 2000). In today’s around-the-clock business cycle, changing opportunities and new strategies can make business integration critical. A failure to integrate various business processes can cause a business significant inconvenience, if not disaster. This comes as missed opportunities because departments or locations cannot share information, or the simple abandonment of legacy systems that won’t work together, or delays, errors, and expense from rekeying information into more than one application. Different integration problems require different integration solutions. Some projects require a high level of focus on process—ensuring that the day-to-day transactions with customers, partners, and employees are coordinated across multiple departments, applications, and IT environments. Other integration
Table 1. Enterprise portal market growth Year 2004 2003 2002 2001
Estimated Market $1.13 billion $957 million $787 million $698 million
Growth rate 18% 22% 13% 72%
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problems simply require that large amounts of data be shared and applications updated rapidly, with little attention to process. Regardless of a company’s specific challenge, business integration will make diverse applications communicate securely and reliably, replace manual data entry, integrate systems with those of key customers, and make legacy applications work with new applications. Integrated e-commerce portals let organizations inexpensively reach out to customers around the globe—and around the clock. Integrated e-commerce portals deliver industry-leading tools for building sales, reducing costs, and making companies more efficient in a Web-enabled world (Hansen & Oetinger, 2001; Mack, Ravin, & Byrd, 2001; Ruppel & Harrington, 2001). The organizations also need valuable resources such as human skills, expertise, and relationships. Knowledge management (KM) is about capitalizing on these precious assets (Duffy, 2001). But despite organizations’ willingness, it becomes difficult to have all these systems integrated into one because of the lack of appropriate architecture of an enterprise-wide e-commerce portal (Howard, 2003; Staab & Maedche, 2001). This chapter suggests a framework for developing an enterprise-wide integrated e-commerce portal for evolving organizations. The proposed framework would help to design a distributed, extensible, cross-platform, collaborative, and integrated e-commerce portal.
Information Management to Knowledge Management Information management provides a structure and process through which separate databases and information systems can be integrated so that information is only entered and maintained at one point, but is shared and available to all users for numerous purposes. Achieving this integrated, shared information requires organized, structured information architecture. The new information management framework should also be supported with a change in culture, from the present way of developing, maintaining, and owning information systems in isolation to an environment of sharing, cooperation, and collaboration across all functional and organizational levels (Back & Moreau, 2001). The traditional emphasis on transaction processing, integrated logistics, and workflows to systems that support competencies for communication building, people networks, and on-the-job learning no longer holds true in the highly competitive and dynamic environment. Adopting the latest technologies and
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remaining up to speed with ongoing business and technology developments are becoming more acute in the e-business world. The evolution of the informationprocessing paradigm over the last four decades to build intelligence and manage change in business functions and processes has generally progressed over three phases—automation: increased efficiency of operations; rationalization: streamlining of procedures and eliminating obvious bottlenecks that are revealed by automation for enhanced efficiency of operations; and reengineering: radical redesign of business processes that depends upon information-technology-intensive radical redesign of workflows and work processes (Malhotra, 1998, 2000, in press). Most systems are kind of “islands of automation” which are disjointed and dis-integrated. Research indicates that many organizations still continue to use fragmented systems without integration and now find it difficult to offer e-commerce solutions because successful e-commerce would need integrated systems (Koulopoulos, 1995). The new paradigm of business is based on IT-intensive radical redesign of business processes, which is in contrast to the earlier traditional emphasis on continuous marginal improvements in existing processes. E-commerce is demanding rethinking the company’s business in terms of business processes rather than discrete functions and hierarchies. Information systems in the old industrial model mirror the notion that businesses will change incrementally in an inherently stable market and executives can foresee change by examining the past. The new business model of the Information Age, however, is marked by fundamental, not incremental, change (Haeckel & Nolan, 1993; Keen, 1991; Malhotra, 1998, 2000, in press). The earlier era was characterized by relatively slow and predictable change that could be deciphered and “controlled” by most formal information systems. However, today’s businesses need speed, agility, and flexibility to respond to the market. Therefore, organizations need to utilize knowledge rather than information to make quick decisions and for competitive advantage (Huff, 1992). Organizations operating in the new business environment therefore need to be adept at creation and application of new knowledge as well as ongoing renewal of existing knowledge archived in company databases. While the traditional business logic was based on a high level of structure and control, the dynamics of the new business environment demands a different model of organization design—a change from command and control to sense and respond. The emphasis is more on ongoing renewal of existing knowledge, creation of new knowledge, and its application in business practices. This contrasts with the “old world” model of archiving the knowledge in organiza-
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tional databases, devoid of human reinterpretation of its context and content (Koulopoulos, 1995; Malhotra, 1998, 2000, in press). Information centers, market intelligence, and learning are converging to form knowledge management functions (Stratigos, 2001). Although KM solutions are not a replacement for the functionality of today’s corporate portals, they do add value to an enterprise’s KM strategy by improving analysis of interdepartmental data, by providing dynamic, end-user-driven querying tools, and by delivering relevant enterprise data to a greater number of knowledge consumers (Cloete & Snyman, 2003; Duffy, 2001; Ferguson & Pemberton, 2000; Hammond, 2001; Mack et al., 2001; Stratigos, 2001).
Enterprise-Wide Integrated E-Commerce Portal Portals have become the Web interface of choice for providing business users with rapid access to the information and services they need to help them do their jobs more efficiently, make better informed business decisions, and enable their organizations to become smarter, thus more competitive. Successful deployment of portal, content management, and collaboration technologies is essential to business success. Driven to reap ROI from real-time data access and advanced collaboration among employees and partners, more and more IT executives are hunting for the right enterprise portal. Companies want a single platform to aggregate all of their existing silos (Borck, 2001; Moore, 2001). A well-organized enterprise portal would ensure that all records will be accessible from one central place. When it comes to maximizing electronic commerce technologies and applications, portals enable companies to increase sales, improve customer service, and expand marketing initiatives. These efforts are critical to any successful business and result in bottom-line savings for the company. The corporation must have the enterprise portal, an integrated software which can house its databases, file servers, Web pages, e-mails, ERP (enterprise resource planning), and CRM (customer relationship management) systems accessible to all its constituents (Meister, Patel, & Fenner, 2000; Saatcioglu, Stallaert, & Whinston, 2001). An enterprise portal allows the personalization of content through the collection and presentation of multiple portal components: applications, services, tools, and data. Web services could be one of the technologies that can help to create enterprise portals (Pickett &
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Hamre, 2002; Starasta, 2002). An e-commerce portal should be able to support complete multimedia formats and should automatically be enabled for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) to allow mobile shoppers to buy anytime, anywhere (Ceri, Fraternali, & Bongio, 2000; Talley & Mitchell, 2000). It should support all Web scripting languages. An e-commerce portal should have the ability for different users to access a wide range of information and services in a customized fashion to its employees, customers, and partners, and where the content and services comprise the information resources, products, and services of the enterprise (Goh, Ang, & Sikand, 2003; Rosen, 2000). The use of Web services on the World Wide Web is expanding rapidly for developing e-commerce portals due to the need for application-to-application communication and interoperability. These services provide a standard means of communication among different software applications involved in presenting dynamic context-driven information to the user. A Web service is a software system whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML-based messages conveyed by Internet protocols. Web services are self-contained, self-describing, modular applications that can be published, located, and invoked across the Web. Web services are another form of Web application, with self-describing nature. When users request a Web application, it can serve them and can also connect with the other related Web applications, and so the users get all the services they need without knowing that they are served by different applications from different locations (Borck, 2002; Gibbs, 2002; Meehan & Copeland, 2002). Web services are self-describing applications that reside online and that, using standards such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), can be accessed and used by any client. Web services are designed to bring disparate information sources together (Gupta & Sharma, 2003). SOAP is a lightweight and simple XML-based object invocation protocol that is designed to exchange structured and typed information on the Web. It is a protocol specification for invoking methods on servers, services, components, and objects. SOAP was originally developed for distributed applications to communicate over HTTP and through corporate firewalls. SOAP defines the use of XML and HTTP to access services, objects, and servers in a platform-independent manner. UDDI is a yellow-pages-type directory of all businesses that expose Web services. This directory is desig-
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nated UDDI, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. WSDL is a document written in XML. The document describes a Web service. It specifies the location of the service and the operations (or methods) the service exposes (Frost, 2001). Using different standard protocols, Web services help businesses to create sophisticated applications that integrate many features and content. The ideas behind Web services are starts with XML. XML—Extensible Markup Language—forms the backbone of the Web services to create and implement. XML is a markup language like HTML. XML has been designed to describe data, and unlike HTML, XML tags are not predefined in XML. XML is selfdescribing, which uses a document type definition (DTD) to formally describe the data. XML has been derived from the Structured Generalized Markup Language (SGML) parent, and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is said to be an earlier cousin of XML. Web services (applications) can communicate which other without platform hassles. Unlike buying and installing COM or Bean components, Web services can run in the places where it is since they are XML based (Gibbs, 2002; Schultz, 2002).
Framework for Enterprise-Wide E-Commerce Portal An enterprise-wide e-commerce portal framework would integrate together many disparate e-commerce systems. An enterprise-wide e-commerce portal is intended to offer a single, focal centralized point for linking to a collection of applications and a method for initiating processes that transcend multiple systems. In an integrated portal, users can go to one place and perform searches across disparate repositories, such as a Lotus Notes database, Microsoft Exchange public folders, Web sites, file systems, databases, and a collection of other repositories. A portal’s core functions include e-mail, group calendaring and scheduling, shared folders/databases, threaded discussions, and custom application development to support B2C and B2B business models. Portals should include all of the following capabilities:
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Workflow and routing of documents Discussion threads User chat sessions Dynamic group and team creation Interactive collaboration, including video, voice, and application sharing Cross-repository searching Business intelligence CRM Discussion threads Document management E-mail ERP Online chats Personal and group calendar Reporting Sales-force automation
All of these can be grouped into broad categories such as database design, messaging technologies, supply chain, multilingual content, security solutions, electronic payment systems, content management, middleware, knowledge management, etc. to evolve the framework. Figure 1 explains each of these.
Database Design Database systems are the cornerstone of today’s corporate transaction and business intelligence applications. Database technology is also becoming a key component in the rapidly changing and expanding world of e-business. The use of both B-to-C and B-to-B e-business is growing at a staggering rate, and the next few years will see an equally dramatic growth in the number of users who will require access to interconnected e-business systems. Unlike current internal corporate networks, these large, distributed e-business configurations will involve a wide range of different client devices, ranging from permanently
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connected desktop systems to occasionally connected wireless phones and mobile and handheld computers. The key to success in this environment will be the access to and exchange of information, and this will require database design that can store and manage information anywhere in the e-business system. Users building new e-business applications need to evaluate database design carefully to ensure that they can satisfy the additional requirements imposed by e-business applications. Key requirements include portability, low resource requirements, simple installation and administration, security, data synchronization, and scalability (Cox, 2000; Hille, 2001).
Messaging Technologies Features Several factors suggest that the time for a widespread adoption of advanced messaging solutions has come. Enterprises have a growing mobile and distributed workforce that needs improved methods of communication. Messaging technology has advanced with the introduction of unified communications, the proliferation of new messaging devices, significant strides in voice and data convergence, and the widespread adoption of a host of open standards for messaging-related technologies. Messaging technologies allow multiple software components to communicate by sending and receiving messages. These collaborations can be synchronous and can be tightly coupled. Unified messaging promises to deliver voice mail, fax, video, and any other form of stored communications. Another interesting development is the so-called real-time collaboration system. More than just a simple chat session, real-time collaboration incorporates the ability to track a user’s “digital presence.” A click could launch a real-time chat session or, conceivably, a videoconference connection (Hille, 2001; Jones, 2001). Voice-enabled e-business—v-business—gives customers easy voice access from any of the one billion phones in use around the world. Internet-based, voice-enabled unified messaging and personal assistant services provide the same easy access to voice, fax, and e-mail messages. Voice portals are poised to become the next big thing in communications. The organizations using them will have a very real edge in the marketplace—differentiating themselves from their competitors, attracting loyal customers, and growing their revenues. Voice portal technology has the potential to dramatically improve customer satisfaction, increase revenues, and reduce agent costs when used in ebusiness. Enterprises such as major airlines, financial services companies, and
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overnight delivery companies are adopting public-network-hosted speech recognition technology to provide customers with such services as travel information and reservations, order entry and tracking, as well as stock trading. These voice services will be accessible either directly or through links to a voice portal service. At the center of these new services is the next-generation network (NGN), where three separate networks—the PSTN voice network, the wireless network, and the data network (the Internet)—are converging into a common packet infrastructure. This intelligent, highly efficient infrastructure delivers universal access and a host of new technologies, applications, and service opportunities. Three types of services drive NGNs: real-time and nonreal-time communication services, content services, and transaction services. The services-driven NGN gives service providers greater control, security, and reliability while it reduces their operating costs.
Supply Chain Integration Companies are undergoing a shift in the way they compete, increasingly tying their competitive advantage to a “dynamic ecosystem” of trade partners. Collaborative commerce has enabled companies to dramatically improve the way they manage their cross-enterprise value chain processes. The use of Internet-based technology that promotes collaboration in business has come to be called “collaborative commerce.” It cuts across the lines of traditional ERP, SCM, and CRM and adds a new dimension as well. The successful integration of business processes and information systems of different companies provided companies with a substantial competitive advantage—these companies are seeing better profits, better revenue growth, greater market share, and better return to investors. Deloitte’s survey shows that almost 75% of companies consider collaboration a top executive priority, and those who already linked their business processes with other companies are showing 70% higher profitability than those organizations that do not integrate with trading partners. Those numbers have jumped by about 20% from a survey of collaborative commerce done less than two years ago (Deloitte Consulting Survey, 2002). To truly lower costs, expand reach, and aggregate fragmented buyers, sellers, partners, and customers, companies must have the ability to integrate interactively and dynamically with many enterprises—in multiple supply, demand, and value chains—to address the requirements of these constituencies. This integration goes beyond the rigid supply chain models and information sharing
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indicative of e-business to fully enable collaboration with multiple enterprises— “collaborative commerce” (c-commerce). C-commerce applications synchronize and optimize activities among a dynamic set of buyers, sellers, partners, and customers and thereby optimize and increase the speed of the associated business process execution (Schumacher, 2001). The e-business “marketplace” drives enterprises to scan the entire value chain for priorities. Suppliers using effective SCM solutions are improving their efficiency through B2B, business-to-business integration, improvements. They are finding that transaction-processing cost reductions of 20 to25% are possible by automating commerce processes with customers. The most successful companies will be those that can effectively leverage the Internet to automate, streamline, and integrate all business processes—from product development and supply chain management to sales and marketing—to enable intra- and inter-enterprise collaboration and business process flows. Supporting such activities will require a new generation of online marketplaces (emarkets) that can enable buyers and suppliers to automate and streamline product development, supply chain planning, procurement, and transportation management collaboration through an integrated, Web-based platform. This new collaborative commerce e-market will benefit enterprises by reducing variances in supply and demand, shrinking product development cycles, and streamlining processes by delivering a transparent view of demand, production plans, supply, and capacity status to all trading partners.
Multilingual Content for E-Commerce Organizations need the next-generation interface technology that enables multiple forms of input, such as text and speech, and multiple forms of output that are appropriate for a specific application and device. Multimodal technology enables an enterprise to create rich user interactions. Firms wishing to trade globally may have to consider providing content in a number of languages (MacLeod, 2000). Providing multilingual content for e-commerce is not easy. A firm wishing to trade with companies mainly within Europe or countries speaking French, German, or Spanish could use a translator to create several versions when a Web site starts up, but what happens when the site needs updating or a supplier sends an e-mail query in their own language? The ecommerce portal should have the capacity to manage multiple languages concurrently and have features of customizing solutions in different languages.
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Security Technologies Security is absolutely paramount to the functionality provided by a portal. If the portal interface is essentially a metaphor for offering the business user access to information services and digital assets, the administrator would want to ensure that only the appropriate applications and content services are being delivered to a particular business user at any given time. This requires the portal to offer the administrator and developer of the software the ability to deliver content and/or applications based on a user’s login credentials. The security services offered by the portal are the framework for the delivery of any application to any user at any given time; hence, a portal is critical to the success of any business. Security technologies should essentially protect the systems beyond the firewall by identifying suspicious activities and instantly taking action to stop hacker attacks before they cause damage to critical servers. Today’s business environment requires access through your firewall (Web, mail, DNS, FTP, etc.)—opening holes that hackers can easily exploit. With the proper security infrastructure, companies can dramatically reduce the cost of transactions, lower the cost of remote access, launch new lines of business quicker by shortening the time to market, lessen corporate risks, and effectively communicate with much wider audiences of partners, suppliers, employees, and customers (Breidenbach, 2000). The security mechanism implemented in an ecommerce portal should have a level of security to ensure the privacy and authenticity of the information being exchanged. Public key infrastructure (PKI) and secure socket layer (SSL) set all needs to be evaluated properly to offer easy and secured solutions.
Electronic Payment Systems The primary payment mechanisms for traditional commerce are cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards, and electronic funds transfer. More and more payment options are becoming available to both businesses and consumers. Smart cards, electronic checks, electronic cash, and many other electronic payment systems technologies are emerging and need interoperability across each other to support e-commerce. Right now many of these work in isolation and do require a standard for interoperability.
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Content Management In the busy world of Web site creation (intranet, extranet, Internet) where updating is often almost exponential, an effective content management system (CMS) should be in place. CMSs should manage content files (e.g., documents, pictures, etc.), structured or semi-structured data (articles, catalogs, etc.), or multimedia-type information (e.g., video presentations, sound, etc.). The real challenge faced by a CMS tool lies in implementing mechanisms that can bridge the gap between two worlds, with the mass of company information on one side and the diversity of channels that must convey this information on the other. The front-end tools as well as the databases at the back end should be such that they have capabilities to interface with any heterogeneous environment (Linderholm, 2001). Using open standards, e-commerce software should provide a common e-business language to offer a total solution. By providing
Figure 1. Framework for an enterprise-wide e-commerce portal for evolving organizations Knowledge Management
Customers' Integration
ERP Integration
Suppliers' Integration
Middleware to convert into customized applications
Content Management—standards and interface with all protocols
Database design
Messaging Technologies
Multilingual Features
Security Standards
EPS
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standard processes for the electronic exchange of business information, companies—regardless of size—optimize their trading networks should realize the full potential of the digital economy (Schoonmaker, 2001). Software should be able to import structured data into XML from document archives, legacy report files, databases, spreadsheets, or other applications. This would allow the use of available information from existing systems, rather than reprogramming or replacement. Data converted into standard, self-defining XML can then be used in a grand variety of ways.
Middleware Middleware is a class of software technology designed to help manage the complexity and heterogeneity inherent in distributed systems. It is defined as a layer of software above the operating system but below the application program that provides a common programming abstraction across a distributed system. In doing so, it provides a higher-level building block for programmers than Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), such as sockets that are provided by the operating system. This significantly reduces the burden on application programmers by relieving them of this kind of tedious and errorprone programming. Middleware is sometimes informally called “plumbing” because it connects parts of a distributed application with data pipes and then passes data between them. Middleware always masks heterogeneity of networks and hardware (Bernstein, 1996; Campbell, Coulson, & Kounavis, 1999). The intelligent middleware approach can interface between the various terminals, and the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) or information management system resides on a separate server that could save a company tens of thousands of dollars in interfacing between varieties of equipment and software (Stehle, 2001).
Information Extraction (IE) Software Utility for KM Today organizations are turning to tools like the Web, search engines, and Lotus Notes to help them with their KM problems. But the problems are far from solved. Some of the main ones are: most knowledge is still recorded as unstructured natural language, with all its shortcomings of precision and conciseness; documents and, in particular, small parts of them such as sentences are often hard or impossible to find, hard to update cooperatively, and
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hard to keep coordinated; merging of information from various sources is difficult; “replication,” as used in Notes, is a very crude approach, usually too coarse-grained, lacking any AI components; most systems today offer nothing in the way of inference, semantic checking, or natural language processing; and documents are too knowledge-poor, i.e., the density of useful knowledge per megabyte (or per minute of reading) is too low, and finding and organizing them too difficult. IE is an important part of any knowledge management system. Working in conjunction with information retrieval and organization tools, machine-driven extraction is a powerful means of finding content on the Web (Davenport, Harris, & Kohli, 2001). The two main methods of information extraction technology—natural language processing and wrapper induction— can be applied in a enterprise portal design (Seely et al., 2000).
Conclusion Today’s business environment demands distributed decision-making, modular organizations, open communication, and application of employee knowledge. The escalation of intranet, extranet, and Internet resources is inundating corporations with information. Enterprise portals allow companies to contain and control this information overload while exploiting Internet ubiquity and instant access to information resources. At a time when companies are seriously considering business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, the enterprise portal has emerged as a tool to contain and control information flow from within an enterprise. An enterprise portal transforms a general-purpose PC into a selfservice desktop that provides users with a quick, flexible gateway to corporate data. Implementing an enterprise portal is complex and involves a significant amount of planning and design. Once an enterprise portal is designed properly, it can create ideal settings for the emergence of the virtual corporation. An enterprise portal can show returns on investment through increased efficiency in the work processes of the organization. This chapter provides the details of a plausible framework for an enterprise-wide e-commerce portal that organizations can adopt. The suggested framework should guide the building blocks of that industry for e-commerce portals. The framework will also guide practitioners to develop software features for e-commerce portals that organizations would be looking for.
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References Back, W. E., & Moreau, K. A. (2001). Information management strategies for project management. Project Management Journal, 32(1), 10-19. Bernstein P. (1996). Middleware: A model for distributed system services. Communications of the ACM, 39(2), 86-98. Borck, J. R. (2001). Next-generation portals. Retrieved from http:// iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/06/11/010611opborck.xml Borck, J. R. (2002). InfoWorld technology of the year: Web services. InfoWorld, 24(5), 48. Breidenbach, S. (2000, August 21). Security tools: Keeping ahead of the cybercrooks. Informationweek, (800), 136-138. Campbell, A., Coulson, G., & Kounavis, M. (1999). Managing complexity: Middleware explained. IT Professional, 1(5), 22-28. Ceri, S. Fraternali, P., & Bongio, A. (2000). Web Modeling Language (WebML): A modeling language for designing Web sites. Computer Networks, 33(1-6), 137-157. Cloete, M., & Snyman, R. (2003). The enterprise portal—Is it knowledge management? Aslib Proceedings, 55(4), 234-242. Cox, J. (2000, July 31). E-commerce changing the face of databases. Network World, 17(31), 38. Davenport , T. H. , Harris, G. J., & Kohli A. K. (2001). How do they know their customers so well? Sloan Management Review, 42(2), 63-73. Deloitte Consulting Survey. (2002). Directions in collaborative commerce: Managing the extended enterprise. Deloitte Consulting. Duffy, J. (2001). The tools and technologies needed for knowledge management. Information Management Journal, 35(1), 64-67. Ferguson, C., & Pemberton, J. M. (2000). Knowledge management. Information Management Journal, 34(3), 42-46. Frost, J. P. (2001). Web technologies for information management. Information Management Journal, 35(4), 34-38. Gibbs, M. (2002). Saponifying Web services. Network World, 19(11), 38. Goh, D. H., Ang, R. P., & Sikand, P. (2003). Building a portal for reusable software components with Microsoft SharePoint Server: Design, imple-
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mentation and experiences in Singapore. Electronic Library and Information Systems, 37(3), 158-168. Goldman, S.L., Nagel, R.N., & Preiss, K. (1995). Agile competitors and virtual organizations. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Gupta, J. N. D., & Sharma, S. K. (2003). Globalization and information management strategy. In H. Bidgoli (Ed.), Encyclopedia of information systems, (Vol. 2, pp. 475-487). Academic Press. Haeckel, S. H., & Nolan, R. L. (1995). Managing by wire: Using IT to transform a business from “make and sell” to “sense and respond.” In J. Luftman (Ed.), Strategic alignment in practice. Oxford University Press. Hammond, C. (2001, February 5). The intelligent enterprise. InfoWorld, 23(6), 45-46. Hansen, M. T., & Oetinger, B. V. (2001). Introducing t-shaped managers: Knowledge management’s next generation Harvard Business Review, 79(3), 106-116. Hille, E. (2001). The 10 rules for evaluating an e-mail management solution. Customer Inter@ction Solutions, 19(8), 50-54. Hoven, J. V. D. (2001). Information resource management: Foundation for knowledge management. Information Systems Management, 18(2), 80-87. Howard, S. (2003). Web portals: The future of information access and distribution. Serials Librarian, 44(1/2), 27-36. Huff, S. L. (1992). The influence of senior leadership and IT infrastructures. Information Systems, Research, 35(3), 23-37. Jones, G. (2001). E-mail management technologies: A purchaser’s primer. Customer Inter@ction Solutions, 19(8), 56-59. Keen, P. G. W. (1991). Shaping the future: Business design through information technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Koulopoulos, T. (1995). The workflow imperative—Building real world business solutions. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Linderholm, O. (2001, February 19). Different routes to content management. InfoWorld, 23(8), 44.
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Mack, R., Ravin, Y., & Byrd, R. J. (2001). Knowledge portals and the emerging digital knowledge workplace. IBM Systems Journal, 40(4), 925-956. MacLeod, M. (2000). Language barriers. Supply Management, 5(14), 3738. Malhotra, Y. (1998). Knowledge management for the new world of business. Journal for Quality and Participation, 21(4), 58-60. Malhotra, Y. (2000). Knowledge management for e-business performance. Information Strategy: The Executives Journal, 16(4), 5-16. Malhotra, Y. (in press). Integrating knowledge management technologies in organizational business processes: Getting real time enterprises to deliver real business performance. Journal of Knowledge Management. Meehan, M. & Copeland, L. (2002). Understanding the value of Web services. eWeek, 19(3), 39. Meister, F., Patel, J., & Fenner, J. (2000, October 23). E-commerce platforms mature. Informationweek, (809), 99-108. Moore, C. (2001). Portal power. Retrieved from http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/ articles/fe/xml/01/06/11/010611feknowledge.xml Pickett, R. A., & Hamre, W. B. (2002). Building portals for higher education. New Directions for Institutional Research, (113), 37-56. Reich, Y., Konda, S., Subrahmanian, E., Cunningham, D., Dutoit, A., Patrick, R., Thomas, M., & Westerberg, A. W. (1999). Building agility for developing agile design information systems. Research in Engineering Design, 11, 67-83. Rose, J. G. (2003). The joys of enterprise portals. The Information Management Journal, 37(5), 64-72. Rosen, M. (2000). Enterprise portals: A single point of access to corporate data. Software Magazine, 20(5), 22-24. Ruppel, C. P., & Harrington, S. J. (2001). Sharing knowledge through intranets: A study of organizational culture and intranet implementation. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 44(1), 37-52. Saatcioglu, K., Stallaert, J., & Whinston, A. B. (2001). Design of a financial portal. Communications of the ACM, 44(6), 33-39. Schoonmaker, M. (2001, March 12). Rosettanet standards provide full e-biz process architecture. Ebn, (1253), 43.
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Schultz, B. (2002). Assembling a top-of-the-line Web services model. Network World, 19(7), 56-58. Schumacher, E. (2001). Collaborative logistics. Traffic World, 265(8), 29. Seely, J. B., & Duguid, P. (2000). KM’s future in the e-world. Information World Review, (158), 8. Spring, M., & Sweeting, R. C. (2002). Empowering customers: Portals, supply networks and assemblers. International Journal of Technology Management, 23(1/2/3), 113-129. Staab, S., & Maedche, A. (2001). Knowledge portals. AI Magazine, 22(2), 63-76. Starasta, L. (2002). Portals to the world. Online Information Review, 26(5), 357-359. Stehle, D. (2001). System performance depends on middleware. Material Handling Management, 56(2), ADF4-6. Stratigos, A. (2001). Knowledge management meets future information users. Online, 25(1), 65-67. Talley, B., & Mitchell, L. (2000). Which product should you choose to quickly develop a database-driven commerce site? InfoWorld, 22(38), 82. Watson, J., & Fenner, J. (2000). Understanding portals. Information Management Journal, 34(3), 18-22. Wingenroth, B. (1999). The evolving organization. Quality Congress. ASQC Annual Quality Congress Proceedings, 58. Zahir, S., Dobring, B., & Hunter, M. G. (2002). Cross-cultural dimensions of Internet portals. Internet Research, 12(3), 210-221.
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Chapter VII
Portals in Large Enterprises Ian Searle RMIT University, Australia
Abstract This chapter discusses two aspects of the use of portals by large corporations: the roles of portals set up by corporations and the use made by corporations of portals other than their own. The purposes for which large enterprises have built Internet portals are identified as: public corporate information, product information, customer service, selling, supply chain management, and business to employee. Each of these types of portals is examined with examples being drawn from a range of Australian and international large corporate Internet sites. The uses of portals by large enterprises provided by other companies are discussed, including: the development and demise of collective procurement portals (corProcure, Cyberlynx, eSteel, MetalSite, and the like) and the slow development of supply chain management portals. A number of directions for further research are suggested, including: large enterprise plans for collective procurement portals in the late 1990s, the potential of supply chain portals that are not dominated by a single buyer, and the potential for increased transparency in the supply chain by development of supply chain management portals.
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What Is an “Enterprise Portal”? The term “Internet portal” had reasonably wide currency during the “dot-com” boom. The term was often used with a good deal of enthusiasm but with an indeterminate meaning. The enthusiasm was particularly evident among some marketers and managers who had recently “discovered” the Internet but whose grasp of the finer detail of wide area networking was sadly lacking. “Portal” was often associated with such terms as “vortal” and “hortal.” Such people tended to look pityingly on others, particularly “technical types,” who professed to have no knowledge of these words.1 So, what is a portal, especially one that might be used by large corporations? The generic word “portal” evokes ideas of a doorway, a gateway, an opening, or the entrance of a tunnel (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000; Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1998). When applied to an essentially undirected and chaotic entity, like the Internet, the notion develops into that of a guide (one that protects against disorder and that can direct the traveller towards her eventual goal) or a tunnel (something that provides a clear and safe path through chaos to an ultimate destination). The portal is the first port of call that connects the Internet adventurer to the way forward. Thus more recent dictionary definitions of “portal” as applied to the Internet are: A website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to a search engine. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) A web site that aims to be an entry point to the World-Wide Web, typically offering a search engine and/or links to useful pages, and possibly news or other services. These services are usually provided for free in the hope that users will make the site their default home page or at least visit it often. Popular examples are Yahoo and MSN. Most portals on the Internet exist to generate advertising income for their owners, others may be focused on a specific group of users and may be part of an intranet or extranet. Some may just concentrate on one particular subject, say technology or medicine, and are known as a vertical portals. (Free On-line Dictionary, 2003, World Wide Web entry)
The above descriptions of Internet portals appear to have no obvious connection with large corporations. •
Large corporations, as a rule, do not seek to become the first port of call, the “home page,” of every Internet user. Thus they do not seek to become
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portals themselves, unless it is for their own employees (more of that later). It seems unlikely that corporations are significant users of portals designed for “everyday” users of the Internet. Some of their employees may have HotMail or Yahoo! e-mail accounts that they access while at work. However, such use hardly seems related to the corporations’ core business.
Chaffey (2002) describes a number of types of portals, as shown in Table 1. Some of the types of portals in the list seem to be of little interest to corporations. •
•
•
Access portals (really Internet service providers’ (ISP) Web sites) are of no interest, as large corporations do not use “retail-grade” ISPs. Most corporation employees are unaware of which company provides their company’s network services.2 Horizontal or functional portals (such as Yahoo! and Google) are of no particular interest to corporations, although their employees may well use these portals for their own purposes during working hours. Regional portals, such as Countryweb and Geocities, have been largely absorbed into horizontal or functional portals (Countrywide into Register.com and Geocities into Yahoo!).
Table 1. Types of portals (Chaffey, 2002, p. 43) Type of Portal Access portal Horizontal or functional portal
Vertical Geographical (regional, country, local area) Marketplace Media type
Characteristics Associated with ISP Range of services: search engines, directories, news recruitment, personal information management, shopping, etc. May cover a single function, e.g., news and industry sector May be: horizontal or vertical
Example Freeserve (www.freserve.net) Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) Excite (www.excite.com) Lycos (www.lycos.com)
May be: horizontal, vertical, or geographical Voice portal Streaming media portal
Marketsite (www.marketsite.net) PlasticsNet (www.plastics.net)
Moreover (www.moreover.com) Chemdex (www.chemdex.com) Yahoo! country versions Countryweb (www.countryweb.com)
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Other types of portals may be of some interest to corporations. •
•
•
Vertical portals (“vortals” to some) may be of interest. In the late 1990s, there was considerable discussion about the possibilities of vertical portals, which would give corporations access to specialised procurement facilities. Marketplace portals (“hortals”) were similarly promoted as being a possible benefit for corporations for less specialised procurement. Marketplaces were differentiated from vertical portals in their degree of specialisation. Vertical portals were to provide specialist or niche services such as metals, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Marketplaces were to deal with less esoteric products such as office supplies. Media-type portals have some interest for corporations when they provide information required for decision making within management. Such portals may offer aggregated corporate news services (Moreover, 2003) and financial information (ASX, 2003; NYSE, 2003).
However, although portals, in the “usual” sense of the term, may have some relevance to large enterprises, they are not central to their operation. So, what sense can be made of the term “large enterprise portal”? This chapter will be discussing two aspects of the use of portals by large corporations. •
•
We will be examining the roles of portals set up by corporations. The term “portal” is used a little differently from the way it is defined above. Instead of being the first port of call to the Internet, a corporate portal is the first port of call to the corporation’s Internet site. Actually, we are using the term in an even wider sense than the gateway to a corporate Internet site. We are extending the term to include the whole of the corporate Internet site. This definition includes the “public” site (the part of the corporate Web site that is available to all Internet users) and the “restricted” site (that part of the site that is available only to selected people—shareholders, employees, customers, and suppliers). We will also examine the use made by corporations of portals other than their own. In this case, the term “portal” is used as described by Chaffey (Table 1), with particular reference to “vortals,” “hortals,” and media portals.
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What Is a “Large Enterprise”? The other term that requires some explanation is “large enterprise.” The size of enterprises is usually defined in terms of revenue, market capitalisation, workforce, or some such in comparison to a particular market. Thus Fortune 500, the common benchmark in the United States of America for identifying large companies, is defined as: An annual list of the 500 largest industrial corporations in the U.S., published by Fortune magazine. The corporations are ranked based on such metrics as revenues, profits, and market value. (Investorwords.com, 2003, entry for Fortune 500)
The problem is, because of the small size of the Australian market, even the National Australia Bank and BHP Billiton would not qualify for inclusion in the Fortune 500 if they were American companies. It may be possible to use other definitions, such as inclusion in the Australian Stock Exchange’s All Ordinaries Index (Australian Parliament House Library, 2001). However, such a definition would exclude from consideration some large private companies, such as the Tenix Group. A less precise, but hopefully useful, definition has been adopted in this chapter. We have considered an organization to be a “large enterprise” if it has, in Australian terms, a large workforce (over 2,000) and assets in the AUD billion region or more. Of course, defining “large enterprise” in an Australian context does not mean that only Australian corporations will be discussed in this chapter. Examples of corporate portals have been drawn from many regions. The meaning of “large enterprise” will depend on the context in which the organization operates.
Enterprise Portals In this section we examine Internet portals that large enterprises have built as gateways to their own World Wide Web sites. Corporation portals cannot be readily differentiated from corporate Web sites. Most sites do not use the term
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Figure 1. Fragment of BHP Billiton Web site showing use of the term “home” (BHP Billiton, 2003b)
“portal,” although they may use the term “home page,” as can be seen from the fragment from the BHP Billiton site shown in Figure 1. The Coles Myer portal also refers to itself as “home.” This site is illustrated in Figure 2 as being a good example of a portal that provides an entrée to quite a wide range of facilities, including corporate and consumer information and business-to-commerce electronic commerce facilities.
Figure 2. Coles Myer portal (Coles Myer, 2003b)
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How can one differentiate the portal, or the gateway, from the site to which it provides access? This author is of the opinion that the distinction is not likely to be fruitful and does not differentiate between the term “portal” and the rest of the associated Web sites. We have identified the following purposes for which large enterprises have built Internet portals: • • • • • •
Public corporate information. Product information. Customer service. Selling. Supply chain management. Business to employee.
Each of these purposes for portals is examined in the following sections. Our discussion includes a number of examples of each type of portal. We do not attempt to be exhaustive or comprehensive in identifying corporations who use each type of portal. Our examples are provided to illustrate how a representative sample of corporations uses their portals. Our examination is drawn from the following sources: •
Exploration of representative publicly available enterprise portals, based on: • Our previous background knowledge and industry experience. • A survey of the available literature on enterprise portals. • Discussions with past colleagues who have been or who are currently involved with enterprise portals and supply chain management.
Corporate Information Portals Corporate portals, in the main, were originally established as a means of publishing information about the corporation—a kind of electronic glossy
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Figure 3. BHP Billiton (2003a) portal
brochure (O’Leary, 2002). While many companies have expanded their portals beyond their initial purpose, the marketing and public relations functions are still important. As an example of a corporate information portal, consider one of Australia’s most prominent resource companies, BHP Billiton (2003a). Figure 3 is a snapshot of the “home page” of the BHP Billiton portal. The page highlights recent news releases and gives access to a large quantity of additional information (64 categories) by means of links from the news items and from a navigation bar augmented by a “breadcrumb” trail. Figure 4. BHP Billiton portal navigation bar
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Figure 5. Expanded navigation bar in BHP Billiton portal
Information provided includes: • • • •
• • • • •
Contact information: address of major offices and e-mail addresses of main contact points. Company overview and charter. Annual reports. Corporate governance (corporate constitution, memorandum and articles, corporate governance statement, board committees, membership details and their terms of reference and core policies). Investment information (news, presentations, reports, shareholder information, financial information). News releases and presentation. Marketing and product information. Environmental and safety information. Human resource and recruitment information.
Another example of a corporate information portal is that of Australia’s largest retail corporation, Coles Myer.3 This portal is illustrated in Figure 6. In fact, this is a portal within a portal, as it is reached from the main Coles Myer portal (see Figure 2). A set of expanding menus provides a portfolio of information.
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Figure 6. Coles Myer corporate portal (Coles Myer, 2003b)
Figure 7. Expanding menus in Coles Myer corporate portal (Coles Myer, 2003b).
Another example on similar lines is the large, privately owned Australian company Tenix. This site (see Figure 8) has a similar array of menu items leading to information about the company, its products, and its capabilities. Some corporations choose to highlight their global operations in their portals. For example, the 3M portal (Figure 9) features its worldwide credentials with a world map (albeit an Atlantic-centric view of the world) that helps the viewer to select an area of the world in which 3M operates. The 3M portal also has links to corporate information (Figure 10), product information, corporate news, and investor information (Figure 11).
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Figure 8. Tenix Corporation portal (Tenix, 2003)
Figure 9. 3M portal (3M, 2003d)
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Figure 10. 3M corporate information (3M, 2003e)
Figure 11. 3M investor relations information (3M, 2003b)
Regional portals (Figures 12 and 13) have links to regional corporate and product information. A similar pattern is to be observed with other global corporations (see Figures 14, 15, 16 and 17). However, not all companies with worldwide presence have global portals. For example, the Kellogg Company portal has minimal reference to Kellogg’s international activities. The main portal emphasises the company’s major
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Figure 12. 3M United States portal
Figure 13. 3M Australian portal
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Figure 14. IBM portal (IBM, 2003b)
Figure 15. HP portal (HP, 2003b)
Figure 16. Royal Dutch/Shell Group portal (Shell, 2003)
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Figure 17. Royal Dutch/Shell Group “Shell Worldwide” page (Shell, 2003)
products, although there are links to corporate information through a menu bar on the top of the major pages in the site (Kellogg, 2003c). There is a menu item to “Kellogg Around the World” on the Kellogg Company home page (Kellogg, 2003b). However the page linked to the menu only provides a form where visitors can request e-mail information (Kellogg, 2003a). Nevertheless, Kellogg does have an international presence, and a number of regional subsidiary companies have their own portals, each with their own corporate information.
Figure 18. Kellogg US company information (Kellogg, 2003b)
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Figure 19. Kellogg Australia company information (Kellogg, 2003h)
Figure 20. Kellogg UK company information (Kellogg, 2003f)
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Product Information Portals Some corporations use their portals principally to promote their products. While some of these portals may provide an opportunity for customers to purchase products online, the main emphasis is on providing information about products. Indeed, many large enterprises eschew selling their products online in order to avoid channel conflict with their resellers (Caisse, 1998; Faletra, 2001; Zarley, 2002). However, product promotion online does not create channel conflict; rather, it has the potential to enhance the performance of resellers. The next section examines some product-oriented large-enterprise portals. The Kellogg Company portal has been mentioned previously (Figures 18, 19 and 20). The previous reference was regarding globalisation of corporate information portals (or the lack of it in Kellogg’s case). The reason for lack of global emphasis is apparent in the heavy product emphasis of this portal (see Figure 21). The product information available from this portal appears to be fairly “lightweight.” Three quarters of the first page of the portal is about competitions
Figure 21. Kellogg’s US portal (Kellogg, 2003c)
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Figure 22. Sample of Kellogg’s (US) product information
rather than products. A list of products is available through a drop-down menu—to a fairly minimal set of information (Figure 22). Regional portals have a similar emphasis on product while supplying considerably more information than the US site (see Figures 23, 24, 25 and 26).
Figure 23. Kellogg’s Australia portal (Kellogg, 2003i)
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Figure 24. Sample of Kellogg’s (Aust) product information (Kellogg, 2003g)
Figure 25. Kellogg’s United Kingdom portal (Kellogg, 2003d)
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Figure 26. Sample of Kellogg’s (UK) product information (Kellogg, 2003e)
Computer and electronic equipment manufacturers typically have product information portals. An example of such a portal is Palm Australia (Figure 27). Although this portal has a link to company information (top right side of the page), the overwhelming emphasis is on products and service. The “Products” link on the top of the page leads to further information and specifications of the product range. The “informational” nature of the portal, as opposed to any attempt at electronic commerce (i.e., direct selling), is emphasised by the “Where to Buy” link on the “Products” page. Rather than creating channel conflict by attempting to sell directly to consumers, Palm management directs potential purchasers to an extensive (over 700) list of resellers. Links to resellers’ Web sites are also provided so that potential customers can check availability and price.4
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Figure 27. Palm Australia portal (Palm, 2003c)
Figure 28. Palm Australia products (Palm, 2003a)
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Figure 29. Palm Australia product comparison (Palm, 2003b)
Other large equipment suppliers provide similar product information portals, including, • • • • • • •
Hewlett Packard (http://welcome.hp.com/country/au/eng/welcome.html) IBM (http://www.ibm.com/au/) Dell (http://www.ap.dell.com/ap/au/en/gen/default.htm) Sony (http://www.sony.com.au/) JVC (http://www.jvc.com/ and http://www.jvc-asia.com/main/default.asp) Toshiba (http://www.toshiba.com.au/) Some product-oriented portals go beyond merely presenting information about their products and seek to target a particular market segment and attempt to build customer loyalty by building a sense of community (O’Leary, 2002). For example, Coles (part of the Coles Myer group) promotes the “Coles Baby Club” within its portal (see Figure 30).
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Figure 30. Fragment of the Coles portal (Coles, 2003a)
The “Baby Club” (see Figure 31) offers memberships with a quarterly magazine and information leaflets endorsed by health authorities, such as the Royal Children’s Hospital. There are also links to other sites (such as Johnson & Johnson) and to competitions run by baby product suppliers. The offering of memberships and the use of the term “Club” are attempts to create a sense of community. O’Leary (2002) identifies the Johnson & Johnson-owned portal “Baby Center” (Johnson & Johnson, 2003a) as being an example of a portal designed to attract and retain customer loyalty. The portal provides links to an extensive set Figure 31. Coles Baby Club (Coles, 2003b)
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Figure 32. Johnson & Johnson Baby Center portal
of information, including information on pregnancy, parenting and health; chat forums; product advertisements; and so on. The “community” quality of the portal is enhanced by offers of membership and personalization. However, in spite of the “community” and “service” flavour of the portal, the purpose of the portal is quite commercial. Access to the Baby Center portal (see Figure 32) also opens a window to the “Baby Center Store” (Johnson & Johnson, 2003b). Babies and pregnancy appear to be popular (or lucrative) topics for portals (O’Leary, 2002) with similar sites being provided by Procter & Gamble (2003; see Figure 33). Figure 33. Pampers.com portal (Procter & Gamble, 2003)
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Figure 34. Huggies Australian portal (Kimberly-Clark, 2003)
To demonstrate that product portals with a community flavour are not limited to reproduction and women’s health (Tampax, 2003), Ford has a portal dedicated to the motor racing fraternity (see Figure 35). Figure 35. Ford Racing portal (Ford Motor Company, 2003)
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Figure 36. Fragment from www.ford.racing.com (Ford Motor Company, 2003)
Ford’s portal is similar to the baby and health sites in that the site offers links to information of interest to the target audience—links to major events, news items, links to related sites (http://www.greatclips.com), competitions, and membership facilities. And in keeping with the commercial nature of the portal, there are links to other Ford sites. O’Leary (2002) refers to the Orbitz portal (owned by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United airlines; see Figure 37) as being a reference site for vacation, resort, and travel information. Like the other sites, it provides a multiplicity of links to information, as well as loyalty rewards and membership. The Orbitz portal is, however, not different in content and style from other Australian travel portals (see Figures 38 and 39) supported by companies much smaller than the group sponsoring Orbitz.
Figure 37. Orbitz travel portal (Orbitz, 2003)
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Figure 38. Travelworld Australian portal (Traveland, 2003)
Figure 39. Flight Centre Australia portal (Flight Centre, 2003)
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Customer Service Portals Some companies combine their product information portals with the provision of after-sales and other services. In the last section we looked at the Palm Inc. portal as an example of a product information portal. Palm also provides aftersales service and product support through its portal. Services include product registration, product instructions and processes, troubleshooting assistance, knowledge library, and customer support e-mail. These services are demonstrated in the illustrations of the Palm support pages (Figures 40 and 41). One of the better-known support portals is that of Sun Microsystems (Figure 42). Sun provides extensive support for its products, including downloadable products and updates and patches to its software. In addition, Sun supports an extensive developer and system administrator community with a large range of software (including the low-cost StarOffice suite), development tools (includ-
Figure 40. Palm Australia support page (Palm 2003d)
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Figure 41. Palm Australia e-mail support page (Palm 2003e)
Figure 42. Sun Microsystems portal (Sun, 2003a)
ing Java Software Development Kits and Integrated Development Environments), and utilities, much of it at no or low cost. Figure 43 illustrates some of the software available from the Sun portal. Other equipment companies also provide support through their portals, as shown in Figures 44, 45, 46 and 47.
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Figure 43. Fragment from Sun Microsystems Download Center
Figure 44. IBM Australia support page (IBM, 2003a)
Figure 45. HP Australia support page (HP, 2003a)
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Figure 46. Sony Australia support page (Sony, 2003)
Figure 47. Nokia Australia support page (Nokia, 2003)
Selling Portals We define a “selling portal” as an Internet Web site whose primary purpose is to sell goods online or to direct potential customers to Internet locations where goods are sold online. For the purposes of this discussion we are considering:
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• •
Portals established by large corporations. Portals used or likely to be used by large corporations.
We are excluding consumer-oriented portals that are not managed by large corporations, such as Yahoo! However, we are including NineMSN on the basis that both Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and Microsoft are large corporations. We are dealing with selling portals as two main categories: •
•
Consumer-oriented portals – portals that aim to sell to the general public. Selling online to the general public is frequently referred to as “businessto-consumer e-commerce,” or “B2C.” Business-oriented portals – portals that aim to sell to businesses. Business-oriented e-commerce is often termed “business-to-business ecommerce,” or “B2B.”
Business-to-Consumer Portals This section looks at two B2C portals: Coles Myer and NineMSN. Coles Myer is chosen as it represents a large retail chain that uses its portal to direct customers to their own stores. NineMSN has no significant retailing interests and acts as a gateway to a range of subscribing retailers. Figure 48 illustrates the main Coles Myer portal. This portal gives access to its chain of retail stores (bottom two panels) as well as to corporate news (top panel) and its corporate information portal (top right tab, see also Figure 6). The middle panel is the online selling portal, as it gives access to stores that sell online.5 Outlets include: •
Three supermarket outlets. These outlets serve a restricted area in Sydney and Melbourne. This restriction results from the high cost of delivering bulky and perishable items. It is interesting that the portal does not attempt to differentiate the various supermarket outlets.
•
Two liquor outlets, again with no clear differentiation. Delivery areas are not restricted although freight is charged. An office supplies outlet. A computer store.
• •
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Figure 48. Coles Myer portal (Coles Myer, 2003b)
Figure 49. Coles Online (2003)
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Figure 50. ShopFast (2003)
Figure 51. Vintage Cellars (2003)
Figure 52. Liquorland (2003)
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Figure 53. Harris Technology (2003)
Figure 54. OfficeWorks (2003)
NineMSN’s portal (Figure 55) is more “general purpose” than Coles Myer’s. It provides access to a range of services and information centred on news and the television programs offered through the Nine Network. However, there are links to shopping facilities through a link on a menu and a tab on the top of the page.
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Figure 55. NineMSN portal (NineMSN, 2003b)
The “Shopping” links lead to the shopping portal (Figure 56). The portal provides a catalogue of goods from 36 retailers. Selecting an item on the catalogue takes the potential customer to the Web site of the retailer, where the goods may be purchased online. The portal does not provide other services, such as order consolidation or a payment gateway.
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Figure 56. NineMSN shopping portal (NineMSN, 2003a)
Business-to-Business Portals At least one large Australian enterprise provides a business-to-business selling portal for its customers. The portal is the Westpac Banking Corporation’s B2Buy portal (Figure 57). The B2Buy portal is provided as part of Westpac’s Business Banking service. The portal is promoted to Westpac’s business customers but is available for use
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Figure 57. Information page from the Westpac B2Buy portal (Westpac, 2003)
by non-Westpac customers. The portal differs from business-to-consumer portals in a number of ways. •
•
•
Businesses are required to register with Westpac (this process can be done online). The registration process is designed to instil confidence in merchants that customers will not default on payments. The portal provides payment services. • Credit card transactions for goods purchased through the portal are processed automatically through the portal’s Internet credit card gateway. Credit card details are not given to merchants. • Payment may be made by direct entry (bank-to-bank transfer) as an option for merchants and customers. The portal has its own aggregating catalogue that allows customers to conduct cross-merchant searches. Cross-merchant searches allow cus-
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•
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tomers to find merchants that provide the goods they are seeking and to compare prices. Goods purchased from a number of merchants in the same session are consolidated into one order. The portal then manages de-consolidation and payment processing. Customers using direct entry facilities can view and control their payment schedule using a graphical user interface (Searle, 2003).
Another example of a selling portal is Australia Post’s corProcure portal (Figure 58). CorProcure provides sourcing for office machinery, office products, safety equipment, travel, HR services, and couriers. It hosts auction and catalogue services (Lassen, 2002).
Figure 58. Australia Post’s corProcure
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Supply Chain Portals Supply chain portals are created to expedite the management of the supply chain. Supply chain management includes, among other things, procurement, logistics, inventory, and payment. In addition, the function of supply chain portals can be extended to include management of information flows between business partners, such as the management of documents: specifications, drawings, and maps. We have identified two categories of what we term “supply chain portals.” •
•
Some portals, which we have termed “collective procurement portals,” were established as joint ventures of a number of large companies. The aim of setting up these portals was for corporations to be able to aggregate their purchasing power to obtain the best possible price from their suppliers. Not only would buying companies enjoy the benefit of lower prices and streamlined purchasing processes, suppliers would gain by increased sales volumes and simplified ordering processes. Some corporations install portals to help manage their supply chains. These portals link companies with their customers and suppliers.
Collective Procurement Portals During the height of the “dot-com” boom, a number of corporations banded together to create business-to-business portals. Examples of such portal ventures in Australia were: •
•
•
Cyberlynx Procurement Services, a joint venture of Commonwealth Bank, Lion Nathan, Woolworths, EDS Australia, and Telecom New Zealand Group aimed to reduce purchasing costs for the participating companies (Banking Technology, 2002). Qantas Ventures (Qantas and Telstra), aimed to “lower purchasing costs in a range of areas such as catering and engineering maintenance, similar ... to … corProcure” (Presswire, 2002). CorProcure was established by 14 shareholders: BHP, Amcor, AMP, ANZ, Australia Post, Coca-Cola Amatil, Coles Myer, Foster’s, Goodman
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Fielder, Orica, Pacific Dunlop, Qantas, Telstra, and Wesfarmers (BHP, 2000a, 2000c). According to a BHP press release: “CorProcure is an independent, stand-alone, Internet-based indirect goods and services marketplace open to all existing and new suppliers. The type of goods and services that will be available through corProcure include office supplies, travel services, packaging, telecommunications, etc.” (BHP 2000c)
It is interesting to note that some companies were involved with more than one of these ventures. Qantas was involved with corProcure and its own Qantas Ventures. BHP was a corProcure shareholder and also formed an alliance with Metiom Inc. to build a procurement marketplace for its SME suppliers and for logistics services (BHP, 2000d). It also signed an agreement with e-Steel (2002). Similar marketplaces were set up in the United States. The most notable is eSteel. This portal was to provide a market for the steel industry, both for selling steel products and as a supply chain provider for the steel industry. Other similar ventures in the same industry were MetalSite (LTV, Weirton, and Bethlehem Steel), Global Steel Exchange (GSX; Duferco and Cargill), and FerrousExchange (Ispat). The fate of these portals is quite instructive. E-Steel moved away from direct trading to be a vendor of software solutions (Bowe & Tait, 2001). MetalSite suspended operations in 2001 (Barlas, 2001; Ericson, 2001) but is operational again after being taken over by Management Science Associates (MSA) in October 2001 (MetalSite, 2002). GSX was acquired by MSA in July 2002 (MetalSite). FerrousExchange has ceased to exist. The history of Australian portals also is interesting. Cyberlynx disappeared without trace. Qantas Ventures almost suffered a similar fate, except that one of its goals, selling Qantas tickets online, was achieved. CorProcure failed as a major initiative for most of its shareholders and was eventually acquired by Australia Post. BHP’s ventures with Metiom and e-Steel came to nothing.
Supply Chain Management Portals Supply chain management portals differ from the other portals discussed in this chapter. It could be argued that they do not qualify for the term “portal” at all because: Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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• • • •
They do not accord with the usually accepted definition of a portal as being an entry point for users of the Internet. They are largely hidden from public view, with their URLs not being made public. They are accessible only to selected business partners of the hosting corporation. However, there are some examples of this type of “portal” being successful, which is not surprising as this approach to electronic commerce is essentially an extension of the mature Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) technology (Chan & Swatman, 1999, 2000).
Raol, Koong, Lui and Yu (2002) cite several successful implementations of supply chain portals, including Herman Miller, AT&T, and J.D. Edwards. Supply chain portals also differ from other portals in the degree of integration between the portal and applications operating within the corporate network. Figure 59 illustrates the outward-facing (to business partners through the Internet) and inward-facing (to the corporate business applications and operations) aspects of portal interfaces. Supply chain management portals are used to: • • • • •
Transmit purchase orders to suppliers. Receive orders from customers. Receive invoices from suppliers. Send invoices to customers. Manage logistics and order tracking.
Tenix Alliance (a division of Tenix) is in the process of developing a supply chain portal as part of a campaign to increase the efficiency of its supply chain in its maintenance projects6 (McCarthy, 2002). The portal development is part of a series of measures designed to: • •
Reduce the cost of procurement and accounts payable. Streamline the supply chain within Tenix and between Tenix and its suppliers.
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Figure 59. Corporate portal framework (Raol et al., 2002)
•
Minimise the inventory of maintenance materials stored in company depots in outer suburban and regional Victoria.
One of the key aspects of the campaign is to minimise the time between placing an order and the delivery of goods to depots. The minimisation of delivery time means that smaller buffer stocks of materials are required, thus reducing inventory. One of the early functions built into the portal is a system that allows Tenix personnel to track the delivery of goods. Another is to allow logistics service providers to rapidly identify Tenix depots and to know the precise
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location where goods are to be delivered. The portal includes map locations of depots, pictures to allow easy identification of depots, and plans showing the precise location where each type of good is to be delivered. These measures, along with active expediting of the supply chain, has reduced inventory from $12 million to $3 million. BHP Steel created a portal to carry out a number of supply chain functions (Searle, 2003a). The portal allowed selected customers to: • • • • •
Search for product information and specifications. Order goods. Track the progress of orders through the manufacturing and delivery process. Collect invoices. Receive quality certificates.
As well as providing an improved service for customers, the portal provides significant savings for BHP Steel from reduced telephone enquiries. BHP Petroleum developed a portal to allow the exchange of documents with its business partners engaged in petroleum exploration (Mullett, 2003).
Business-to-Employee Portals Many companies have created intranet portals as focal points for the distribution of information through the company. These portals are normally visible from within the company network and access from the broader Internet is not permitted. An enterprise’s intranet portal, sometimes referred to as a business-toemployee portal, “serves as an electronic pathway to all business applications, giving employees access to personalized information and services in an easy to use, secure environment” (Goff, 2001). In addition, portals can provide “employee self-service” functions, particularly those related to human resource management (Leonard, 2001).
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Business-to-employee portals have been seen as agents of change much beyond information sharing and provision of services. In the early part of this century, a number of large American and Australian companies recognised the desirability of having a workforce that was able to use Internet resources effectively. Companies such as Ford, GM, Delta Airlines, and BHP made moves in this direction. Ford announced in early 2000 that its employees would be offered PCs and Internet connections for a low monthly cost (Friesen, 2002). BHP made a similar announcement in mid-2000 with the launch of the “BHP Village” (BHP, 2000b). Unfortunately, at least in BHP’s case, these initiatives foundered in the midst of the dot-com crash.
Summary In this chapter we have identified several types of portals that are used by large corporations. These types of portals are: • • • • • •
Public corporate information. Product information. Customer service. Selling. Supply chain management. Business to employee.
Public Corporation Information Portals Public corporation information portals are designed primarily to provide the public with information about the company. They are the equivalent of the corporate fact sheet or glossy brochure. Most large companies provide company information from their portal, but for some companies (examples in the chapter are BHP Billiton and Tenix) this is the main emphasis. Many global companies have regional portals as well as or instead of the principal corporate portal.
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Product Information Portals Product information portals give detailed information about the company’s products. It is the equivalent of a product brochure or product catalogue. Such portals to not attempt to sell products directly to the public so as to avoid channel conflict with their resellers. Product information portals are typically created by companies manufacturing consumer goods. Some companies seek to create a sense of community associated with their product. Prime examples of such portals are those associated with babies and women’s health although there are examples of portals associated with sport or recreational activities.
Customer Service Portals Customer service portals are often associated with product information portals and provide after-sales service for customers. Some portals in this category provide upgrades for software products and free or low-cost software. An example of such a portal is that provided by Sun Microsystems.
Selling Portals Selling portals provide access to Web sites that sell goods and services directly to consumers. Some of these portals merely provide links to merchants’ business-to-consumer sites, and the merchant transacts the actual sale. Other portals provide catalogue, transaction, and financial facilities themselves. Some portals are aimed at consumers (business-to-consumer), and others provide services for other businesses (business-to-business).
Supply Chain Portals Supply chain portals are set up by companies to collaborate with their suppliers and customers to manage their supply chains. These portals are generally not “visible” to the public, even though they use the Internet. They also differ from other types of portals in the degree of integration with corporate “back-end” systems.
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Business-to-Employee Portals Business-to-employee portals operate on corporate intranets and are designed to provide information and services for employees.
Directions for Further Research This chapter has, by and large, surveyed the “public face” of enterprise portals. For the most part, the survey drew on publicly available information. Future approaches to research on this topic could be extended to information not currently available in the public domain. Such research could include exploration of such issues as: • •
•
The role of collective procurement portals, such as corProcure, in the procurement plans of large enterprises. The potential for supply chain portals to develop from centred on requirements of large buying organizations to encompass networks of buyers and suppliers less dominated by a single large customer. The realised benefits of increased transparency in the supply chain resulting from the development of supply chain management portals.
Endnotes 1
These statements are based on the author’s observations gathered while working in a large company in the late 1990s. The company was, at that stage, making its first moves into Internet-based electronic commerce, an activity in which the author was very much involved.
2
Based on the author’s informal observations in several corporations, large and small. In any case, many ISPs have given up providing general portal services (Pacific Internet, 2003; Telstra BigPond, 2003) or sublet services from horizontal portal service providers (OzEmail, 2003).
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4
5
6
As an employer, Coles Myer with 160,000 employees (Coles Myer, 2003b) dwarfs BHP Billiton with 38,000 (BHP Billiton, 2003a), but both companies have about the same turnover (Coles Myer, AUD 19 billion; BHP Billiton, AUD 17.8 billion). Palm also quotes “street prices” for the best-sellers in its product range. In the author’s experience, the quoted prices are at the bottom of the range of prices available through resellers. Because Coles Myer owns both types of outlets, it does not create channel conflict by selling the same products online and through physical stores. Tenix provides maintenance services for utility companies, particularly electricity, gas, and water.
References All URLs were accessed in June and July 2003. 3M. (2003a). 3M Australia. Retrieved from http://www.3m.com/intl/AU/ index.jhtml 3M. (2003b). 3M company corporate overview. Retrieved from http:// www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=MMM&script=2100 3M. (2003c). 3M United States. Retrieved from http://www.3m.com/US/ index.jhtml 3M. (2003d). 3M worldwide. Retrieved from http://www.3m.com/ 3M. (2003e). About 3M. Retrieved from http://www.3m.com/about3M/ index.jhtml The American heritage dictionary of the English language (4th ed.). (2000). Houghton Mifflin. ASX. (2003). “ASX—Australian Stock Exchange. Retrieved from http:// www.asx.com.au Australia Post. (2002a). Australia Post to purchase corProcure. Retrieved from http://www.corprocure.com.au/media/aust_post_acquisition.pdf
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Australia Post. (2003b). corProcure. Retrieved from http://www.corprocure. com.au/ Australian Parliament House Library. (2001, September 27). Stock exchange all ordinaries index. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/ mesi/features/allords.htm Banking Technology. (2000, October). Cyberlynx and corProcure face-off. Banking Technology. Barlas, D. (2001, June). MatalSite suspends operations. Line56. Benjamin, R. (2003, March 25). Maximizing use of enterprise portals vital to corporate info. BusinessWorld. BHP. (2000a). Annual report. BHP. (2000b, July 17). Internet makes better BHP business [Press release]. Retrieved from the BHP Billiton Web site: http://www.bhpbilliton.com BHP. (2000c, July 5). Press release. Retrieved from the BHP Billiton Web site: http://www.bhpbilliton.com BHP. (2000d, Sepetmber 14). Press release. Retrieved from the BHP Billiton Web site: http://www.bhpbilliton.com BHP Billiton. (2003a). BHPBilliton.com. Retrieved from http:// www.bhpbilliton.com BHP Billiton. (2003b). BHPBilliton.com > Investor centre. Retrieved from http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/investorCentre/home.jsp Bowe, C., & Tait, N. (2001, March 6). Steel secore exchanges slow to take off. Financial Times. Caisse, K. (1998, April 27). HP-Dell printer pilot under channel scrutiny. Computer Reseller News. Chaffey, D. (2002). E-business and e-commerce management: Strategy, implementation and practice. Pearson Education. Chan, C. & Swatman, P. (1999). B2B e-commerce implementation: The case of BHP Steel (Working Paper). Deakin University, School of Information Systems Retrieved May 30, 2002, from http:// www.deakin.edu.au/mis/research/Working_Papers_99/ 99_11_Chan.pdf Chan, C., & Swatman, P. (2000). From EDI to Internet commerce: The BHP Steel experience. Internet Research: Electronic Applications and Policy, 10(1), 72-82.
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Coles. (2003a). Coles. Retrieved from http://www.coles.com.au/ Coles. (2003b). Coles baby club. Retrieved from http://www.coles.com.au/ babyclub/index.asp Coles Myer. (2003a). colesMyer.com corporate information. Retrieved from http://www.corporate.colesmyer.com/ Coles Myer. (2003b). colesmyer.com—Shopping. Retrieved from http:// www.colesmyer.com/ Coles Online. (2003). Coles online. Retrieved from http://157.155.162.22/ Ericson, J. (2001, June 21). Why the metals meltdown. Line56. E-Steel. (2000, November 2). BHP and e-Steel complete multi-million dollar pact to build major Australian regional e-commerce sites [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.e-steel.com/newsevents/releases/2000/11-2.html Faletra, R. (2001, July 23). The big story going forward is channel conflict management. CRN. Flight Centre. (2003). Flight Centre—Lowest airfares guaranteed. Retrieved from http://www.flightcentre.com.au/ Ford Motor Company. (2003). Ford racing: Home. Retrieved from http:// www.fordracing.com The free on-line dictionary of computing. (2003). Denis Howe. Friesen, B. (2002, March). Is your client’s company becoming a community. Consulting to Management, 12(1). GE. (2003). General Electric. Retrieved from http://www.ge.com/ Goff, J. (2001, September). Enterprising portals. Parmaceutical Executive Supplement. Harris Technology. (2003). Harris Technology. Retrieved from http:// www.ht.com.au/ HP. (2003a). HP Australia support & drivers. Retrieved from http:// welcome.hp.com/country/au/eng/support.html HP. (2003b). Welcome to HP. Retrieved from http://www.hp.com/ IBM. (2003a). IBM support & downloads—Australia. Retrieved from http:/ /www.ibm.com/support/au/ IBM. (2003b). IBM United States. Retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/us/
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Investorwords.com. (2003). Investing glossary. Retrieved from http:// www.investorwords.com Johnson & Johnson. (2003a). Baby Center. Retrieved from http:// www.babycenter.com/ Johnson & Johnson. (2003b). Baby center store. Retrieved from http:// www.babycenter.com/popunder/premiumservices.jhtml Kellogg. (2003a). Kellogg around the world. Retrieved from http:// www.kelloggs.com/kelloggco/kellogg_around_the_world/index.html Kellogg. (2003b). Kellogg Company home. Retrieved from http:// www.kelloggs.com/kelloggco/index.html Kellogg. (2003c). Kellogg’s. Retrieved from http://www.kelloggs.com/ Kellogg. (2003d). Kellogg’s onteractive. Retrieved from http:// www.kelloggs.co.uk Kellogg. (2003e). Kellogg’s interactive. Retrieved from http:// www.kelloggs.co.uk/products/product.asp?id=55 Kellogg. (2003f). Kellogg’s interactive (Kellogg’s United Kingdom). Retrieved from http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/company/index.asp Kellogg. (2003g). Welcome to Kellogg’s. Retrieved from http:// www.kellogg.com.au/DisplayPage.asp?PageID=283&brandid=6 Kellogg. (2003h). Welcome to Kellogg’s (Kellogg’s Australia). Retrieved from http://www.kelloggs.com.au/displaypage.asp?SectionID=2 Kellogg. (2003i). Welcome to Kellogg’s Australia. Retrieved from http:// www.kellogg.com.au/ Kimberly-Clark. (2003). Huggies World. Retrieved from http:// www.huggies.com/au/default.asp Lassen, H. (2002, August 20). corProcure—Posting process efficiencies and value added services. eMarket Services. Retrieved from http:// www.emarketservices.com/reports_facts/pdf/Article020820_ corProcure.PDF Leonard, B. (2001, December). Technology’s broad impact on the management of HR functions. HR Magazine. Liquorland. (2003). Liquorland Direct. Retrieved from http:// www.liquorlanddirect.com.au/ McCarthy, P. (2002). Discussions with author.
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MetalSite. (2002). MSA buys assets of global exchange [Press release]. Retrieved from the MetalSite Web site: http://www.metalsite.net Moveover. (2003). Morerover Technologies—Welcome. Retrieved from http://www.moreover.com Mullett, C. (2003). Discussions with author. NineMSN. (2003a). Shopping home. Retrieved from http:// shopping.ninemsn.com.au/ NineMSN. (2003b). Welcome to ninemsn.com.au. Retrieved from http:// ninemsn.com.au/ Nokia. (2003). Nokia care. Retrieved from http://www.nokia.com.au/ nokia_apac/australia/nokia_care_index NYSE. (2003). NYSE—New York Stock Exchange. Retrieved from http:// www.nyse.com/ OfficeWorks. (2003). OfficeWorks online. Retrieved from http:// www.officeworks.com.au/ O’Leary, M. (2002, March/April). Corporate portals post dot com. Online, 26(2), 65-67. Orbitz. (2003). Orbitz: Airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, travel deals. Retrieved from http://www.orbitz.com/ OzEmail. (2003). OzEmail homepage. http://au.ozemail.yahoo.com/ Pacific Internet. (2003). Pacific Internet—Welcome. http:// www.pacific.net.au Palm. (2003a). Palm Australia—Products. Retrieved from http:// www.palm.com/au/products/ Palm. (2003b). Palm Australia—Products—Palm handhelds comparison chart. Retrieved from http://www.palm.com/au/products/handhelds/compare/ Palm. (2003c). Palm Australia—Products, services & company information. Retrieved from http://www.palm.com/au/ Palm. (2003d). Palm Australia—Support. Retrieved from http:// www.palm.com/au/support/ Palm. (2003e). Palm Australia—Support—E-mail support request. Retrieved from http://www.palm.com/au/support/contact/email_support.html Presswire. (2002, August 10). Qantas reveals on-line business strategy. M2 Presswire. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Procter & Gamble. (2003). Pampers. Retrieved from http://www.pampers.com Raol, J., Koong, K., Lui, L., & Yu, C. (2002). An identification and classification of enterprise portal functions and features. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 102(7), 390-399. Searle. (2003). The author has personal knowledge of the Westpac portal, having been involved with its construction while working for Qvalent, a Westpac subsidiary. Searle. (2003a). The author was involved with the establishment of the BHP e-commerce portal in 1999. Shell. (2003). Welcome to Shell.com. Retrieved from http://www.shell.com/ ShopFast. (2003). ShopFast.com.au. Retrieved from http:// www.shopfast.com.au/ Sony. (2003). Sony Australia. Retrieved from http://www.sony.com.au/ content.asp?go=support.asp Stimpson, J. (2002, April). Perusing those portals. Practical Accountant, 41-43. Sun. (2003a). Sun Microsystems. Retrieved from http://www.sun.com/ index.xml Sun. (2003b). Sun Microsystems—Download center. Retrieved from http:/ /wwws.sun.com/software/download/ Tampax. (2003). Tampax. Retrieved from http://www.tampax.com/ or http:/ /www.bodyworks.com/ Telstra BigPond. (2003). Telstra Bigpond. Retrieved from http:// www.bigpond.com Tenix. (2003). Tenix Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.tenix.com/ Traveland. (2003). Travelworld. Retrieved from http://www.traveland.com.au/ Vintage Cellars. (2003). Vintage Cellars Australia. Retrieved from http:// www.vintagecellars.com.au/ Webster’s revised unabridged dictionary. (1998). MICRA. Westpac. (2003). Westpac Internet—What is Westpac B2Buy? Retrieved from https://www.westpac.com.au/secure/publish.nsf/Content/ BBWT+What+is+Westpac+B2Buy Zarley, C. (2002, September 3). Compaq sets rules of engagement. CRN.
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Chapter VIII
Employee Portals: Just the Next Step in the Journey Andrew Stein Victoria University, Australia Paul Hawking Victoria University, Australia
Abstract This chapter investigates the application of portal technology to the area of human resource management. It discusses the evolution of Web-based HR solutions and looks at portal solution evolution of a leading enterprise resource planning systems vendor (SAP). The final section of the chapter employs a case study research approach to examine the implementation of an employee portal in a large Australian organisation and the evolutionary stages which occurred.
Web Portals The term “portal” has been an Internet buzzword that has promised great benefits to organisations. Dias (2001) predicted that the corporate portal
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would become the most important information delivery project of the next decade. The term portal takes a different meaning depending on the viewpoint of the participant in the portal. To the business user, the portal is all about information access and navigation; to the organisation, the portal is all about adding value; to the marketplace, the portal is all about new business models; and to the technologist, a portal is all about integration. The portal was developed to address problems with the large-scale development of corporate intranets. Corporate intranets promised much but had to address multiple problems in the organisation (Collins as reported in Brosche, 2001). On the user side, employees must make informed and consistent decisions and are being implored to access multiple information sources on the Web, and on the technology side, intranet sites in organisations have proliferated, resulting in an increase in search complexity for corporate users. Early versions of portals were merely Web pages with extensive document linkages: a gateway to the Web. These early versions have been replaced by several generations of portals. Eckerson (1998) proposed four generations of portals (see Table 1), and he proposed that portals can be analysed by the information content, information flow, and the technology focus that make up the portal. Just as the intranet proliferated within organisations, portals are now starting to multiply. A mega portal is being developed that hopes to address the unfettered expansion of portals. The portal management system or the mega portal is being developed to take control of portal proliferation with the aim to enhance business process convergence and integration. Shilakes and Tylman (1998)
Table 1. Portal generations (Eckerson, 1998) Generation
Descriptor
Features
First
Referential
Generic focus Hierarchical catalogue of pages Pull flow Decision support Personalised focus Push and pull flow Customised distribution Application focussed Collaborative flow Role focussed Corporate applications Integrated workflow
Second
Personalised
Third
Interactive
Fourth
Specialised
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coined the term “enterprise information portal” (EIP), and this definition encompassed the information access, application nature, and Internet gateway that are apparent in the second and third generations of organisational portals.
HR Portal Applications Many Australian companies are investigating the application of portal technology to support their human resource management (HRM) functions. The function of human resource management has changed dramatically over time. It has evolved from an administrative function primarily responsible for payroll to a strategic role that can add value to an organisation. It has evolved from being primarily administrative to one of support and eventually to that of a business partner. Companies have now realised the importance of this function and are investing resources into supporting human resource management information systems (HRMIS). The use of information systems to support HR functions is nothing new, but as the focus of HRM has evolved, so have the IS systems that support it. Advances in network and browser technology have seen companies moving more and more of their corporate information resources to Web-based applications, making them available to employees via the company intranet. Originally these applications only allowed employees to view and browse electronic versions of existing documents. Companies found that there was a saving in publication costs and an empowerment of employees through the increased availability of corporate procedures and knowledge to enable them to perform their day-to-day tasks. The increased familiarisation of employees in the use of browser technology and the maturing of this technology within companies have resulted in these applications evolving to incorporate transactional interactions. This has a number of benefits, including the move towards paperless transactions and the implied reduction in administrative overheads and the provision of a better level of service to employees. Hamerman (2002) sets the employee relationship management (ERM) landscape with corporate, personal and employee elements set out in Figure 1. Hamerman (2002) sees ERM suites as being platforms for information delivery, process execution, and collaboration in the organisation. The advantages in empowering employees through an ERM suite include: multiple value propositions; consistent portal GUIs; all-employee, 24x7, real-time dynamic information delivery; and a comprehensive, collaborative work environment. Em-
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Figure 1. The employee relationship management landscape (Hamerman, 2002) Corporate, Job & Workplace ERM/B2E ESS/eHR HCM
Employee Development & Staffing
Personal & HR Self Service
ployees can now access a range of information pertinent to themselves without having to rely on others. They can compare pay slips for a number of given periods. They can view their superannuation and leave entitlements and then apply for leave online. Human resources (HR) for many companies is evolving from the traditional payroll processing function to a more strategic direction of human capital management (Malis, 1998). As HR has evolved, the level of associated administrative duties has increased proportionally, with some research estimating that as much as 70% of HR personnel time is spent on administrative duties (Barron, 2002). This has been estimated to represent a cost of up to US$1,700 per employee per year (Khirallah, 2000). It has been estimated (Wagner, 2002) that HR paper forms cost $20-$30 to process and telephone-based HR forms cost $2-$4 to process, but Internet-based HR forms cost only 5-10 cents. In an attempt to exploit these cost differences, companies have looked to the Internet for the solution.
ERP Systems and Portals Many of the world’s leading companies are using enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to support their HR information needs. This is partly due to the
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realisation of the integrative role HR has in numerous business processes such as work scheduling, travel management, production planning, and occupational health and safety (Curran & Kellar, 1998). Many of Australia’s and New Zealand’s top companies (400) have implemented SAP’s ERP system (SAP R/3), and of these approximately 150 have implemented the Human Resources (HR) module. SAP’s HR module is reported to incorporate “best practice,” and accordingly many of the traditional HRM functions are supported by Webbased technologies. A precursor to SAP’s Employee Portal was their Employee Self-Service (ESS). SAP is one of many software vendors who provide ESS solutions.
Employee Self-Service (ESS) The influence of Internet and browser technology has seen the growth of employee self-service (ESS) implementations. ESS is an Internet-based solution that provides employees with a browser interface to relevant HR data and transactions. This enables employees’ real-time access to their data without leaving their desktop. They can update their personal details, apply for leave, view their pay details and associated benefits, view internal job vacancies, and book training and travel. They claim to incorporate “best business practice,” and the significant growth in companies implementing ESS solutions (Webster Buchanan, 2002) is understandable when you consider the return on investment that ESS renders (Lehman, 2000). The benefits of this type of technology have been well documented (Alexander ,2002; McKenna, 2002; Webster Buchanan; Wiscombe, 2001). They include reduced administrative overheads and the freeing of HR staff for more strategic activities, improved data integrity, and empowerment of employees. One report identified a major benefit as the provision of HR services to employees in a geographically decentralised company (NetKey, 2002). Tangible measures include reductions in administrative staff by 40%, a reduction in transaction costs of 50% (Wiscombe), and the reduction of processes from two to three days to a few hours (NetKey). A recent study of the top 500 UK firms revealed that the majority of B2E solutions were still at a basic level and have focussed on improved efficiency and electronic document delivery (Dunford, 2002). Ordonez (2002) maintains the theme of information delivery in presenting ESS as allowing employees access to the right information at the right time to carry out and process transactions; further, ESS allows the ability to create, view, and maintain data through Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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multiple access technologies. Companies such as Toyota Australia are now extending this functionality beyond the desktop by providing access to electronic HR kiosks in common meeting areas. In Australia there are approximately 50 companies that have implemented SAP’s ESS functionality. These include Westpac, RMIT, National Australia Bank, Siemens, Telstra, and Linfox. The Cedar Group (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) carries out an annual survey of major global organisations and their B2E intentions. The survey covers many facets of ESS, including technology, vendors, drivers, costs, and benefits. The average expenditure in 2001 on an ESS implementation was US$1.505 million. This cost is broken down into software 22%, hardware 18%, internal implementation costs 18%, external implementation costs 17%, marketing 10%, and ASPs 15%. Looking at this cost from an employee perspective sees the average cost of ESS implementation ranging from US$32/employee for a large organisation (>60,000 employees) to US$155/employee for a medium-size organisation (7,500 employees). The funding for the HR ESS comes from the HR function in North American and Australian organisations, whereas the head office funds them in European organisations. The main drivers for ESS are improved service (98%), better information access (90%), reduced costs (85%), streamlined processes (70%), and strategic HR (80%). Employees can use a variety of applications in the ESS, and the main ones identified in the Cedar survey are employee communications (95%), pension services (72%), training (40%), and leave requests (25%), with many others. Managers use self-service (MSS) differently in the three regions of the survey. North American managers use MSS to process travel and expenses (42%), European managers to process purchase orders (48%), and Australian managers to process leave requests (45%). Employee services can be delivered by a variety of methods, and the Web-based self-service (B2E) is undergoing substantial planned growth from 42% in 2001 to 80% planned in 2004. The trend is for implementing HRMIS applications from major vendors like SAP or PeopleSoft. ESS implementations show overwhelming success measures, with 53% indicating their implementation was successful and 43% somewhat successful. The value proposition for ESS includes: •
Average cost of transaction (down 60%),
• •
Inquiries (down 10%), Cycle time (reduced 60%),
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• • •
Head count (70% reduction), R.O.I. (100% in 22 months), and Employee satisfaction (increased 50%).
The culmination of the Cedar Group reports lists the barriers to benefit attainment and critical success factors in ESS applications. North American and Australian organisations both list cost of ownership/lack of budget as the main barriers, whilst European organisations perceive lack of privacy and security as the main barriers. Other barriers include lack of technical skills, unable to state business case, low HR priority, and HRMS not in place. As with other complex IT application projects, executive commitment, internal collaboration, and availability of technical skills to implement the application are all considered important success factors.
SAP Employee Portal Evolution SAP’s portal solution has been identified as one of the leading portal solutions by Gartner (2003), and understanding its evolution will provide an insight into the evolution of this technology. SAP dominates the ERP market (54%; McBride, 2003), and this has led to an increase in the use of their portal solution. As mentioned previously SAP had developed its ESS to support its HR functionality, and it could be considered as SAP’s first portal solution. It was released to industry in 1996 and was adopted by many companies around the world. Towards the end of 1999 SAP released their second phase, Workplace Technology. This was licensed from Top Tier and was designed to provide users with a single interface to the applications they required to perform their everyday tasks. The Workplace solution provided a “single sign-on,” which meant that by logging into the SAP Workplace a user would automatically be logged into all the applications they used. The obvious benefit of this was the reduction in workload of support staff in maintaining users’ passwords. The Workplace interface was composed of a number of frames which could be customised to include information from various applications. This meant that the user was able to access information from many applications without leaving the Workplace and that the different information was accessed using hyperlinks, no matter what the nature of the source application. In 2001 SAP purchased Top Tier and renamed their Workplace solution to SAP Portals and initially developed a separate company responsible for the development and sales of
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this technology, as the portal technology could operate independent of SAP’s ERP system. This subsidiary has now been incorporated back into SAP. Once SAP owned this technology, the obvious evolution for the ESS solution was to incorporate it into an Employee Portal, representing the third phase of their portal evolution. This provided employees access to their HR data while at the same time providing them access to the applications required to perform their daily tasks, and ESS functionality just became another tab on the portal menu. The portal still contains customisable frames, but they are now referred to as “iviews.” The “iviews” are usually preconfigured based on the work role of each employee, which assists in the design and maintenance of the portal. The alternative is to provide each employee complete freedom to customise their “iviews,” which for many companies would create enormous maintenance and support overheads. Recently the portal solution has been incorporated under SAP’s NetWeaver umbrella. The NetWeaver solution incorporates SAP’s technologies that support enterprise application integration. The solution identifies three broad categories of integration: people, process, and information. The portal is considered an essential component of people integration as it provides a single access point to various applications, including non-SAP applications. The ESS is only one of these applications.
Employee Portal Case Study The following case study reflects the evolutionary nature of HRM and the information systems which support these functions. The case study was developed from interviews with key personnel and attendance at presentations as well as viewing a number of source documents. Auscom is one of Australia’s leading telecommunications companies. In the 2001/2002 financial year it had a AUD$20.19 billion revenue and assets to the value of AUD$37.59 billion. The company has a diverse workforce of approximately 45,000 employees. Auscom is one Australia’s leading users of IT, with more than 1,500 different applications and 50,000 personal computers. In 1995, similar to many other large companies around the world, Auscom decided to implement an ERP system. They implemented SAP’s R/2 system, which was a mainframe-based system. The initial implementation did not Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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include the HR module. In the late ’90s they moved away from R/2 and implemented SAP R/3 3.1H, a client-server-based solution. As part of this implementation they decided to implement the HR payroll component of SAP. In addition to the SAP payroll solution Auscom identified a further 250 HRrelated applications. The company at this stage had developed a Web-based application to view pay slips and leave information. In 2000 the company launched its “The Next Generation Cost Reduction Program” with a budget of AUD$10 million. One of the goals of this program was to reduce the number of legacy HR systems, and it was decided to implement SAP’s ESS solution. It was to be a “vanilla implementation,” with minimal customisation of the solution. The feasibility study was conducted in May 2001 and finally implemented in September 2001. To provide a better platform for ESS, it was decided to upgrade from SAP R/3 3.1H to R/3 4.6C and incorporate additional HR functionality. In terms of change management, a decision was made to limit training only to core support staff due to the costs and logistics associated with training end users. Accordingly a key requirement of the implementation was to make the ESS interface as intuitive as possible. SAP HR provides a “Manager’s Desktop” interface to provide managers with quick access to HR reporting and transactions associated with the employees they are responsible for. As the “Manager’s Desktop” was not as intuitive as it could be, it was decided not to roll it out in this phase of the project. Auscom employees via the ESS solution were able to view and update their personal details, which replaced 80% of the “back-end” transactions and therefore resulted in a large reduction in support staff. The second phase of the project was completed in March 2002 with a budget of AUD$2 million and enabled all ESS transactions. This enabled employees to view and edit biographical, personal, and work contact details, and they could also view leave balances, leave taken, pay slips, and salary package balances. A major component of this phase was the implementation of workflow technology to support many of the HR transactions. Again due to the intuitive nature of the interface, end-user training was minimal. With the release of SAP’s portal technology it was decided to form a design group made up of SAP, consultants, business analysts, and management to develop a model of Auscom’s employee portal (April 2002). The design group struggled to develop a concrete action plan as it became too bureaucratic, and SAP later approached Auscom with an offer of additional support and a
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commitment to “making it work” in an endeavour to create a high-profile example of their portal technology in Australia. The project commenced in November 2002, and Auscom went live with their “People Online” portal in June 2003. For staff all the ESS transactions were migrated to the portal, and there was an additional link to the eLearn solution, which enabled them to complete online learning, view training history, and request an enrolment in a course. Managers also received additional benefits with the People Online. They could view personal and work details of their staff, including leave balances, leave requested, and leave taken. They could also initiate a leave transaction on behalf of their staff. In terms of new employees and contractors, they could initiate partial commencement. Managers could also view the training history of their staff and enroll them in courses via a link to eLearn. In terms of forward planning, managers could view, create, and modify HR organisational structures as well as move staff in and out of the planned structure. There are a number of additional benefits. As mentioned previously there have been savings in support due to the single sign-on to applications provided by the portal technology. By using a SAP ESS solution in conjunction with their ERP system, there was a greater degree of data integration. An Enterprise Directory has been established which provides a basis for identifying responsible staff for workflow in addition to a standard for future HR application development. In terms of total cost of ownership 27 applications have been eliminated, resulting in a savings of AUD$8 million per annum in software and hardware. However there were a number of challenges identified. A number of Webbased forms had been built by a different business group that needed to be interfaced with the ERP system. This was contrary to the project strategy and costly to integrate. However, because of these Web forms, people were less reluctant to start using the similar functionality available via the portal. A major issue is the coexistence of Auscom’s intranet and SAP’s portal, especially as the intranet was managed by a different business unit. The portal and the intranet visually appeared to be similar. But issues involved the managing of content and the development and implementation of standards across both delivery mechanisms. Searches via the intranet did not find employee portal content. It was considered essential that for future portal implementations a content management strategy needs to be developed. SAP’s strategy is to link content to employees’ roles within the company in an attempt to limit the development and maintenance effort. However a major hurdle for Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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many employee portal implementations is the degree to which the employees determine the content and the level of customisation. The increased level of customisation results in a increase in maintenance overheads.
Conclusion The term employee portal is a recent occurrence and encapsulates a variety of solutions as per the generation model developed by Eckerson (1998). There is no doubt that this technology is still evolving and will demonstrate innovative applications as more and more companies adopt it. From the case study, the benefits are obvious, and the technology appears relatively simple compared to other enterprise-wide applications; however, the uptake of this technology will be hindered by lack of strategy and methodologies.
References Aberdeen Group. (2001, April). HCM: Strategic partner, trusted adviser? Alexander, S. (2002). HR e-power to the people. Retrieved August 2002 from http://staging.infoworld.com/articles/ca/xml/01/02/010212cahr.xml Barron, M. , (2002). Retail Web-based self-serve isn’t just for customers, it’s for employees. Internet Retailer. Retrieved September 2002 from http:/ /www.internetretailer.com/dailynews.asp?id=6688 Brosche, C. (2002, May). Designing the corporate portal. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Carlino, J. (2000). AMR Research predicts enterprise application market will reach $78 billion by 2004. Retrieved August 2002 from http:// www.amrresearch.com/press/files/ Cedar Group. (1999). Cedar 1999 human resources self service. Baltimore. Cedar Group. (2000). Cedar 2000 human resources self service. Baltimore. Cedar Group. (2001). Cedar 2001 human resources self service/portal survey. Baltimore.
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Cedar Group. (2002). Cedar 2002 human resources self service/portal survey. Baltimore. Curran, T., & Kellar, G. (1998). SAP R/3 business blueprint. NJ: Prentice Hall. Dias, C. (2001). Corporate portals. International Journal of Information Management, 21, 269-287. Dunford, I. (2002). B2E: The future looks rosy. Retrieved March 2003 from http://www.computing.co.uk/Analysis/1136393 Eckerson, W. (1999). Plumtree blossoms: New version fulfils enterprise portal requirements. Patricia Seybold report. Retrieved March 2003 from http://www.e-global.es/017/017_eckerson_plumtree.pdf Gartner. (2003). The horizontal portal product 2003 magic quadrant. Retrieved June 2003 from http://www.gartnervoice.com/Weekly/2003/ Mar31/1hor/1hr.htm Hamerman, P. (2002, July). Extending employee relationships with Web applications. Presentation to SAPPHIRE Lisbon Conference, Lisbon, Portugal. Iggulden, T. (Ed.). (1999, June). Looking for payback. MIS, 75-80. Khirallah, D. (2000). Picture this: Self-service HR at Sony. Retrieved September 2002 from http://www.informationweek.com/811/sony.htm Lehman, J. (2000, September 26). HR self-service strategies: Lessons learned. Gartner Research Note. Malis, E. (2002). Corporate intranets include automated time and attendance in your “HR self service” offering. Crosswind. Retrieved September 2002 from http://www.crosswind.com McBride, G. (2003). SAP partner kick off presentation. Sydney. McKenna, E. (2002). Empowering employees. Retrieved August 2002 from http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0107/tec-hr-01-07-02.asp Netkey. (2002). Unlocking the power of HR self service. Retrieved September 2002 from http://www.netkey.com Ordonez, E. (2001). MySAP human resources: Human capital management for your business. Retrieved July 2002 from http://www.sap.com Shilakes, C., & Tylman, J. (1998). Enterprise information portals. Merril Lynch report. Retrieved March 2003 from http://emarkets.grm.hia.no/
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gem/topic7/eip_ind.pdf Wagner, M. (2002, June). Saving trees and serving up benefits. Internet Retailer. Webster Buchanan Research. (2002). HR self service—The practitioners’ view. Retrieved August 2002 from http://www.leadersinHR.org Wiscombe, J. (2001, September). Using technology to cut costs. Workforce. Retrieved August 2002 from http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/29/82/index.php
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Chapter IX
A Flexible Evaluation Framework for Web Portals Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis Demetrios Sampson University of Piraeus, Greece and Informatics and Telematics Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI-CERTH), Greece Nikos Manouselis University of Piraeus, Greece and Informatics and Telematics Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI-CERTH), Greece
Abstract In this chapter, the issue of subjective evaluation of Web portals for assessing user satisfaction is addressed. We present an evaluation framework for addressing the multiple dimensions of Web portals that can affect users’ satisfaction. The objective of this framework is to specify a set of total satisfaction indicators that allows monitoring of the userperceived quality level of a Web portal and comparing the results from different evaluation groups. Initially, we study the multiple dimensions related with four main satisfaction factors: Web portal content, Web portal design, Web portal personalization, and Web portal community Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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support. Then, we propose a multiple criteria model that synthesizes assessment upon the multiple satisfaction dimensions into a set of monitorable quality metrics. We present how the multi-criteria model is engaged throughout the framework stages to support subjective evaluation of Web portals. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the proposed framework in the context of the summative evaluation of the Greek GoDigital e-business awareness and training portal for very small and medium enterprises (vSMEs).
Introduction Evaluation of Web portals is an important issue in Web engineering, taking into consideration the Internet explosion and the exponential growth of Web sites and online information sources. Web portals present nowadays a significant variety of features, complexity of structure, and plurality of offered services. As in the case of all information systems, evaluation is an aspect of their development and operation that can contribute to maximizing the exploitation of invested resources (Adelman, 1991). Additionally, evaluation can also significantly contribute to the development of Web portals that serve the user needs and meet the user expectations to the maximum possible extent. In general, a Web portal offers a variety of services in a continuing development. It is desired to adopt evaluation methods and instruments that will allow the combination of different means of assessment and provide results exploitable in several ways. For example, an interesting perspective of evaluation is identifying and adopting evaluation methods that go beyond the separate assessment of different operational aspects of Web portals and that provide synthesized results to the key decision makers—being either those financially supporting the service or those involved in the design, development, operation, and/or exploitation of the service. Moreover, we can also identify the aspect of assessing the satisfaction of users belonging in different evaluation groups. The above issues call for subjective evaluation methods and tools that can supplement the rest of the evaluation activities (Adelman, 1991; Ivory, Sinha, & Hearst, 2001; Levi & Conrad, 1996), synthesize assessment results, and facilitate the improvement of the offered services. The main objective of this chapter is to study the issues introduced above by adopting a quality-oriented approach in Web portal evaluation. Such an
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approach considers the Web portal as the “product” and the user as the “customer” of the Web portal services; it focuses on the analysis and assessment of the multiple Web portal features that affect the overall users’ satisfaction (von Dran & Zhang, 2002). In this context, we study the methodology and phases of an evaluation framework that engages a multiple criteria analysis methodology to represent and synthesize the factors that affect the users’ satisfaction. The proposed approach also aims to allow contextualization, both in terms of factors addressed and in terms of user group categorization. To this end, the “Background” section provides the background for this study: it starts with a definition of the term Web portal for the purposes of this chapter, it continues with an overview of the basic portal features and corresponding dimensions that can affect user satisfaction, and it finally identifies the main stakeholders in the Web portal’s development and operational life cycle. “The Proposed Framework for Web Portal Evaluation” section presents the multicriteria methodology and describes the various stages of the resulting evaluation process. The “Application: The Go-Digital Web Portal Case” section presents the integration of the proposed framework in the summative evaluation activities of a large-scale and complex Web portal, such as the Greek GoDigital vertical portal for e-business training and awareness of very small and medium-sized enterprises (vSMEs) in Greece. Finally, the “Discussion and Conclusions” section provides the conclusions of this chapter, offers a discussion on the issues addressed, and identifies future research directions.
Background Definition of a Web Portal Initially the term Web portal was used to refer to well-known Internet search and navigation sites that provided a starting point for Web visitors to explore and access information on the World Wide Web (Winkler, 2001). The term “Internet portal” or “Web portal” began to be used to describe such mega-sites (such as Yahoo!, Excite, AOL, MSN, Netscape Netcenter, and others) because many Web visitors used them as a “starting point” for their Web surfing. Since then, portal technologies have significantly matured and specialized, and a diverse range of portal types have been developed and used in different contexts (PortalsCommunity, 2003). Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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The term “Web portal” is defined by the Online Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms Webopaedia as: “A web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first web portals were on-line services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.” (Webopaedia, 2003)
This rather basic and limited definition still reveals a main characteristic of Web portals: they are a special breed of Web sites, providing a blend of information, applications, and services (Waloszek, 2001). Several researchers also outline the importance of developing Web portals that continuously attract users by serving as a gateway to information or Internet services: Web portals provide a single point of access to information and/or a single point of information interchange (Komoroski, McKellar, & Gair, 1998; Meehan, 1998). For the purposes of this chapter, we define Web portals as Web sites that focus, to an extended degree, on a blend of the following features (Hazra, 2002; Staab et al., 2000; Waloszek, 2001; Warner, 1999; Winkler, 2001): their content (in terms of contained information or access to external information resources), their design (in terms of providing users with a pleasant, usable, and stable environment), their personalization capabilities (in terms of serving users’ specific preferences and needs), and their support to the formulation of virtual communities of users (in terms of bringing together users with similar interests and needs). The collection of more than one of the above features can be accepted as what is mainly differentiating Web portals from simple Web sites and what drives the need for examining portal features as a superset of features that Web sites usually have.
User Satisfaction from Web Portal Dimension As mentioned in the previous section, Web portals mainly aim to serve as a reference point for users with specific interests. Therefore, the satisfaction of users is a primary goal for the actors involved with the development and operation of a Web portal (Zhang, von Dran, & Barcellos, 1999). In order to achieve high-quality Web sites, the designers have to first understand the different quality dimensions that users expect and then relate the quality
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characteristics to the design features (von Dran & Zhang, 2002). In this section we attempt to define the main dimensions that can affect user satisfaction in regard to the four main features identified above. The focus on the content is the first important portal feature that should be taken into consideration. The satisfaction of users from the content of a Web portal can be analyzed to a number of dimensions (Ciolek, 1996; Consumer WebWatch, 2002; Warner, 1999; Winkler, 2001): •
•
•
•
Satisfaction from content organization: this aspect refers to the categorization of information so as to enable efficient search and retrieval. Content organization services such as directories to allow for browsing and search or well-organized libraries of categorized content are well established in the Web portal business. The classification of content in appropriate categories of interest is closely related to the portal information architecture and design (a dimension to be addressed in following paragraphs), but it addresses the logical organization rather than the physical organization aspect of content. Satisfaction from content creditability: this aspect refers to the trust and reliability of the information and the content provider and has multiple facets, such as the accuracy and clarity of the content and the trustworthiness, recognition, and reputation of the content author or provider. Satisfaction from content usefulness: this aspect concerns the focus of the content, the use of appropriate language, and the usefulness of information according to the needs of the directed audience. It is closely related with the creditability of content but can be further identified as an important dimension by its own. Satisfaction from content integration: this aspect concerns all content services related with the integration of external sources of information and the provision of links to external resources. Researchers also identify the aspect of content syndication with external content providers as an important characteristic of major Web portals.
The satisfaction of the users from the design of the portal is another important aspect to be considered. Closely related with the basic principles of generic Web design, the design of a Web portal can also be analyzed to a number of important satisfaction dimensions (Avouris, Tselios, Fidas, & Papachristos, 2003; Blankenship, 2001; Ivory & Hearst, 2002; Newman & Landay, 2000; Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Nielsen, 2000; Pearrow, 2000; Rosenfeld & Morville, 1998; Shedro, 2001; Waloszek, 2001; Zhang & von Dran, 2001): •
•
•
•
Satisfaction from information architecture: an important dimension concerning several issues related with organizing information in the portal (structure, grouping, and labeling of information). It is closely related with the organization of content addressed above; however, in this context it is approached rather from the system design perspective (that is, functionalities, hierarchies, databases, site structure, etc.), and therefore it can be considered independent. Satisfaction from usability: an equally important dimension of Web design, addressing all issues related with the interaction and navigation of the user in the portal. There is a significant amount of related work identifying important aspects to be taken into consideration when developing a Web system (such as simplicity, familiarity and consistency of interface, flexibility and error recovery, accessibility requirements, etc.). Satisfaction from graphical design: it can be considered as a separate dimension of a Web portal design since it should be subject to periodical revisions and redesigns from time to time, with the minimum possible effect to the portal operation. Satisfaction from technical integrity/performance: the dimension concerned with proper operation of the Web portal services and the satisfactory performance of the overall services. It addresses several issues related with the technical performance, such as availability and download times, stability of system, compatibility with different browsers, broken links, etc.
Another feature that portal designers and developers focus on, so that they better match the user needs and preferences, is the personalization aspects of the portal. The satisfaction of the users from the personalization facilities can be examined at three different levels (Blankenship, 2001; Brusilovsky, 2001; Lacher, Koch, & Woerndl, 2001; Winkler, 2001): •
Satisfaction from the personalization of navigation: all issues related with the adjustment of the navigation mechanisms and functions to the needs of individual users.
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•
•
Satisfaction from the personalization of information/content: all issues related with notifying users about new relevant content and providing them with information tailored to their needs and preferences. Satisfaction from the personalization of interface: all issues related with the adaptation of the interface to the needs and preferences of the users and the properties of their equipment.
Community support facilities are another essential feature of today’s Web portals. We can identify two main dimensions in user satisfaction from the community support services of a Web portal (Lacher et al., 2001; Staab et al., 2000): •
•
Satisfaction from the communication support: related with tools and services related with the communication between the members of a virtual community (such as discussion forums, chats, message boards, and newsgroups). Satisfaction from the collaboration support: related with the tools and services allowing effective and efficient collaboration between users (such as e-mail, document sharing, and audio/videoconferencing).
The above-identified dimensions can be furthermore specialized and extended if we focus on more specific categories of Web portals. For example, the case of enterprise portals (Hazra, 2002) calls for a careful study on aspects such as data and knowledge management, virtual workspace creation and sharing, high degrees of security, etc. In each case, the generic Web portal features and the user satisfaction dimensions for each one of them can be appropriately specialized. They can all be considered as factors that affect users’ satisfaction from the blend of information and services that Web portals consist of.
Web Portal Stakeholders As identified above, there are a number of features that characterize a Web portal. Each feature can be analyzed to different dimensions that may affect user satisfaction, so it is important to take into consideration all the dimensions during the process of evaluating Web portals. On the other hand, it is equally important to take into consideration the variances in focus and importance of
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each category of actors that is involved in the development and/or operation of a Web portal. Let us introduce the main stakeholders in the development and operational life cycle of a Web portal: •
•
•
•
•
•
The policy makers and funding team: the actors responsible for defining the Web portal objectives and for providing the resources necessary to design, develop, and operate the Web portal. They can be viewed as the key decision makers. The senior management team: the actors responsible for the management of the teams involved in all aspects of the portal’s development and operation. The technical development and support team: the actors involved with the design, development, updating, and proper functioning of the portal services from the technical perspective. The operation team: the actors concerned with the content selection, development, and provision for the Web portal. Moreover, actors related with other specialized services offered by the portal, such as a help-desk service. The dissemination and exploitation team: the actors related with the marketing aspects and commercial exploitation perspectives of the Web portal. The users: the different categories of end users, the final “customer” of the Web portal.
Table 1. Categorization of actors in key stakeholders’ categories Decision makers Policy makers & funding team Management team Technical development & support team Operation team Dissemination & exploitation team End users
Portal experts
Users
++++ +++
+
+
+++
+
+++
++
++ ++++
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In the context of the Web portal evaluation, the above-identified actors can be classified in one or more of three general category levels regarding their decision-making responsibilities, their involvement in the Web portal development and operation, and their expertise: the decision makers, the portal element experts, and the users. The actors can fall under more than one of the categories with different degrees of involvement, as depicted in Table 1, and have different responsibilities in the evaluation activities. In the next section we will introduce an evaluation framework that integrates a subjective evaluation method for assessing user satisfaction from the different dimensions identified. The proposed framework is based on a multi-criteria methodology, which can also synthesize the priorities of more than one category of key stakeholders.
Evaluation Framework Presentation The discussed evaluation framework aims to support the activities of Web portal evaluation. It introduces a subjective method to assess the strong and weak points of a Web portal in contrast to system verification or empirical evaluation methods that can be complementarily applied (Adelman, 1991). The methodology engaged can synthesize the assessment results into global and partial satisfaction indicators and can perform an analysis supportive and useful to the Web portal decision-makers. It can take into consideration the satisfaction of several user groups and the priorities of several actors from the Web portal stakeholders—keeping in mind that the more categories involved, the more parameters related with their priorities and preferences also have to be specified. The methodology engages principles and tools from multiple criteria analysis and is based on a value-focused approach—that is, representing the problem parameters in the form of value functions (Keeney, 1992). The multi-criteria model used builds upon existing methods for assessing and synthesizing user satisfaction (Siskos, Grigoroudis, Zopounidis, & Saurais, 1998) and has the same philosophy with similar approaches that have been applied in different domains (Adelman, 1992; Mayard, Burstein, & Arnott, 2001).
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Next, we first introduce the steps of the engaged methodology: the definition of a specific set of criteria and sub-criteria, the synthesis model for the integration of the collected results, and the analysis steps engaged to support decision makers with meaningful results. Secondly, we present the required stages of the evaluation process in order for the presented methodology to be integrated in a generic evaluation procedure. These two aspects formulate a framework that can be integrated in the evaluation activities of a Web portal.
The Evaluation Methodology The evaluation methodology concerns the specification of the evaluation criteria system and the definition of the tools for the synthesis and analysis of the collected assessment results. The result is the definition and calculation of a number of quality metrics that reflect the users’ assessment upon each of the important portal features, as long as its overall performance on a comparable and monitorable scale. The first step of the methodology concerns the specification of the evaluation system; that is, the definition of the criteria and sub-criteria upon which the
Figure 1. A three-level evaluation system as a tree structure; the grey nodes are leafs that are not further detailed as sub-criteria
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different dimensions of user satisfaction from a Web portal will be reflected. The criteria to be used should adequately describe the portal as an entity and should be constructed in a manner that will not allow their overlapping (Roy, 1996). The main criteria gi (i=1 to n where n is the number of criteria) can consist of sub-criteria gij (i=1 to n, j=1 to mi, where mi is the number of subcriteria that the i-th criterion has) depicting more specific dimensions of the toplevel criteria. These sub-criteria may consist of even more specific sub-criteria gijk. Such a three-level depth of the evaluation system (Figure 1) can be assumed sufficient for the needs of a generic case study, as we will present in the following sections. Yet, the evaluation system can be easily scaled up to include more levels. The second step of the methodology concerns the definition of the synthesis model. The actual assessment of the users’ satisfaction upon the different dimensions of the Web portal is carried out at the lower level of the evaluation system (third level in the system presented in Figure 1). The assessment of users’ satisfaction for the higher levels (second and first) is then synthesized using the lower-level sub-criteria assessment results. Each of the criteria and sub-criteria is assumed to have its own importance compared to the other criteria at the same level. More specifically, each child of a specific node (criterion or sub-criterion) contributes to the calculation of the higher-level criterion assessment calculation by a specific proportion, according to its importance and in comparison with the importance of the other children of this node. Gradually, a set of synthesized performance indicators is calculated. They depict the synthesis of the assessment results upon the different criteria according to the importance of each sub-criterion. The total utility or global performance of the Web portal is calculated from the following additive value function: n
U [ g ( portal )] = ∑ pi u i [ g i ( portal )] i =1
This assessment concerns the transformation of the assessment results for a dimension of the Web portal (value gi(portal)) to a partial utility function ui[gi(portal)] for each criterion, where ui is a linear function, normalized and increasing in the interval [gi*, gi*] (gi* being the worst value of the i-th criterion, gi* being the best value of the i-th criterion). Factor pi expresses the importance
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Table 2. Index presenting how the global performance indicator is calculated by the partial performances upon each criterion Criteria User satisfaction from criterion g1 User satisfaction from criterion g2 … User satisfaction from criterion gn
Performance
Importance
Weighted value
u1
p1
p1* u1
u2
p2
p2* u2
…
…
…
un
pn
pn * un
Sum= 1
Global U =
n
∑pu
i i
i =1
of the i-th criterion as a weighting parameter, with all weights normalized so that they sum up to 1. U[g(portal)] is the global performance of the Web portal, taking values on a 0-1 scale, where 0 is the worst and 1 is the best performance that can be achieved (easily transformable to a 0-100 percentage scale). Each partial utility function ui[gi] defines the Web portal’s performance on the specific criterion and is normalized between 0 (worst value) and 1 (best value). If the criterion gi(portal) is a leaf node in the evaluation system tree, its value is directly derived by the users’ assessment for the specific criterion (dimension). In the case that the criterion gi(portal) is not directly assessed by the users but is analyzed to a number of sub-criteria, then ui [gi(portal)] is calculated using a similar formula that takes into consideration the importance weights w of the sub-criteria that consist the gi criterion. Similarly the partial utilities of the lower-level (third) sub-criteria are calculated also taking into consideration their importance weights a. In its full form for the three-level evaluation system of Figure 1, the formula for the calculation of the total utility of a Web portal is: n mi zij U [ g ( portal )] = ∑ p i ∑ wij ∑ a ijk u ijk [ g ijk ( portal )] i =1 j =1 k =1
where:
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• • •
pi is the weight (or importance) for the i-th criterion; wij is the weight (or importance) for the j-th sub-criterion of the i-th criterion; aijk is the weight (or importance) for the k-th sub-criterion of the j-th subcriterion; n
•
∑p
•
pi ≥ 0∀i = 1,.., n ;
i =1
i
= 1;
mi
•
∑w
•
wij ≥ 0∀i = 1,.., n & j = 1,.., mi ;
j =1
ij
zij
= 1;
•
∑a
•
a ijk ≥ 0∀i = 1,.., n & j = 1,.., mi & k = 1,.., z ij ;
• •
n is the number of the first-level criteria; mi is the number of second-level sub-criteria that each first-level criterion
k =1
ijk
= 1;
has (defined as a vector of n values m = [m1 ,..., mn ] ); •
zij is the number of the third-level sub-criteria that each second-level subcriterion has (defined as a number of n vectors z i = [ z i1 ,..., z im ] , i=1,..,n). i
The partial utility function uijk[gijk] is assumed to be linear for every criterion or sub-criterion gijk, respectively. As mentioned before, the leaf values of the partial utility functions are derived by the assessment of this dimension by the users and are normalized between 0 (worst value) and 1 (best value). The third step of the methodology concerns the techniques for the analysis of the evaluation results. In the context of the methodology introduced, the following analysis phases are engaged: •
Descriptive statistical analysis of the initial (not synthesized) evaluation results for each one of the portal dimensions assessed (that is, the
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•
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leaf nodes of the evaluation system). This analysis allows for studying the users’ responses upon each one of the evaluation dimensions separately. It also allows identifying percentages of users with similar responses, frequencies of answers in their responses, and mean values calculation of the responses. Descriptive statistical analysis of the synthesized results from all users upon each level of the evaluation system. This analysis is based on studying the synthesized user responses regarding the criteria and sub-criteria of each level. It allows for an overall view of users’ responses for each criterion instead of the detailed view of specific dimensions that the previous phase allows. Calculation and examination of the global and partial quality performance indicators. This analysis provides the calculation of synthesized performance indicators and allows for their comparison with initially defined goals (for example, achieving a score greater than 50% in the global performance of the Web portal). SWOT analysis: Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats analysis (Johnson, Scholes, & Sexty, 1989) of the performance versus importance is used to examine the “dynamics” of each criterion’s dimensions (in the form of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This analysis provides a tool of assessing the portal’s possible strengths, giving the opportunity to take advantage of them, and the identification of possible weaknesses and threats, providing an indication of current and future risks.
Evaluation Process The evaluation process consists of three stages: a)
Preliminary analysis phase: in this phase, the evaluation experts support the decision makers and portal element experts in the identification of the evaluation objectives, the specification of the values of the evaluation criteria, their mapping to respective satisfaction measurement questions of the evaluation questionnaires, and all other parameters required by the methodology, such as the importance of every criterion and sub-criterion.
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b)
c)
They also specify the details of the evaluation process (when it will take place, how many participants, additional evaluation instruments that might be used, etc.). The preliminary analysis phase consists of two different levels: • Strategic priorities definition: at this level, the evaluation experts support the decision-making actors in the process of formulating the evaluation goals and priorities as parameters of the evaluation methodology. The criteria constituting the first level of the evaluation system are selected (based on the discussion of “Background” section), and each criterion importance is defined (that is, the evaluation experts support the decision makers in representing their priorities in terms of “higher-level criteria weights” upon each one of the Web portal main features). • Definition of elements’ dimensions: at this level, the evaluation experts support the portal elements experts in the process of specifying the methodology parameters related with their field of expertise. Continuing the evaluation system definition, the second and third levels of sub-criteria representing the dimensions of the Web portal elements and the corresponding importance weights are specified. The evaluation experts map each of the lower-level subcriteria to corresponding questions of the satisfaction measurement questionnaire and define their value spaces. Main evaluation phase: in this phase, the main evaluation activities are carried out. Using the evaluation instruments developed in the preliminary analysis, the groups of portal element experts and the users provide their assessment upon each dimension of the Web portal. Evaluation results analysis phase: in this phase, the evaluation experts collect and synthesize the obtained results according to synthesis model. They integrate all assessment results according to the multi-criteria model and perform the analysis of the results according to the phases introduced in “The Evaluation Methodology” subsection.
In the following section we will present the integration of the introduced framework in the evaluation of a real case study of a Web portal: the Greek GoDigital vertical portal for vSMEs’ e-business awareness and training.
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Figure 2. The Go-Digital vertical portal main page
Application: Go-Digital Web Portal Case The Go-Digital Portal The Greek Go-Digital Programme is a national initiative of the Greek government co-funded by the Operational Programme “Information Society” of the
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Greek Ministry of Development and the Operational Programme “Competiteveness” of the Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance under the Third European Community Support Framework. The main objective of the Greek Go-Digital Initiative is to promote the deployment of e-business in very small and medium enterprises (vSMEs) and their familiarization with digital economy. Following the EU policies and international trends, the Greek GoDigital Programme is a massive initiative addressing a target group of more than 50,000 Greek vSMEs as programme participants. In this context, the “Educational Support of the Go-Digital” Programme aims to address the lifelong training needs of vSMEs and their awareness regarding popular e-business issues and the digital economy. The requirement for flexible structures of on-demand training support that can be adapted to the individual vSMEs’ needs and preferences, along with the particularities of the Greek disperse geographical distribution, called for the design and deployment of a blended e-training strategy. This training framework consists of: on-site training visits by trainers; setting up and maintenance of a help desk service that is both telephone-based and online; and development and maintenance of the GoDigital portal (http://www.go-online.gr), providing a set of Web-based services that support e-business training and awareness of vSMEs. The main objective of the Go-Digital e-business training and awareness vertical portal is the establishment and operation of a national Web-based reference portal to support e-business awareness and training of more the Greek vSMEs. The portal offers numerous Web-based services, integrated in the following portal service centers: the Information services center, the E-learning center, the Community services center, the Go-Digital Programme services center, and the Help-desk services center. The Go-Digital vertical portal incorporates such services so that it addresses the needs of a wide audience of end users with diverse profiles. Additionally, several categories of decision-making actors are involved in the process of portal development and evolution. Therefore it constitutes an appropriate case study for the application of the presented evaluation framework.
Evaluation of the Greek Go-Digital Portal The initial evaluation of the Go-Digital vertical portal took place during the second half of 2002, when version 1.1 of the Go-Digital portal was fully deployed. First, a formative evaluation phase was carried out during May 2002
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to technically verify and validate the Web portal services. The proposed framework was not engaged at that phase; the formative evaluation was carried out by a small group of expert users (technical experts, e-business experts, and selected experienced users), who performed a thorough expert assessment that provided recommendations for corrections and improvements before version 1.1 of the portal was fully deployed. A summative evaluation phase followed in September 2002, engaging all actors involved in the Go-Digital portal development and operation: decision makers (a selected group of policy makers related with the Go-Digital initiative and providing the funding for the Web portal development, plus the management team responsible for the overall portal development and operation), portal element experts (involving experts upon all elements of the portal, such as content experts, usability experts, ebusiness experts, etc.) and end users (vSMEs participating in the Go-Digital programme and their trainers). The main summative evaluation goals were: i. ii.
The assessment of each portal service by two different evaluation groups, namely, end users and portal experts. The use of the presented framework for analyzing and comparing the obtained results. The target was to confirm that a total performance of at least 60% user satisfaction will be guaranteed at this early stage of development for both evaluation groups and to identify the main areas of possible further improvements.
The evaluation system of Figure 3 was constructed (based on the discussion of the “Background” section) with criteria that follow the interdependency and exhaustiveness requirements for the specific case study. The appropriate evaluation questionnaires were developed, and a pre-evaluation phase was carried out with two focus groups from each evaluation group specifying their priorities (importance weights) upon the criteria and sub-criteria. To compare the assessment of the end-users’ satisfaction with the assessment obtained from the group of experts, the same evaluation instruments were used. The evaluation questionnaires were electronically sent to the end users registered in the portal’s community and to a selected group of portal experts, together with guidelines for carrying out a set of pre-defined scenarios of use that explored all features of the Web portal. The evaluation experts collected and analyzed the obtained results.
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Figure 3. The evaluation system for the Go-Digital portal
Figure 4. End users’ (Diagram A) and experts’ (Diagram B) satisfaction from the simplicity dimension
Initially, a descriptive statistical analysis of the participants’ assessment of each portal dimension was carried out. The results obtained from the two groups were comparatively studied, as demonstrated in the example of Figure 4. This
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figure presents the percentage proportions of end-users’ responses to the question “How much satisfied are you from the simplicity of the portal environment?” in comparison to the respective portal experts’ responses. This application of the descriptive statistics was useful for studying satisfaction from separate dimensions but did not provide the overall perspective of the Web portal. In the next step, the methods presented in “The Evaluation Methodology” subsection were used for calculating two different types of results: •
First, the synthesis of the responses of each evaluation group was used to calculate the distribution of responses for the higher-level criteria. Figure 5 presents the case of criterion design, synthesizing the assessments from all the lower-level criteria (namely, information architecture, usability, graphical design, and technical integrity and their corresponding dimensions). It is interesting to note that, in this case, the distribution of synthesized responses on a high-level criterion is different than the one of an individual lower-level sub-criterion. For example, the percentage of end users highly satisfied by the overall design of the portal is over 60% although its simplicity dimension highly satisfied only 22% of the end users.
Figure 5. Distribution of users’ (Diagram A) and experts’ (Diagram B) responses assessments regarding the design criterion
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A Flexible Evaluation Framework for Web Portals 205
Figure 6. Comparative presentation of the partial utilities and global utilities of the two evaluation groups (for each partial utility, the respective normalised importance is also depicted)
•
Second, the synthesis of all responses of each evaluation group was used to calculate the partial and global utility indicators. Figure 6 presents a comparison of the synthesized partial utilities of each criterion and the global utility (total satisfaction indicator) for both evaluation groups. The global satisfaction of the end-users group was calculated to be 74%, which is very satisfactory compared to the targeted 60% threshold. Similarly, the global satisfaction of the portal experts group was 67%; that is, lower than the satisfaction of the end users but still over the threshold defined.
The third step involved the SWOT analysis of each portal feature dimension, according to their corresponding performance and importance. Figure 7 presents the SWOT analysis of the obtained results for the content feature and their comparison for the two evaluation groups. It is interesting to note that both groups identified the low performance at the early stage of the project of the usefulness dimension as a potential future threat. This observation led the portal decision-makers to invest more resources to the content development, focusing on creating, finding, and publishing content that is closer to the needs of the vSMEs.
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Figure 7. SWOT analysis for the content criterion dimensions for both evaluation groups
Discussion and Conclusions Web portals are an emerging topic of Web engineering, attracting the attention of both the industry and the research community. As a result, a number of studies and commercial applications have been launched during recent years. In this context, evaluation of Web portals is an important issue towards addressing the user needs and achieving high quality of provided services. In this chapter we presented a methodology and the stages of an evaluation framework that engage multiple criteria analysis and assess the multiple dimensions that affect users’ satisfaction. An additive value function form is used in order to calculate a set of quality metrics that take into consideration the importance weights of each dimension. The analysis phases engaged allow for a detailed study of portal dimensions that affect users’ satisfaction and can identify dimensions that call for a more focused and specialized examination of a specific dimension. They also allow for the comparative analysis of results obtained by different user groups since they synthesize the results in compa-
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rable quality performance indicators. We demonstrated the application of the methodology in the context of the summative evaluation phase of the Greek GoDigital vertical portal for vSMEs’ e-business awareness and training. The focus on user satisfaction as an element of quality for Web applications is an aspect already introduced in the area of Web engineering (Zhang & von Dram, 2001). The development of an evaluation system upon which satisfaction dimensions are reflected appears to be an interesting perspective in the investigation of factors that affect users’ satisfaction in the area of Web portals. A reference evaluation system that can be reused in several case studies, developed upon a detailed taxonomy of portal features and characteristics, could be useful in comparing Web portals. Nevertheless, consistency between the dimensions of the portal features that are examined will have to be ascertained. The presented evaluation system for the Go-Digital portal does not necessarily cover the needs of all Web portals. Therefore future work should also include revisiting the evaluation system specification, taking advantage of related studies on evaluation criteria stemming from different application contexts (Hazra, 2002; Jiang & Klein, 1999; Stylianou, Madey, & Smith, 1992), and validation using statistical methods such as correlation and factorial analyses. The proposed methodology ensures flexibility by the definition of a set of variable parameters (criteria importance weights) that can represent the evaluation stakeholders’ priorities. The priorities can also be contextualized and adjusted according to the application context; related studies have shown that the importance of different features varies in relation to the application domain (Ivory et al., 2001; von Dran & Zhang, 2002). This leads to the reuse of the same evaluation instruments (satisfaction measurement questionnaires) over different evaluations, limiting the required resources. To achieve the objective of synthesizing the results collected from different evaluation groups, there are a number of options. Three alternative solutions are briefly introduced here: a)
Separate the criteria and have each subset of them assessed by a different evaluation group. Then synthesize the assessment results according to the multi-criteria synthesis model of “The Evaluation Methodology” subsection to calculate a single set of quality indicators; see, for example, Siskos et al. (1998). In our case study, we do not adopt this technique since there are several dimensions of the Web portals that have to be assessed by more than one evaluation group.
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b)
An alternative option is for the different evaluation groups to carry out separate assessments upon all criteria, using the same evaluation methodology and instruments. This technique is the one applied for the Go-Digital case study. It allows for the calculation of several sets of quality indicators (one for each evaluation group) and a comparison analysis of the results from the different groups. Finally, a more involved method would be the synthesis of the assessment results obtained from the lower levels. This alternative would require the definition of an extra set of weighting parameters related with the proportion of each group’s assessment in the criterion performance. The study of such a synthesis model can be explored in the future.
c)
The analysis phases allow for the identification of portal dimensions that affect users’ satisfaction and can lead to a more focused and specialized assessment of a specific dimension (e.g., usability). They also allow for the comparative analysis of the synthesized results on each level of the evaluation. The SWOT analysis tool, although rather intuitive in the definition of “strictness” thresholds, provides a visualization of potential strengths and threats regarding each criterion and its dimensions. The definition of the SWOT thresholds also allows for variations on how “strict” the analysis can be upon each dimension. In general, from the case study application it has been demonstrated that the presented evaluation framework can be efficiently integrated in the evaluation activities of a large-scale Web portal. The introduced methodology can be used supportively to the rest of the evaluation methods, and it can provide useful results about the satisfaction of users to the decision makers of the Web portal.
Acknowledgment The work presented in this chapter has been partly funded by the Greek GoDigital Programme and more specifically the “Educational Support of GoDigital” initiative. The Greek Go-Digital Programme is co-funded by the Operational Programme “Information Society” of the Greek Ministry of Development and the Operational Programme “Competiteveness” of the Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance under the Third European Community Support Framework.
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References Adelman, L. (1991). Experiments, quasi-experiments, and case studies: A review of empirical methods for evaluating decision support systems. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC-21(2), 293-301. Adelman, L. (1992). Evaluating decision support and expert systems. New York: Wiley. Avouris, N., Tselios, N., Fidas, C., & Papachristos, E. (2003). Website evaluation: A usability-based perspective. In Y. Manolopoulos et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of PCI 2001: Lecture notes on computer science (Vol. 2563, pp. 217-231). Springer-Verlag. Barnard, L. (2001). Information architecture for Web portals. SAP Design Guild, Edition 3. Retrieved August 23, 2003, from http://www.sapdesign guild.org/editions/edition3/overview_ edition3.asp Blankenship, E. (2001). Portal design vs. Web design. SAP Design Guild, Edition 3. Retrieved August 23, 2003, from http://www.sapdesignguild. org/editions/edition3/overview_edition3.asp Briand, L., Carriere, J., Kazman, R., & Wuest, J. (1998). COMPARE: A comprehensive framework for architecture evaluation. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP), Workshop on Software Architectures. Brusilovsky, P. (2001). Adaptive hypermedia. User Modeling and UserAdapted Interaction, 11, 87-110. Ciolek, T. M. (1996). The six quests for the electronic grail: Current approaches to information quality in WWW resources. Review Informatique et Statistique dans les Sciences humaines (RISSH), 1-4, 45-71. Consumer WebWatch. (2002, January). A matter of trust: What users want from Web sites. Princeton Survey Research Associates. Hazra, T. K. (2002, May). Building enterprise portals: Principles to practice. In Proceedings of the ICSE’02. Ivory, M., & Hearst, M. (2002, March-April). Improving Web site design. IEEE Internet Computing. Ivory, M. Y., Sinha, R. R., & Hearst, M. A. (2001). Empirically validated Web page design metrics. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI’01.
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Jiang, J. J., & Klein, G. (1999, January). User evaluation of information systems: By system typology. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 29(1), 111-116. Johnson, G., Scholes, K., & Sexty, R. W. (1989). Exploring strategic management. Scarborough, Ontario, Canada: Prentice Hall. Keeney, R. L. (1992). Value focused thinking: A path to creative decision making. London: Harvard University Press. Komoroski, M., McKellar, J., & Gair, B. (1998). On-line marketing: Leveraging portals for profit conference papers. In Proceedings of IBC Conferences. Lacher, M. S., Koch, M., & Woerndl, W. (2001). A framework for personalizable community Web portals. In Proceedings of the HumanComputer Interaction International Conference. Levi, M., & Conrad, F. (1996). A heuristic evaluation of a World Wide Web prototype. Interactions, 3(4), 50-61. Mayard, S., Burstein, F., & Arnott, D. (2001). A multi-faceted decision support system evaluation approach. Journal of Decision Systems, 10(3-4), 395-428. Meehan, P. (1998, July). Internet portals! The door or the store? Gartner Group Research. Newman, M. W., & Landay, J. A. (2000). Sitemaps, storyboards, and specifications: A sketch of Web site design practice. In Proceedings of Designing Interactive Systems: DIS 2000, Automatic Support in Design and Use. New York: ACM Press. Nielsen, J. (2000). Designing Web usability. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders. Pearrow, M. (2000). Web site usability handbook. Rockland, MA: Charles River Media. PortalsCommunity fundamentals: Portal definition and types of portals. (2003). Retrieved August 23, 2003, from http://www.portalscommunity. com/library/fundamentals.cfm Rosenfeld, L., & Morville, P. (1998). Information architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly. Roy, B. (1996). Multicriteria methodology for decision aiding. Norwell: Kluwer Academic. Shedro, N. (2001). Experience Design 1. Indianapolis. IN: New Riders.
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Siskos, Y., Grigoroudis, E., Zopounidis, C., & Saurais, O. (1998). Measuring customer satisfaction using a collective preference disaggregation model. Journal of Global Optimization, 12, 175-195. Spool, J. M., Scanlon, T., Schroeder, W., Snyder, C., & DeAngelo, T. (1999). Web site usability: A designer’s guide. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Staab, S., Angele, J., Decker, S., Erdmann, M., Hotho, A., Maedche, A., Schnurr, H., Studer, R., & Sure, Y. (2000). Semantic community Web portals. In Proceedings of the Ninth International WWW Conference. Stylianou, A. C., Madey, G. R., & Smith, R. D. (1992, October). Selection criteria for expert system shells: A socio-technical framework. Communications of the ACM, 35(10), 31-48. von Dran, G. M., & Zhang, P. (2002). A theoretical model of quality Websites: A multi-disciplinary conceptualization. In Annual Meeting Proceedings of the Decision Sciences Institute. Waloszek, G. (2001). Portal usability—Is there such a thing? SAP Design Guild, Edition 3. Retrieved August 23, 2003, from http://www.sapdesign guild.org/editions/edition3/overview_ edition3.asp Warner, S. (1999). Internet portals, what are they and how to build a niche Internet portal to enhance the delivery of information services. In Proceedings of Eighth Asian-Pacific SHLL Conference. Winkler, R. (2001). Portals—The all-in-one Web supersites: Features, functions, definition, taxonomy. SAP Design Guild, Edition 3. Retrieved August 23, 2003, from http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition3/ overview_ edition3.asp Zhang, P., & von Dran, G.M. (2001). Expectations and rankings of Website quality features: Results of two studies on user perceptions. In Proceedings of the 34th IEEE International Conference on System Sciences. Zhang, P., von Dran, G. M., & Barcellos, S. (1999). Websites that satisfy users: A theoretical framework for Web user interface design and evaluation. In Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on System Sciences.
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Chapter X
Web Portals in Government Service Tony Aitkenhead Multi Media Victoria, Australia
Abstract Government portals are not dissimilar to business enterprise portals, although many of these are the entry point to the organisation’s intranet and thus internally facing. The purpose of a portal is to increase the volume of available information, and government portals are becoming gateways or central access points for many e-government initiatives around the globe. They perform this task well as they provide a consistent and easy-to-use interface that allows citizens access to a range of government services. This chapter presents the findings of a review of two Victorian government portals, each of which has implemented different operational models.
Introduction Victoria is one of eight Australian states and territories. It is situated in southeastern Australia. While Victoria is the smallest of the mainland states with
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an area of about 227,000 sq. km, it has a population of approximately 5 million. The population is widely dispersed, although the majority is located near major cities and towns. Victoria has strong agricultural, manufacturing and technology industries and continues to be the most industrialised of Australian states. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria. This chapter presents the findings of a review of two Victorian government portals, each of which has implemented different operational models. Each implementation has its own distinct advantages as well as some important success factors that have been determined through careful analysis after their implementation. There are many definitions of a Web portal. The term is often used in relation to business portals that “… integrate all the business environments of a company—process, applications, and data, to present them on the Web and thereby have a centralized location that can be accessed by customers, employees, suppliers, and trading partners alike” (Mendoza, Griman, Perez, & Rojas, 2002). Furthermore, “Early intranet projects … not to mention some that are ongoing … can be easily classified as content portals. Next in the evolutionary chain are transactional portals … tools that encourage selfservice. These are generally one-off projects. Process portals … are designed to optimize business performance, process portals raise issues about technologies, products and vendors. … Process portals guide users through business scenarios” (Ojala, 2002). The concept is ubiquitous access via the Internet and the underlying technology is the Web server with browser-based access for display. The Web-based user interface is extremely important; as it is familiar to many work environments and readily available in schools and homes, there is a low requirement for training (Butler, 2003). There are many business factors driving the implementation of portals, including the massive proliferation of Web sites and the difficulty this presents surfers in finding relevant information. Another is the large amount of information that is duplicated. The user and business need to ensure information is current; therefore, the more places or sites a business needs to update to keep information current, the greater the risk that this will not occur. Portals also position businesses for future integration of many sources of information from a single point. Finally, portals strengthen security as they provide a single entry point to the organisation’s information and services. “A portal’s purpose is to increase the volume of information available” (Butler, 2003; Miller, 2003), and government portals are becoming the gateway or central access point for many e-government initiatives around the globe Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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(McDonnell, 2003; Victoria, 2002). They provide a consistent and easy-touse interface that allows citizens access to a range of government services. While a lot of discussion is often focused around portal technology and the capabilities of the leading software vendors (Butler, 2003; Butler & Power, 1999; Ojala, 2002), the major value of this key technology is in its implementation and use. Portals allow businesses to collaborate. They also allow intermediaries to collaborate. This collaboration occurs in a seamless manner and is enabled by portal technology. Government portals are not dissimilar to business enterprise portals, although many of the business enterprise portals are the entry point of the organisation’s intranet and therefore internally facing. Government portals are often the entry point for business and citizens to access information or services that are for the good of the community. Portals allow organisations to leverage the information asset because of their powerful search and navigation tools (Butler, 2003). The business demand for portals and content management, that is, getting the right content to the right place at the right time (West, 2003), is driving organisations to invest in portals. According to Butler (2003), key portal functionality should include: easy access to search, personalization options, and subscription and alert options. There are a number of key factors that contribute to a successful portal. Palmer (2002), suggests that “success is significantly associated with Web site download delay (speed of access and display rate within the Web site), navigation (organisation, arrangement, layout, and sequencing), content (amount and variety of product information), interactivity (customization and interactivity), and responsiveness (feedback options and FAQs).” These are important factors to consider when implementing a portal. Return on investment (ROI) needs an active use of metrics and the analysis of them to establish if the content of a portal is effective and whether it is delivering top value to an organisation (Butler, 2003). There is a shift from single-function portals, that is, a traditional Web site, to multi-function portals. These types of portals are designed to attract and meet the needs of a more diverse range of visitors. Enterprise portals are “corporate wide systems built on a larger scale than departmental or line-of-business portals. By centralizing information, streamlining business processes, and connecting people for meaningful collaboration, enterprise portals can improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and build loyalty with employees, customers, and suppliers” (Voth, 2002). While there are many benefits from imple-
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menting a portal, according to Voth, the strengths of an enterprise portal “lie in its potential for integration, for supporting communities of stakeholders, and for collecting, organizing, and dispensing content.” Portal benefits are typically medium term with new functionality usually being introduced on an incremental basis (Butler, 2003; Miller, 2003).
Portal Models The portal model consists of many components, including; technology infrastructure, information architecture, and content management. These elements need to be skilfully blended to ensure portal usability and usefulness. There are two main content acquisition models. The first is primarily based on accumulated content that is sourced from appropriate content partners and then added to the portal. The second model is predominantly based on the notion of “a bundle of links,” where there is very little content held at the portal. The portal is the launching pad linking off to content-partner sites.
Research Method Two mini case studies were undertaken using in-depth interviews of portal managers and a content analysis of their portal. The mini case studies were conducted with two Victorian government departments: the Department of Infrastructure, Multimedia Victoria (MMV) and the Department of Human Services. The Department of Infrastructure, Multimedia Victoria (MMV) operates the Victoria Online portal. The Department of Human Services operates the Better Health Channel.
Victorian Government Portals Victoria established a government online strategy in 1999. This strategy required all government departments to progressively make government information and transactions online over a three-year period between 1999 and Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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2001. The strategy recognized the value for all constituents of having electronic media online. The strategy was driven by a desire to make government processes more efficient, while at the same time making information easy for citizens to find. The government wanted citizen-centric channels, with the Business Channel (http://www.business.channel.vic.gov.au), Land Channel (http://www.land.vic.gov.au), and Better Health Channel (http:// www.betterhealth.vic. gov.au/) as early implementations. These portals have been very successful, and there have been some valuable lessons learnt along the way. The launch of a portal in May 1999 by the Victorian Department of Human Services signalled a shift in the design of delivering government information from a number of organisational-centric departmental Web sites to a “consumer-centric” portal. At the time, a number of government departments were implementing a whole-of-government online strategy. At the core of this strategy was an architecture that proposed a logical grouping of information and services. These were targeted at specific areas of interest to citizens. Information and services were to be provided through a range of media, being delivered in a virtual sense while being citizen-centric. Information and service providers were to be from all levels of government, that is, federal, state, and local government. The Department of Human Services has four key portals: •
•
•
•
The Better Health Channel (http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/)—designed around delivering information and services to citizens and health consumers. The Clinicians Health Channel (http://www.clinicians.vic.gov.au/)—a closed portal designed to support medical clinicians in acute and public health settings. The Funded Agency Channel (https://at.dhs.vic.gov.au/fac/)—a closed portal designed to provide information to government-funded non-government organisations in the health and community services sector. Finally, the Department of Human Services internal portal Knowledgenet delivers a wide range of information and services to departmental employees.
The Victorian government released an e-government strategy in March 2002
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titled “Putting People at the Centre” (Victoria, 2002). This online services strategy reaffirms a desire to use technology to improve government services. It proposes “coordinating and integrating services and information from local, Federal and the State Government and the private sector to make communicating and dealing with government more convenient, relevant and simpler.” It finally suggests that “In some cases it will remove the need to deal with an agency of government altogether by creation of a more convenient alternative” (Victoria, 2002).
The Better Health Channel (http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/) The Better Health Channel’s vision is “to provide Victorian citizens with access to comprehensive, quality-assured, locally relevant, accessible online health and health service information, either directly or through strategic partnerships
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with health information providers.” The principles driving the development and implementation of this health portal are around three key areas: • • •
To improve the health and well-being of all Victorians. To provide high-quality health information, that is, comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date. Thirdly, it needs to be accessible to all Victorians, including those with special needs, remote areas, and rural areas.
Content The Better Health Channel has been built on six main information repositories: • •
• • • •
The first is an information repository, which holds 1,300 health-related articles, with approximately 30 new articles added each month. There is a local services directory that provides the name, address, and contact details of 33,000 health services providers throughout the State of Victoria. Searches can be performed to locate the nearest location of an appropriate health care practitioner. The third repository holds a calendar of approximately 600 health and fitness events. The fourth stores health advice provided by health experts; these guest experts answer about 250 questions each month. Health news from the Australian Broadcasting Commission is held in the fifth information repository; there are about 20 new items per month. Finally, the sixth contains 160 healthy recipes, with five new recipes added each month.
This is extremely popular content and it is continually updated. Other content includes electronic postcards, a medical dictionary and spell checker, and a drugs dictionary. The portal navigation is based on the premise that “successful access to information is dependent on the pathways available.” The site uses thematic
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navigation to assist browsing, with links to content partners. The site can be searched for particular health articles that may be printed as fact sheets, listened to, or sent or e-mailed to a preferred address. Searching for articles is made easy by alternative pathways. Articles may be located either by an A to Z index of topics or by the site’s search engine. Site Metrics The site manager regularly reviews a number of key metrics about site usage. Statistics on page views are extremely useful in understanding the most popular site content, and particular attention is given to the access profile of all new material. This helps understand topics of interest to the community and refine content. Content Creation The site’s content is developed in conjunction with content partners which are third-party expert bodies. There are three main categories of content partners: • • •
Health-related business units with the Department of Human Services, Other government business units, and Non-government organisations that make up the majority of content providers.
The vast majority of content is in the topics or articles section. There are also specialist content partners for managing the multilingual translations of content, creating the audio to support some articles, and maintaining the local services directory. Overall, there are about 220 content providers. Identifying Content Needs Content need for the site is determined by four key strategies: •
The first is by aligning content to national and state health information priorities.
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• • •
The second, by analysing user needs, is determined by a sophisticated analysis of search capture of the site. The third strategy seeks feedback from content providers on their priorities. Finally, consideration is given to current events in health and related areas.
Developing New Content The process of developing new content is based on a three-stage process, content development, content approval for publishing, and finally content publication: •
• •
In the first stage, there is identification of some information content that is needed, that is, a topic. A search is then undertaken for a suitable content partner, which must be a reputable health advocacy or representation body. The content partner then provides the content. Alternatively the Better Health Channel may develop suitable content in conjunction with the partner. Next, the Better Health Channel edits the article to the site’s style. In the second stage, a number of content approvals are required, and both departmental officers and the content provider are involved. In the final stage, content is published on the site.
Publishing New Content The publishing of new content involves a number of important activities. The article for publishing is first loaded into the database concurrently with a number of other files that have been created. For each article there must be an accompanying fact sheet (Acrobat file) created, and a translation of the article into … must also be completed and loaded. An audio file is recorded and loaded. Metadata tags are created and added for searching. Other links are added, and finally the article is published. The site publishes an online procedures manual at http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/process/bhcp.htm.
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Content Partners There are a number of advantages in working with content partners. It is a twoway relationship where both parties add value. Content partners have their content made available from a highly reputable and very successful portal. While the portal (the Better Health Channel) gains the advantage of vast, current, and high-quality information. Content Model The content model is based on pulling content in from partner organisations instead of pushing users out to content on partner organisations. There are major advantages with this approach. A consistent look and feel can be maintained for the site, and this aids user navigation and ensures a high level of usability. A further benefit is that this approach ensures a good and consistent navigation system and good search results when using the search facilities. Most importantly this approach allows effective control over the quality of content accessible via the portal. By contrast, Victorian Government Gateway (www.vic.gov.au) is currently based on a push model. Target Audience The Victorian community is the primary target audience. Secondary target audiences are remote and rural Victorians, health care workers, non-Englishspeaking Victorians, Better Health Channel content partners, and finally current Internet users, whether they are located in residential areas or access the Internet through community access points such as libraries, pharmacy kiosks, or government offices. Portal Services—Subscriptions The portal allows users to subscribe to a monthly health newsletter. Currently there are approximately 2,500 subscribers, and this is growing at a rate of approximately 80 additional subscribers each month.
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Portal Linking The portal has a number of cross-links with other portals, such as the Business Channel, Clinicians Channel, Federal Health and Aged Care Department (http://www.health.gov.au), Health Insurance Commission (http:// www.hic.gov.au/), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (http:/ /www.racgp.org.au/), and the Royal College of Nursing Australia (http:// www.rcna.org.au/). Performance Performance is closely monitored to ensure a positive user experience. There are currently approximately 600,000 pages viewed or 5,000,000 hits per month. Regular analysis is performed of all searches initiated through the portal, and details of articles read by category are examined. Further insight about users’ needs is gained by analysing the “Contact Us” feature of the portal. Through this function, users can lodge a complaint, make a general enquiry, request information, or suggest site improvements. An extremely popular feature of the portal is the “Ask the Expert” function, where users can pose a health-related question to a guest expert of the site and have this answered. The panel of experts changes monthly. The site is regularly benchmarked against other government portals as well as commercial health sites. This provides an indication of the usefulness and relevance of the site. Other general performance indicators include articles read each month, currently averaging 150,000 articles. There are approximately 45,000 searches for information and approximately 15,000 searches for local services. The questions asked of health experts number approximately 300 each month. Organisational benefits from the site include the financial benefit of not needing to supply the equivalent of this massive amount of electronic information in printed copy. Technology The portal is based on a Notes Domino back-end. Development servers are located within the organisation while the production server is outsourced to a commercial provider. There are 15 databases used to maintain and develop content. New functionality is developed on a development server, and content
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is loaded onto another server. Content, once approved for publishing, is replicated to the commercial provider. New Developments A number of key new features are planned for introduction. Personalisation will allow users to customize the site to their own needs. Consideration is being given to including a “personal health tracking” area. There is also the possibility of making the portal available through different form-factors such as PDAs. Key Success Factors There have been four key factors that have made this government portal an outstanding success. The first: the content model ensures all content is pulled into a central repository. This approach enables high-quality information control, currency, usability, and searching. Partnering, that is, developing content with third-party partners, has led to mutual support and a common purpose between the department and the content partners. This approach has also assisted in marketing the Better Health Channel. A continuous improvement policy for the portal, consistently applied to both content and functionality, has been important. Regular additions of new functionality are made to the portal. Finally, recruiting and retaining a team of quality staff to support the portal has been a major factor in its success. Staff have continued to increase their competencies and skills in an evolving technology. This has enabled the continual improvement in the portal’s functionality and content.
Victoria Online (www.vic.gov.au) “Victoria Online is the government entry point for Victorians—funded and managed by the State Government of Victoria—providing Victorians with a single access point to Federal, Victorian State and Local Government information and services. Victoria Online is driven by over 3,500 handcrafted metadata records of key government Web pages and over 50,000 harvested government Web pages.”
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The Victoria Online portal was launched in November 2003 by Multimedia Victoria, part of the Victorian Department of Infrastructure. This key Victorian government initiative is to consolidate and make it easier for all Victorians to find government information and associated services from a single portal. Public advertising suggests “www.vic.gov.au opens the doors to government information and services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” This new channel of access makes it easier to find government information at any hour of the day or day of the week. Other messages include “It’s your online entry point to information on everything from arts and entertainment, to legal services, to paying your bills online. It is confidential, totally secure and the fastest way to find whatever government information one is searching for.” The portal is described as a “discovery portal that delivers high precision searches with a low recall of results” that enables highly relevant search results for portal users. The portal is based around two key paradigms: (a) Search and browse, a subject-based taxonomy, and (b) Search, all three levels of government, that is, federal government, state governments, and local governments. For example, a search for “Aged Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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care” would return hits from any or all sites of these three levels of government. The Victoria Online portal is a key initiative aligned to the Victorian government’s e-government strategy “coordinating and integrating services and information from local, Federal and the State Government and the private sector to make communicating and dealing with government more convenient, relevant and simpler.” The portal may enable the need in some cases “… to deal with an agency of government altogether by creation of a more convenient alternative.” Content Victoria Online has been built around a discovery portal—the concept of site high precision and low recall with both search and browse. There have been approximately 3,000 handcrafted metadata tags developed by Multimedia Victoria to ensure consistency in descriptions. The portal is subject based rather than functional based. There is an integrated search function based on the browse paradigm. This allows a more open view of government, making it easier to discover relevant information. The portal implements the notion of a service pack, that is, pages that relate to a subject— for example, a life event such as “getting married.” Feedback has suggested that this is popular with users of the portal. Site Metrics The portal manager regularly reviews a number of key metrics about portal usage. Statistics on visits (user sessions) and page views are important in understanding the more popular content. Content Partners The key content partners for this portal are the 10 Victorian government departments. It is important that they continue to develop relevant content and then provide the associated metadata tags for their inclusion into the portal.
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Content Model The content model is based on pushing users out to content at partner organisations. There are major advantages with this approach: • •
•
The amount of new content is only restricted by the amount generated by content partners. While a consistent look and feel or navigation varies from site to site, the Web browser technology is intuitive and easy to use. Effective control over the quality of content accessible via the portal is determined by the team that maintains the portal. Before any new Web site is directly linked to the portal, it is reviewed by the content manager.
Target Audience The Victorian community is the primary target audience for this portal. However anyone searching for information about government services throughout Australia would find the site useful. Portal Linking The portal is based on cross-links with other portals, particularly the links to each of the 10 Victorian government departments. The Victoria Online portal allows the dynamic assembly of content for the users’ needs through its tight coupling to approximately 20 other portals, which in turn link off to approximately 4,000 sites. Performance Webtends is used to carefully analyse Web logs to ensure the portal delivers high performance and users of the portal have a positive experience. There are currently approximately 900,000 page views per month. Visits (user sessions) number approximately 100,000 per month. Re-directs (the count taken when someone leaves the site) are excluded from figures. The portal also has a “Contact Us” function that allows the portal manager to receive feedback from Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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users of the portal. The site is regularly benchmarked against other government portals as well as commercial sites, which assists in determining the usefulness and relevance of the portal. Major benefits from the portal include easier access to government information and the convenience of being able to pay for some government services online. Technology The portal is based on IBM Websphere technology that is J2EE based, with a DB2 database used as a data repository. There is very little content stored on the portal server. If a citizen requires a secure transaction session, then this is provided from the site the citizen is accessing. The portal only passes through the initial contact with the site.
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New Developments A number of key new features are planned for introduction, and personalization will allow users to customize the site to their own needs. Key Success Factors There have been a number of key factors that are making this government portal a success: •
•
•
• •
The first has been the major emphasis on information currency. To ensure the portal is relevant and useful, there has been a lot of emphasis on making government agencies aware of the value of the portal so that they invest the necessary effort to ensure their metadata is up-to-date. A second factor has been the ongoing refinement of the portal’s metadata tags once they have been initially created. This has contributed to the high page-view rates the site enjoys. This ongoing refinement of metadata tags is considered essential. Another key factor has been search engine optimization strategies, such as banner advertising and sponsored links advertising appearing in commercial search engines and other portals. This assists the awareness of prospective users. A fourth factor has been the regular addition of new functionality to the portal. Finally, a team of high-quality and competent staff to support the portal has been a critical factor in its success. Staff have invested a lot of effort into ensuring they keep abreast of what people want.
Conclusion Each of these successful portals has implemented different operational models. Both have a number of common success factors and their own strengths and weakness. The dependence on high-quality and appropriately skilled staff is common. Both focus on ensuring metadata records are up-to-date and
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relevant. One portal is based around discovery paradigms and is continually refining the metadata or encouraging providers to do so. The other actively partners with third parties and may jointly develop content with these providers. Once this content is developed, it is stored in its own central repository. Both actively pursue continuous improvement programs for search engine optimization and new functionality.
References Butler, M. (2003). Enterprise portals. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Butler Group. Butler, M., & Power, T. (1999). The e-business advantage (Concept report). Butler Group. McDonnell, B. (2003). First gov citizen gateway. Library Journal, 128(8), 28-31. Mendoza, L. E., Griman, A. C., Perez, M. A., & Rojas, T. (2002). Evaluation of environments for portals development: A case study. Information Systems Management, 19(2), 70-84. Miller, R. (2003). So you’ve built it, Now what? EContent, 26(6), 22-26. Ojala, M. (2002). Forrester Research hosts portals summit. Information Today, 19(10), 1-2. Palmer, J. W. (2002). Web site usability, design, and performance metrics. Information Systems Research, 13(2), 151-167. Victoria, Government of. (2002). Putting people at the centre—Government innovation working for Victorians. Voth, D. (2002). Why enterprise portals are the next big thing. e-learning, 3(9), 24-29. West, K. (2003). Managing content on portals: Integration at issue. VARBusiness, 19(12), 49.
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Chapter XI
Building New Systems for Decision Support in Education: Was There a Baby in That Bathwater? Christopher A. Thorn University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Abstract Decision support is one of the promises held out by proponents of portal technologies. Role-based access to underlying knowledge management systems is touted as a method for bringing decision makers closer to the relevant data necessary for production and delivery processes. This assumes that successful implementation of knowledge management systems is actually common. Davenport suggests that only a handful of types of knowledge management approaches have been tried with any success by large enterprises (Davenport, De Long, & Beers, 1998; Davenport & Marchand, 1999). Repositories and business analytics systems are two of the most common types of knowledge management systems that school districts have attempted to build. This article argues that efforts to build portals are inseparably tied to district knowledge management system
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development. Educational organizations are often resource poor and exposed to many conflicting demands on their IT capabilities. The combination of low resources and high demand increases the risk associated with developing new, complex systems. Moreover, complex information systems have failed to deliver much of their promise across any sectors of the economy (Waters, 2003). Such systems have been proposed by school districts across the United States as part of the solution for improving low-performing schools (Trefny, 2002). Portal technology will be crucial to any effort to use information (and information technology) effectively to support good decision-making in educational organizations.
Introduction A portal is a Web site that aggregates information from multiple sources and makes that information available to various users. Many portals use individual identification (user log-on) and role-based models (knowledge of a user’s membership in one or more categories) to present semi-customized access to and organization of centrally managed data. 1 There are many sub-types of portals in educational organizations, ranging from highly customized systems— such as distance education systems that support flexible, online collaboration between teachers and students—to sites that push prepackaged content and allow virtually no user customization – such as intranet publishing systems that provide staff with access to detailed information on policies and procedures. There are even special cases of voice portals that help parents and district staff to communicate by telephone by providing a single number that parents can call to get information about and respond to questions about homework, discipline, after school activities, etc. Many state- and district-level research and assessment offices in the United States now offer online access to question-driven school report card sites that provide graphical and numeric reporting on the results of standardized tests, broken down by gender, ethnicity, grade, poverty level, etc. While these sites may be identified by the sponsoring agencies as “portals” for school accountability, this model is one step below the level of portal because it does not know the role or identity of the individual performing the query. Likewise, many districts have purchased or are building curriculum resource archives that are indexed by some preexisting taxonomy. Teachers with particular curriculum
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needs can query such systems for available resources in their area of interest. Like the reporting systems, these efforts fall short of portal technologies because they are driven only by the query. They do not tailor the presentation based on the user’s identity. The traditional role of information systems in US K-12 school districts2 is not that much different from the role of such systems in other sectors. School information systems serve three different functions—reporting, business operations, and student management. First, districts need to meet reporting requirements identified by state and federal grantors and regulators. Second, districts need to manage a complex budgetary system and provide human resources support to a distributed set of facilities (schools). Finally, information systems have become increasingly integrated into the day-to-day management of school districts as school-level staff collect and enter attendance, discipline, and outcome data in local school offices or classrooms. Pushing this data entry task into the classroom is often supported by the district-level leader as a means of both distributing the workload of data entry (away from central or school offices) and putting useful data in the hands of classroom-level staff.
Background The Cart Before the Horse—Examining the Informational Needs of Users One the most pressing concerns for IT system builders in light of the recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in the US is creating the capacity to demonstrate learning growth using longitudinal test data. This requirement to provide support for true longitudinal tracking and analysis of student performance on high stakes tests is driving information system development at the state and district level across the US. The problem, in my view, with this focus on annual test outcomes is that it neglects the goal of improving student learning. While large-scale assessment systems may support the decision-making needs of state- and federal-level policy makers, they do not support the arguably more important, learning-focused tasks of district and school leaders (Chen & Lee, 2003). Teachers or building-level leaders need to track the trajectory of learning, which is characterized by frequent, low stakes measures.3 Annual
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tests are so thoroughly divorced from the decisions that a teacher needs to make in the classroom that there seems to be an almost complete disconnect between the two in the minds of many teachers. There are also fairly straightforward arguments against using standardized test scores for diagnosis of individual student needs.4 While annual standardized tests can provide important feedback about the general state of an educational system (depending on the relative breadth or narrowness of the test instrument and its alignment to relevant learning standards), they do not provide the wealth of information that a highly complex educational system needs for making most of its operational decisions. Table 1 is a radical simplification of the various roles within a school district and a representation of the informational needs, inputs, and outputs of individuals in those roles. This table serves at least two different purposes. First, it allows one to consider where information is captured and how information flows between individuals in different roles within the educational system. Second, it provides a sort of checklist for assessing the capacity of existing systems to meet the informational needs of people in each role. While both purposes are important, the second has become increasingly pressing in the face of NCLB requirements for districts and states to meet new demands for detailed reporting, whicn in turn requires access to disaggregated data that is likely to stress or overload existing reporting systems. Table 1 requires a fair amount of explanation since it compresses several dimensions into a two-dimensional representation. First, the roles column lists a set of names that is meant to represent different stakeholders across an educational system. One could come up with a number of additional categories, but, for simplicity’s sake, instruction support can be thought of as including teachers’ aides, learning resource specialists, or other personnel whose role it is to support regular education activities. Special services represents staff providing English as a second language, special education, and therapeutic services. The role of school administrators extends beyond the principal and assistant principal to others with managerial or supervisory responsibilities. Similarly, district administrators can be thought of as including program managers across the various areas within a district office. The column headings in the table actually represent three different elements in the information needs analysis being presented here. The first two columns address the question of whether a particular group enters or extracts data for a particular task. The second pair of columns addresses the question of whether or not data entered/generated is being provided to a higher level of the
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Table 1. Information flows by role Role
Enter data
Get data out Provide data for Provide data for Local data for lower level use higher level use local use
Students Parents Teachers Instruction Support Special Services School Administrators District Administrators Community Members
organization (one or more levels up in the hierarchy) or to a lower level. The last column addresses a concern that is often left unaddressed by district-developed information systems. Most of the data used at any particular level of the organization is only relevant locally. The question posed by this last column is whether the system supports the creation/definition, management, analysis, and use of locally defined data—for locally defined purposes. If one examines the roles and data uses outlined in Table 1, it quickly becomes clear that data collection and reporting efforts across a district make use of a tapestry of paper-based and computer-based systems. There is in fact no single information system that supports the range of needs for even a narrowly defined type of data. For example, in many schools, student attendance is still recorded on paper forms in the classroom which are then delivered to a school office, either in the morning or at the beginning of each period. In the school office, the data is then entered into a central student management system. Data in the central system often is not available at the school level except in the form of reports for predefined uses. One might imagine a number of other possible locally defined uses for the same data. For example, reports could be generated for buildinglevel administrators responsible for monitoring attendance and truancy (or the data might be accessed directly by school staff). Another use would be quarterly reporting to state or federal agencies or private foundations to demonstrate compliance with attendance requirements of a particular project. Finally, reports could be used by supervisors of after school activities to determine student eligibility to participate on a day-to-day basis. In the straw man for this set of examples, data would have been gathered at one level and
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then reported up to district level for a specific administrative use, ignoring the fact that people at other levels across the educational system could have derived additional value from the data. A second important example is the use of standardized assessment data. The most common form of standardized test data is the results of state-mandated tests. In these cases, the test forms are usually provided by the state directly to districts and schools. Students fill out bubble-sheet forms, which are then sent to the test vendor and machine scored at a central site. The data is then returned to the state and district in either paper report or electronic form—sometimes both. State-mandated tests are typically used to hold educational systems accountable for the aggregate scores of different groups of students. The scores are seen as a proxy for the quality of instruction received by the students.5 Test scores are often used at many levels across the educational system. At the highest level, aggregate scores are presented in the media and on agency Web sites. Scores are also used in different ways within districts. At the district level, test-score data is often combined with other performance and demographic data to provide a richer picture of the performance of subgroups across the district and within individual schools. At the school level, the test data is often used as the basis for student placement, identification of children needing remediation, and to provide feedback on the efficacy of the curricula in use. While district-level reporting tasks and more detailed descriptions of schoollevel performance are often supported by district information systems, the more complex local student-management efforts and learning-related tasks must rely on local manipulation of data, using personal-computer-based spreadsheets. Another important form of standardized test data that are often completely missed by district-level systems is the results of locally administered tests. A number of building-level reform efforts rely on tests given more frequently throughout a single academic year to provide feedback to teachers, students, and parents about the trajectory of student learning in core subjects. These tests are often linked to particular curricula or to district-level learning goals and are often not linked to accountability systems. It may be difficult for schools to combine this locally generated data with other important district-level variables that are useful as predictors of student performance unless the district’s information technology system provides support for the storage and manipulation of local data within the central system where this other data resides. One could easily imagine a number of additional examples that would include student attendance rates, discipline, parent or student attitude data collected through surveys, etc. It is this multiplicity of data collection systems and data
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uses that makes portal technologies so compelling. The ability to aggregate information based on role is a vital component of any effort to integrate information resources.
What Forms Do Knowledge Management and Decision Support Systems Take? Before moving on to look in greater detail at the characteristics of a number of currently available information systems, it is important to review the forms of knowledge management and decision support systems. As we have seen, inside school districts there is often a tension between information technology efforts focused on gathering data for mandated reports, and systems designed to support instruction. When contemplating the design of an educational portal system, it is important to reflect on the basic types of decision support systems and their characteristics. In a large set of case studies of large corporations that engaged in system development of knowledge management systems, Davenport et al. (1998) developed the following categories to describe various system objectives. Davenport reminds his readers that development efforts need to be clear and focused to maximize their chance of success. He also points out the difficulty of trying to focus on more than one of these areas. While commercial systems for decision support and knowledge management do not map directly onto educational systems, there are enough similarities to the different system types that this overview is a helpful one. 1.
2.
Create knowledge repositories: a) External knowledge (competitive intelligence, market data, surveys, etc.), b) Structured internal knowledge (reports, marketing materials, techniques, and methods), and c) Informal internal knowledge (discussion databases of “know-how” or “lessons learned”). Improve knowledge access through: a) Technical expert referral,
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Expert networks used for staffing based on individual competencies, and Turn-key videoconferencing to foster easy access to (geographically) distributed experts.
3.
Enhance the knowledge environment: a) Change organizational norms and values related to knowledge in order to encourage knowledge use and knowledge sharing. b) Customers may be asked to rate their provider’s expertise.
4.
Manage knowledge as an asset: a) Attempt to measure the contribution of knowledge to bottom-line success. (Davenport et al., 1998, pp. 45-48)
Systems of the first type, knowledge repositories, have their analogues in educational systems. Recent efforts to develop standards-based learning object collections or less ambitious curriculum repositories are examples of systems that attempt to present external knowledge in a useful form.6 Internal systems that provide “real-time” school performance feedback fall into the category of structured internal knowledge systems. The most difficult system to build in this category is the “know-how” collection that would provide detailed contextual information about how a particular policy was implemented or how a new curriculum was rolled out successfully. The second category of system type, improve access to knowledge, is focused on using technology to either help users with a particular need to locate an expert and/or provide technical support to overcome barriers to collaboration and communication. A system linking beginning teachers or administrators to a team of mentors who can provide timely expert guidance on demand would be an example of this sort of system. The third category, enhance the knowledge environment, is actually an area in which NCLB may encourage a number of new developments. Value-added analysis and the resulting improved accuracy in representing how much and under what conditions students are learning should provide a fair and accurate representation of what is and is not working within school districts. Districts that are able to use this information to improve local practices will be building ties between their reporting systems and classroom practices—something that is relatively rare.
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The other important aspect of this category is that systems are emerging that allow community members to provide feedback and ask questions of teachers and administrators. Some schools and districts have experimented with systems that allow students and parents to rate the feedback they are getting from teachers. Districts that have delegated budgetary and other authority to local schools are getting anecdotal feedback when schools refuse to buy back services that they do not value. The ubiquity of free or low-cost collaboration tools, the growing speed of district computer networks, and the increasing computer literacy of school staff suggest that systems may emerge that reflect school feeder patterns—reflecting personal familiarity between teachers and administrators—or other groupings that grow out of district-level efforts, such as discipline-specific teams’ curriculum design or implementation teams built from subject-area experts across a number of schools. Success in the category of knowledge management as an asset remains as elusive as earlier attempts to determine the returns on investment (ROI) from research expenditures. Davenport et al. (1998) did not find a single example of a knowledge management or decision support system that had been successful in quantifying the returns of knowledge systems to organizational productivity. Given the relative immaturity of decision support system development in educational settings, it is unlikely that one will see any attempt to quantify the ROI of knowledge management systems in terms of student learning. It is not too early, however, to begin to examine how one might evaluate the systems described in the other three categories. One of the solutions likely to emerge from the developers of educational portals is the construction of significantly different services for users in different roles across the district. While there may be some overlap between the information needs of teachers and parents, it is likely that many of the features developed for supporting instructionally relevant decisions will be unique to one or to several roles. For example, one task that parents and teachers might both request of a portal system would be assistance in locating resources targeted to support an area where a student had not met learning standards as previously identified by either standardized tests or in class assessments. However, while teachers and parents might share the goal of addressing a student’s learning needs, the resources a teacher would need might differ from those needed by a parent. A teacher might be looking for a high-strength intervention tied to a more demanding curriculum as a way of augmenting what the student is already experiencing in class. A parent, on the other hand, might not be well equipped to make the connections to a child’s classroom experience and would be better
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served by a stand-alone activity that could be completed at home without direct reference to what the child had done in class. In this example, while the instructional goal is the same, the knowledge and other resources available to the individuals involved and the contexts within which they were to be applied were different enough that the same solution would have been inappropriate.
Why Take an Inventory of Existing Systems? In her work on community colleges, Lisa Petrides (2002) identifies the relative cost of information system purchases as second only to the expense of capital improvement. She also points out that while capital improvements can be amortized over decades, information systems rarely last a decade and are often obsolete after three to four years. Given the costs involved and the related risks, it is not surprising that K-12 school districts are reluctant to give up systems that have already been fielded, but from which they have not yet wrung the expected value. More importantly, changes in educational support systems often have system-wide implications for school-level staff. Reforms that acknowledge the needs and capabilities of the people who will operate and use these systems are much more likely to succeed. A thorough inventory of existing systems and their information flows will provide a much clearer picture of unmet needs, unused capacity, and bottlenecks. It is important to at least begin the inventory process before selecting or adopting a new system. Questions of redundancy, over- or under-capacity, existence of particular data elements, etc. should be addressed before building anything new. Performing an inventory should not be considered a mindless task that does not move the process forward. There are examples of the importance of performing system inventories from other areas of public policy. One consulting group that builds systems for public agencies that provide health care and economic aid has published an interesting set of white papers7 acknowledging that the substantial investments that states and municipalities have made in largescale, older technologies precludes any rapid movement to new tools. Hamblin ( 2001) argues, however, that even these older systems can be improved both by improving the quality of the data being put into them and by improving the customer experience through providing better and more timely feedback that moves the complex process forward. Hamblin uses the example
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of guiding recipients of social services through the complex application process. Providing better information at the beginning of the process (in the correct language) and providing accurate feedback to the applicant and the processor during the progression decreased the time it took to apply and led to higher levels of satisfaction on the part of all participants. There could be a number of parallels to the classroom-level support systems. One example would be in providing tools for documenting students’ opportunity to learn (OTL) particular skills—something that is often a concern in highstakes systems but that is rarely adequately addressed. This might be done by monitoring the completion of in-class tasks that are aligned with particular learning and teaching standards—showing that students had the opportunity to acquire a particular skill or concept. Other uses of classroom-level recording tools might include providing individualized progress reports to parents and students as students move towards mastery in various learning goals or nontechnical explanations of non-traditional curriculum for students to share at home. Much of the data to support these tasks already exists but is kept in systems (or formats such as paper gradebooks) that are not easily accessible or that cannot be easily reformatted and repurposed for anything other than their originally intended use. So, while existing systems may work quite well supporting their initial design targets, the use (and reuse) of information has expanded, and the systems that may have been adequate in the past now fall short. One negative example emerges from research on patient information systems used by hospitals (Cochrane, 2001). The author cites a study by Deloitte Touche of the 100 Most Wired Hospitals/Health Networks in which two thirds of the sites listed did not provide anything that would “save (a visitor) the trouble of calling, visiting, or sending mail to the organization or to its physicians” (p. 3). What this means is that the majority of sites were designed to provide information as a one-way flow and not to support interaction. My experience in a dozen districts across the US and my professional ties to other school-reform research groups leads me to suspect that this statement would very likely describe most K-12 school districts in the US and almost all schools. Of the sites that did provide some level of interaction, most were not associated with getting care—sending flowers, cards, or gifts to patients, applying for jobs, and taking a tour of the facility were more likely features. Of the most highly interactive sites, several allowed physicians to gain secure access to patient information. There were also sites that allowed patients to create health records
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for themselves or for their children, but not one of the secure patient sites in the study provided a method for communicating directly with a physician. I would argue that such studies suggest conclusions that are quite daunting for those seeking to develop portals for supporting school- and classroom-level decision making. HMOs in particular have a number of similarities with school districts. They often have geographic memberships that are complicated by other choice-based affiliations. Data is collected in great detail on the symptoms presented by each individual patient at the point where they receive primary care, but that data is usually stored locally in handwritten form. Only aggregate data is used to measure the output of the physician or care team. As in the case of public schools, patients who go to a care center other than their primary site are only identified as belonging to the system, and there is very little data available for the local caregiver to use to provide context for diagnosis. The patient is often the only source of contextual information—with the inaccuracies that implies. The disturbing factor in this case is that HMOs have the profit motive working for them—a force that is not at work in public schooling. In fact, several health system developers have been fielding systems that would provide strong links between HMOs, physicians, and patients. Epic Systems8 espouses a patient-centric design philosophy that makes Web-based patient chart records the central point around which all online (and most offline) interactions are focused. Many developers and hospitals have attempted to field integrated systems since the mid-1990s. It is only in the last few years that Internet technologies have reached a level of maturity at which secure, Web-based technologies are ubiquitous. This enabling technology has put transaction-cost-reducing patient-physician systems on the front burner for many health care organizations. It remains to be seen if the developers of educational systems will learn from this community. One of the lessons that educational portal developers can take away from the discussion of the patient-centric models of information management is that it is built around the patient. Developers are looking at the paths along which information flows. They are looking at who needs to have access to what information and where they are physically located. What this amounts to is an inventory of the information system (electronic records, charts, forms, etc.), who needs to use this information, and in what contexts. This raises the importance of the inventory as a key aspect of the design process. One could argue that existing student-accountability data systems were designed on the basis of such an inventory, but one that was very limited in scope—considering
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only the reports that were required by external monitors and not those used to track the efficacy of teaching.
Methods for Performing a System Inventory One could approach an inventory process in a number of ways. Databus magazine, published by the California Educational Technology Professionals Association, devotes nearly half of its April 2003 issue to discussions of various aspects of education portals. Of particular interest is the simple framework provided to readers for assessing the variety of portal solutions being offered to schools and districts (Johnson & Lamb, 2003). The authors lay out a threedimensional model for understanding any particular portal’s offerings. These dimensions are 1) Focus—general to specific, 2) Flexibility—static to customized, and 3) Fees—free to costly. System characteristics do not need be spelled out in great detail in order to develop a basic understanding of the costto-benefit trade-offs involved. Table 1 could be used in combination with this simple framework. One could inventory systems in terms of both data flows and storage capacity and indicate where that system lies on each of the dimensions described by Johnson and Lamb. This would provide both a detailed overview and a basis for evaluating alternatives.
Range of Systems Available A number of districts have attempted to develop K-12 portals that provide services to the entire gamut of users. The Houston (Texas) School District fielded a system that was designed to support a wide range of internal recordkeeping and interactive management functions (payroll, leave, etc.), as well as to provide easily customizable Internet sites for each of the district’s schools (“Portal Empowers Houston School District,” 2002). Other districts have used portal technologies to build customized home pages for each student that provide access to important district information as well as links to vetted information sources.
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Resource guides to online materials are another common form of educational portal. These exist at multiple levels. Two of the largest and most widely known curriculum resource portals in education are the Gateway to Educational Materials9 (GEM) and AskERIC.10 Others have been developed by districts (or groups of districts). The example shown in Figure 1 represents a collaborative between five Wisconsin districts and five colleges or universities with teacher education programs. The Curriculum Design Assistant not only supports the creation of standards-based units, it also encourages co-authorship between teachers, provides a mechanism for expert review of submitted curricula, and supports searching across a number of well-understood vocabularies11 used to describe curricula. Although such sites may serve different purposes and have different organizing principles, all are focused on aggregating useful materials for educators and making those resources easier to locate. Individual districts have also developed repositories for smaller scale, locally developed curricula or for providing additional targeted resources not available in existing district textbooks or other resources. The other major trend in portals is toward supporting the reporting process whether internally within the district or to the larger community. The School Improvement in Maryland site12 was one of the first in the US to make demographic and test-score data available statewide within an easy-to-use analytical framework. This site allows users to explore the performance of individual schools at various grade levels and to compare any school or district Figure 1. Milwaukee public schools’ curriculum portal
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to similar units elsewhere in the state who are performing better13 on a particular outcome measure. All links to schools or districts provide e-mail and contact information in order to encourage users to follow up with the leaders in the higher-performing schools to find out how the outcomes had been achieved. In the past several years, a number of states have adapted the technologies and approach used in Maryland to their own statewide reporting systems.14 While technical capacity necessary to create and maintain such systems would be too complicated for most districts, some districts are providing more detailed reporting on their own Web sites as they integrate reports from disparate units within the district to make them available from a single dissemination point. Another recent trend is the emergence of a handful of systems targeted at the needs of students and teachers. One research-based effort stands out above the crowd. The free Web-based system developed by the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at UCLA and called the Quality School Portfolio (QSP) was initially created as a stand-alone Windows-based system for supporting school-level teams engaged in school improvement planning. The software was developed by a team of school improvement researchers and classroom teachers. It was tested and implemented in all US states. The development was funded by federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private foundations. While the original Windows-based QSP tool has been successful in very prescribed settings—it gives building-level administrators analysis and reporting capabilities that far outstrip what has traditionally been available to them— it does not provide support for all levels of the organization and is not wellsuited for gathering data for use at higher levels in the system. As a result of a number of design meetings between the QSP design team, their funders, and other researchers who had implemented the original QSP tool at their own research sites, a new Web-based system has been developed. This is a portal tool for managing data collection, analysis, and reporting at any level of aggregation from the state level, district, school, or room/instructional period level and for any individual—including teachers, students, and parents. The screenshot in Figure 2 provides a teacher-level view of a course gradebook. The tabs across the top show the other system features available to teachers. Teachers can see and manage student demographic and other descriptive data at the individual level. They can also define goals for all students or for subgroups based on any set of data being tracked. There is also a sophisticated reporting system that provides graphic and tabular reports that can be customized for student, parent, or internal consumption. The system also includes
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Figure 2. QSP standards-based grade book view
excellent notification features that allow users of the system to “tell” others about the results of a goal or draw attention to a report. This could be a principal showing a group of teachers the school’s progress towards a grade-level goal or a teacher drawing her mentor’s attention to a particular learning gap displayed by some in-class assessment. One thing that differentiates QSP from other school portal systems is the flexible reporting system. However, the biggest distinction appears in the gradebook. While QSP’s gradebook is capable of handling any traditional form of marking for accountability purposes (percentage correct, letter grades, number right, etc.) and generating mark-period outcome measures, it is also able to capture data about how students are progressing towards the mastery of learning standards. Figure 2 is a view of standards data for some of the substandards for reading and math in this district. Each in-class assignment can be linked to the standard(s) it is intended to target. Teachers record the grade received; they also record the level of mastery this represents for that learning standard. Unlike
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grades, this type of scoring normally shows a progression in mastery over time. For example, a student may get a high grade (an A) on a writing assignment early in the year. However, that same assignment may only challenge the student at the level of basic competency as described by the standard. This would be entirely appropriate for a task early in the semester. This means that teachers can keep track of both how well a student does in the completion of assignments or tests and how that student is progressing towards advanced mastery of the learning standards. This form of record keeping allows teachers to demonstrate progress towards externally imposed accountability standards. More importantly, however, it shows both teachers and students where each student stands in the process of moving towards mastery. Teachers, building-level leaders, parents, and other research teams have been heavily involved in the development and testing of this design. QSP began wide-scale testing beginning in the Fall semester of 2003.15
Information Quality as Guiding Principle Information quality is often an important aspect of information system design within educational institutions. Unfortunately, this focus on quality may be limited to an examination of the data itself. What English (2002) encourages is for developers to step back and acknowledge data users as the arbiters of information quality. In a school setting, information users range across all of the roles identified in Table 1. English argues that, ‘Quality is a customer determination, not an engineer’s determination, not a marketing determination or a general management determination … based upon customer’s actual experience with the product or service, measured against his or her requirements—stated or unstated, conscious or merely sensed, technically operational or entirely subjective.’ Because knowledgeworkers require information to perform their work, the definition of information quality—(consistently meeting all knowledge-worker and end-customer expectations through information and information services)—focuses on them. … Therefore, a true quality method must focus on information producers as important people in the information value chain. … Many information quality problems today come from data that meets only one narrow set of customer needs (my department). (English, 2002, p. 37)
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School- and district-level report cards might meet the quality requirements of some audiences, but like individual student report cards, they provide a rather simplistic aggregation of what is a rich and nuanced process. The perusal of a student portfolio or a teacher’s gradebook and lesson planner provides a much better representation of the scope of data that could be incorporated into a richer decision support system.16 The point made by English that should be taken up by information workers and community members outside district IT departments is that it is data users who are the ultimate arbiters of data quality and data’s usefulness in making decisions. Where portal technologies provide a compelling set of solutions for K-12 systems is in their ability to exploit both types of knowledge management technologies described above—high-level reporting and local support of complex tasks. What a portal provides is a method of identification—both of the individual (through the authentication system) and of the roles of that individual in the educational system (through the definition of group memberships; Carlson, 2001). This is particularly important because of the opportunity it provides the system to access information about the role and memberships of an individual and to support his or her need to manage and use information for specific tasks. The fact that the user belongs to specific groups (and not to others) can be exploited to keep him informed about the state of other members and his relationship to them. This means that one could imagine a portal system that had access to the professional development records of a fourth-grade teacher who is logging into the system to locate curriculum resources to support a particularly challenging portion of her math lesson plans. A comprehensive system could contain data about her expertise—years of teaching, area of certification, exposure to professional development in this area, as well as self-evaluation of the professional development she received (Ellett, 2002). It could also contain in-depth information about the classroom that would link the lesson plan to student scores on in-class assessments. This data would provide the system state17 of the space within which the teacher could search for solutions. It is the just-intime capabilities and ability to focus on personally targeted resources of portals that make them so compelling. While such systems will not be simple to design and build, they will eventually allow schools and districts to leverage their investments in repositories and other knowledge management technologies and to focus more closely on the goal of improving student learning.
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Conclusion While the challenges to improving decision support systems across K-12 school districts are substantial, the payoffs are also potentially quite large. If, for example, a district uses curricula that are tightly tied to learning standards and is measuring the results of instruction with assessments equally well linked to the standards, it would be possible to build a curriculum repository also linked to those same standards. Parents and teachers would be able to search the repository using student performance (or lack of performance) relative to particular standards to find materials appropriate for addressing a student’s specific needs. The key element is the use of consistent learning standards as the organizing principle behind both instructional assessments and curriculum support systems. This model of using standards to bring systems into alignment could also be extended to teacher hiring and continuing education for current teachers. If one linked the training and other professional development experiences of teachers to these same learning standards, it would be possible for district- or building-level administrators to explore the level of training and competency of teachers and provide additional training opportunities or other resources to individuals who needed it most. Such systems would also allow administrators and teachers to look across disciplinary boundaries to see places where writing or reading skills might be taught or more richly assessed in non-traditional areas, such as math or science. Unfortunately, it is not technology that is lagging in this area. Sophisticated systems that support connections to multiple databases, statistical models, and browser-based presentation are available and are becoming affordable. Efforts such as the School Interoperability Framework18 as well as standards efforts around the creation of learning objects19 or within particular disciplines20 are providing the lingua franca necessary for sophisticated repository construction upon which portal systems could be built. The challenge is to overcome the entrenched bureaucracies of educational systems. One of the realities of public education in the US is that schools are controlled and ultimately managed by locally elected school boards. Instructional staff are professionals who are responsible for what occurs in their individual classrooms. This dispersion of authority and control makes implementing any sort of standards-based reform challenging—at best. The independence of building-level administrators and teachers is a common thread throughout the educational system. The level of coordination that would be
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necessary to field systems integrated at this level would be difficult to achieve in the current political environment. However, the unifying force of standards, which cross all of these organizational and political boundaries, presents the best hope for those trying to build services to support educational improvement.
Endnotes 1
Group membership can be used to allow users in a particular role to see only relevant information. This organizational tool helps to both manage users’ rights by assisting in the correct assignment of permissions and reduce the complexity of the interface by hiding elements of the site that are not relevant to the work of a particular group.
2
Most districts in the US require 13 years of education, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Providing feedback on in-class assignments, direct response to interaction with students or groups of students, and detailed responses to errors in homework assignments are all examples of real-time or near real-time assessment and reporting tasks that make up a significant portion of student-teacher interaction.
3
4
5
6
See http://www.fairtest.org/facts/Limits of Tests.html for a discussion of the problems associated with using standardized tests for diagnostic purposes. It is important to note that most district and state accountability systems currently do not take into account individual student improvement but rather simply compare one grade cohort to the next (e.g., fourth graders in 2001 and a different set of fourth graders in 2002). Only a handful of states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas, actually track individual student improvement on standardized tests. Most other states are adding this capacity in response to the NCLB legislation. There are a number of online resources that recommend best practices for the creation and use of online educational content and applying standards. See the following examples, which also provide links to many other related resources: http://www.eduworks.com/LOTT/tutorial/index.html and http:/ /www.learnativity.com/standresources.html.
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12 13
14
15
16 17
18 19
20
See Hamblin (2001). http://www.epicsystems.com/ http://www.geminfo.org/ http://www.askeric.org/ These vocabularies include the ERIC thesaurus, standards from nationally recognized discipline-specific groups, etc. http://www.mdk12.org/ One can also use the system to find similar schools that are performing less well, but the design principle behind the comparison tool is to help users find schools that have been more effective with similar kids. Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have sites based on the technology developed for the Maryland site. See the QSP Website for more information on the features and deployment plans: http://qsp.cse.ucla.edu/. A point that QSP’s designers have taken to heart. Here, the term system state refers to the complex representation of student mastery of the various standards and substandards as well as the resources available to the teacher to address any shortfalls. School Interoperability Framework at http://www.sifinfo.org/. EEE Learning Object standards at http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/ or SCORM at http://www.adlnet.org/. See the Marco Polo partners page for links to a number of national standards setting disciplinary groups at http://marcopolo.worldcom.com/ about/partners.aspx.
References Carlson, P. (2001). A community of practice: Web portals and faculty development. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 13(2), 424. Chen, J. Q., & Lee, S. M. (2003). An exploratory cognitive DSS for strategic decision making. Decision Support Systems, 36, 147-160.
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Cochrane, J. D. (2001). Delivering patient care on the Internet. Retrieved January 4, 2003, from http://www.epicsystems.com/news/pdf/ ht_sys_09_01.pdf Davenport, T. H., & Marchand, D. (1999, March 8). Is KM just good information management? The Financial Times Mastering Series: Mastering Information Management, 2-3. Davenport, T. H., De Long, D. W., & Beers, M. C. (1998). Successful knowledge management projects. Sloan Management Review, 39(2), 43-58. Ellett, C. (2002). Web-based support for teacher evaluation and professional growth: The professional assessment and comprehensive evaluation system. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 16(1), 63-74. English, L. (2002). The essentials of information quality management. DM Review, 12(9), 36-44. Hamblin, E. M. (2001). The HelpWorks™return on investment: Social and economic benefits of implementing a rules-based benefit outreach strategy (White paper). Chicago: Peter Martin Associates. Johnson, L., & Lamb, A. (2003). Portals: Rabbit holes to grand gateways. Retrieved May 3, 2003, from http://www.cedpa-k12.org/databus-issues/v43n2/RabitHolestoGateways8_9.pdf Petrides, L. A. (2002). Knowledge management for school leaders: An ecological framework for thinking schools. Teachers College Record, 104(8), 1702-1717. Portal empowers Houston school district. (2002). Retrieved May 27, 2003, from http://www.transformmag.com/db_area/archs/2002/03/ techselections/ts8.shtml Trefny, B. (2002). A guide to student information systems. Retrieved January 4, 2003, from http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/ TL/2002/09/spotlight.html Waters, R. (2003, June 4). Corporate computing tries to find a new path. Financial Times: Special IT Review, p. 1.
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Chapter XII
Educational Portals: A Way to Get an Integrated, User-Centric University Information System Marko Bajec University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract Portal-based solutions have been proved in practice to be a promising technology that offers companies a way to transform and integrate their information systems more effectively and at lower cost. The main point of this paper is to discuss the use of portals in institutions of higher education. We examine the motivating factors that drive higher-education institutions to use portal-based solutions. As an example, we explain how the University of Ljubljana is taking advantage of portal technology and what benefits are to be expected from the use of portals as core components of the university’s new user-centric information system.
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Introduction Over the past few years portals have become popular in the information system community. Even though there is no common definition, many would agree a portal could be described as a single, personalized interface through which users access all information resources and services in a secure, consistent and customisable manner. As described by Gerry Murray (1999) from International Data Corporation, “Portals connect users not only with everything they need, but also with everyone they need, and provide all the tools they need to work together.” As in many areas, portals have also become of interest in higher-education institutions. Almost all universities are either developing or purchasing portal solutions for their needs (see, e.g., Cunin, Lacombe, Desnos, & Lenne, 2002; Gartner Group, 2002a; Haselbacher, 2002; Río, Taboada, Flores, & GómezSobradelo, 2002; Shaw, Strachan, McCauley, & McCrae, 2002). A good example is the Portal Framework Project funded by Java Special Interest Group (JA-SIG), which joins over 20 universities and colleges with an aim to develop a free, sharable portal for higher-education institutions (Gartner Group, 2000b; Olsen, 2000). The main objective of this chapter is to discuss motivating factors that drive higher-education institutions to use portal-based solutions as essential parts of their information systems. As an example, the paper describes how the University of Ljubljana is taking advantage of portal technology and how the university is expecting to benefit from portal-based solutions in its new integrated, user-centric university information system (UIS). According to the IT/IS strategy plan that the university had developed to start the renovation of its legacy information system, several development projects have been started, among which some are based on portal technology. We have now reached the closing phase of the first portal project, which gives us an opportunity to discuss some of the important issues regarding the implementation of portal-based solutions in view of our experiences gathered through the development. The chapter is organized as follows: after providing some background on portal technology, in particular considering its value for higher-education institutions, the main reasons that led the University of Ljubljana into renovation of its current information system and consequently into incorporation of the portal solutions are explained. Next, the results of the IT/IS strategy plan are examined, emphasising the architecture that was designed as a backbone for
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the new system. After discussing the architecture in general, the paper focuses on the portal solutions that take an important place in the architecture. Finally, the last part of the chapter explains some of the important lessons learned during development of our first portal—a gateway to our new student records information system.
Portals in Higher-Education Institutions—The Motivation As emphasised before, portal-based solutions have become very popular among higher-education institutions. Boston College, for example, sponsor of the portal project, believes that information portals bring universities an opportunity to unlock all forms of internally and externally stored information and provide all members of the community with a single gateway to access information. Compared with enterprise portals, such as Yahoo, Netscape, etc., which aggregate raw information from disparate sources and provide some intuitive and personalized structure for the information, university portals go one step further. They integrate campus-specific information, which is stored in the campus electronic vaults (i.e., databases, file systems, and existing application systems), with unstructured data (text) from on and off campus (Gleason, 2000). There are various reasons why universities are interested in portal-based solutions, but in general, the most common driving factors can be explained as follows: • • •
Systems integration, Utilization of e-business technology, and Providing wider use of data and services of the existing systems.
Systems Integration Several universities are struggling to have their systems integrated and working as a whole. Typical UISs comprise several subsystems, applications, tools, and legacy systems. Since in most cases these systems were developed over a long
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time period and due to the fact that in the past not much effort was spent on integration (at the time when universities were establishing their first computerbased information systems, the integration technology was not yet available), the UIS components are rarely integrated and often do not provide any means to communicate among each other. Increased use of the Internet and the need to manage legacy systems while gaining advantage from newer technologies are therefore the main reasons that drive universities in systems integration. In this view, portal technology presents an opportunity for universities to transform themselves more effectively, without first having to throw all the legacy systems away and then develop new systems at great cost (Gleason, 2000).
The Need to Provide Wider Use of Data and Services Available in Existing Systems Even though institutions at universities possess robust information systems, students, teachers, and managers underuse them or do not use them at all (Newton et al., 2003). The fact is that traditional UISs provide little to no support to users other than staff. The systems are purely designed for administration. On the other hand, there is a lot of data collected in the existing systems that could be very beneficial if accessible to teachers and students as well. Providing them with direct access to the UIS would significantly simplify several procedures and processes, which in the current information system require intervention of the administrative staff. From this point of view, portals present the most natural way of facilitating various UIS users with access to the information they require at their work.
The Need to Utilize E-Business Today, most companies and governments use the Internet as a way to introduce and bring their services closer to customers. The same phenomenon has been present also among education institutions. In fact, in many countries one of the first steps in e-business evolution is to provide all the education institutions with access to the Internet, which provides infrastructure for distance learning, distant data access, etc. Again, portals prove to be useful technology when the Internet with good-quality network connections is available.
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The reasons mentioned are only the common ones. Certainly, there could be also other motivations driving universities and other higher-education institutions into use of portal technology. In the next section we will explain why the University of Ljubljana accepted the decision to use portals as essential components of its information system.
The Case at the University of Ljubljana At the University of Ljubljana, the use of portal technology was stimulated by the renovation of its existing information system, which is required due to the organizational changes the university is currently facing. The changes are expected to have several implications on the UIS, which in its current state will no longer support the university’s needs. To this end, the university developed an IT/IS strategy plan that set down the required course of actions. This section gives some information about the University of Ljubljana in view of the upcoming changes and explains the results of the IT/IS strategy plan.
Developing an IT/IS Strategy Plan as a Response to Upcoming Changes The University of Ljubljana is, with its 26 member institutions, the largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 59,000 students, more than 2,600 teaching and research personnel, and about 1,250 administrative staff. According to its finances, the University of Ljubljana is a kind of state university funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. Its distinguishing characteristic is that it allows its members to have great autonomy in their work. In addition, the member institutions are financially independent; they receive funds directly from the ministry. In the future, however, this is going to change. A number of activities will be centralised and managed by the university. All the correspondence with the ministry will be coordinated centrally by the university as a whole. From then on, the university will make necessary contracts with the ministry and will be entitled and responsible for receiving and distributing funds to its members. Another important change that is affecting the university and its processes is the new approach in developing curricula. The university is adopting the so-called
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credit system, which will allow students to choose among many courses, irrespectively of the institution where the courses are delivered. In the past, this was hardly possible, as the curricula were rigid and only based on courses delivered at a single institution. The new curricula tend to be more flexible in this respect and will consequently require a higher level of collaboration between the university members. Being aware that the aforementioned changes will impact on the university’s structure and operations. The university initiated the development of a strategy plan with the following objectives: • • • •
•
To establish a link between university strategy (vision, mission, strategic goals) and its information system. To identify possibilities for common IT solutions (for UL members) in administration, management, and education. To provide a basis for systems integration: existing systems, planned systems, and systems in development, transition, or adaptation. To organize the development projects required to facilitate the changes considering time, finance, and staff resources as well as technical dependencies between UIS subsystems. To highlight organizational problems at deploying IT solutions and, if necessary, to suggest organizational changes that will lead to better exploitation of IT.
The project was started in August 2001 and was successfully finished five months later with the support of a complete university board (Krisper et al., 2001). It revealed many weaknesses and problems of the existing information system and proposed several solutions. As an important deliverable, the strategy plan determined how the new information system architecture should look. The architecture is depicted in Figure 1. The architecture comprises a number of interconnected subsystems. Some of them are required for each member institution (each member institution has an instance of the student records information system, finance and accounting system, human resources management system, etc.), while others, such as the higher-education enrolment system or decision support system, are provided to support centralised activities and are therefore supposed to run at one location as a single instance. As depicted, data is captured from each member
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Figure 1. Recommended architecture for the future UIS
institution into a data warehouse that provides a basis for the decision support system. The system is required to support the management level of the rector’s office and university but also serves as an analytical tool for member institutions. Taking into account the significance of having a common and secure way to access the UIS subsystems, the architecture recommends developing a portal that will take care of all the access rights and navigation to various information and services available for UIS users.
The Portal as a Common Interface Between UIS Users and UIS Subsystems Among all the specific applications and supporting systems that are recommended by the strategy plan the portal takes an important place (see Figure 1).
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It represents a boundary system or interface that allows UIS users to communicate with the UIS subsystems in a secure and personalized manner. The decision to incorporate portal technology in the new UIS was based on a thorough investigation of contemporary technologies that was done as part of the strategy planning. According to the EMRIS methodology (Siliè et al., 2000), which was employed in the project, evaluation of available IT and its implication for the information system is a compulsory activity of the planning process. In this evaluation, the portal technology turned out to be an extremely useful and appropriate solution when systems integration and accessibility were in question. We realised that just having all the subsystems developed and integrated into a working whole supported by communication infrastructure, data warehouse, document system, management system, etc. will not be enough. This will only give an infrastructure holding all the information assets required by various users, but what will be missing is an appropriate and effective interface through which UIS users would be able to access the system.
Figure 2. User access to the old UIS
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Not only the administrative staff requires such an interface, also students, teachers, and managers are expecting to have a way to access the information and services they require at their work. In the current information system, only staff members have access to the subsystems and are therefore are forced to prepare various reports for UIS users, taking into account their position and rights. But in reality, users don’t really make good use of this opportunity since the way to get to the information is simply too complicated (see Figure 2). In the new UIS, all the registered users will have access to the UIS subsystems. A common interface—a portal—will be used to take care of the system’s
Figure 3. Portal as a common interface between UIS users and UIS subsystems
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security and to provide a common GUI with access to the subsystems’ functionality according to the user’s privileges. As indicated in Figure 3, the portal will only serve as an interface to the functionality that will be available for particular users, while implementation of the functionality will still remain at the UIS subsystems level. Unfortunately, the strategy plan revealed that several UIS subsystems require modifications before their functionality can be integrated into the portal, mostly because of the changes the university is expecting or because of the technology on which they were developed. An additional obstacle preventing the university from starting the portal development immediately was the fact that, as depicted in Figure 3, the development of a common portal would require a thorough and detailed analysis to capture all the requirements and specifics of each member institution and each user group. Only this way, professors, students, and other users who before didn’t have direct access to the UIS would be able to express their expectations and requirements about the new UIS. Unfortunately, quite a few members of the university behaved quite impatiently, trying to start their own projects, especially for the SRIS. This rather conflicting situation led the university to a decision to start with the renovation project right away and to follow up with the portal development. Interestingly, as it turned out later, the renovation of SRIS also laid down a foundation for the future common UIS portal. This is explained in more detail in the next section.
Renovation of the Student Records Information System (SRIS) Legacy System At a typical university, the student records office staff is responsible for all administrative tasks dealing with enrolment, examination schedules, examination records, degree records, and various statistical surveys showing student progress from year to year. In order to automate these activities, a computerbased SRIS was developed at the University of Ljubljana in 1994 (Mahnic & Vilfan, 1995). Given the fact that the University of Ljubljana is rather decentralised, each member institution (viz., faculty, academy, or college) maintains its own information system, which is implemented in a local area network of personal computers sharing a common database. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Even though experiences have shown the system satisfies the basic needs of the student records office staff, it has become rather annoying that it lacks the possibility to utilize e-business technology (Mahnic, 2001). For example, students can enter their examination applications and requests for various official statements (e.g., a transcript of completed examinations) only from workstations within the faculty premises, but they cannot use these functions from their homes. During enrolment, they must still fill a special enrolment form instead of providing the corresponding data electronically. Similarly, teachers must inform the student records office about examination dates and examination grades using special forms instead of entering the corresponding data directly in the computer database. Renovation of the SRIS was therefore required not just because of the changes that were expected (e.g., introduction of the credit system), but also because of the technology that in the old SRIS only supported on-site work. The functionality that was available was purely designed for administration and was thus only available for staff users. Considering these shortcomings, the following requirements for the new SRIS have been highlighted: • •
• • •
The new system should provide not only the staff, but also students and faculty with all necessary information regarding the teaching process. The new system should simplify administrative tasks and reduce paperwork by the introduction of electronic business methods wherever appropriate. In such a way, a more efficient and better communication between all parties involved (viz., students, faculty, and staff) will be achieved. The new system should be based on scalable architecture, which will allow for further extensions. The new system should offer robust functionality, which will satisfy the needs of all member institutions. The new system should provide a high level of security.
Since several requirements from the above conform to the features of portalbased solutions, the decision was made to develop a Web-based SRIS, which will use portal technology to allow all users to access the system through a common gateway. At the same time, this will provide a basis for further
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Figure 4. Renovation of SRIS
extensions of the portal, which will eventually become a common university portal. After a year and a half, the SRIS renovation has been successfully completed. All the functions that were required to facilitate staff, students, and faculty have been developed. For now, the new system is being used at three member institutions, which have all expressed their satisfaction. As shown in Figure 4, within the renovation we have also implemented a portal which can be now extended into a common desktop for the UIS users.
Encountered Problems and Lessons Learned As emphasised before, there were several problems encountered during the SRIS renovation. The issues that were debated and we think could be of interest for the further development are highlighted in the following.
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In-House Development versus Outsourcing One of the challenges an organization faces when considering a portal approach is determining whether to develop an in-house solution, outsource the development, or purchase a commercial solution. In our case, purchasing a commercial solution was a possibility that was eliminated in the first place. Even though there are several vendors offering enterprise-wide portals for education institutions (e.g., Blackboard, Peoplesoft, Campus Pipeline, MyBytes, etc.), it was quite impossible to choose a solution that would be acceptable to all member institutions. It seemed easier to develop a solution based on requirements and knowledge gathered during development of the old system. Another important fact that was taken into account when deciding whether to develop an in-house solution or outsource the development was the fact that at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science of the University of Ljubljana, we already had some experiences with the development of SRIS, as we developed the old system. This was probably the most important reason that persuaded the university to entrust the development to our team. Outsourcing the System Maintenance Another issue that turned out to be a problem is system maintenance. Although the University of Ljubljana has a special organizational unit, called the University Computer Centre, that is responsible for UIS administration, maintenance, and development, in the past the university member institutions complained of their work. The unit is simply too small to be able to cover the maintenance for the whole university and its members. Similarly, our team is not able to take care of the maintenance due to several other obligations we have with teaching and research. Based on that, the university accepted our recommendation to outsource the maintenance. According to our suggestion, maintenance will be committed to the company that has been collaborating with us during the development. At first, we both will be responsible for interventions, but in the future the company is expected to take the maintenance completely over. Common Solution versus Common Standards The problem with convincing the university member institutions to wait for a common solution was actually the major problem that was encountered during
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the renovation. Our general idea was to develop a portal-based platform that will eventually become the desktop for all the university members. As indicated in Figure 4, the project started with the renovation of the SRIS, while other subsystems were planned to be integrated later. This idea anticipated that all members of the university will use the same systems for the same areas, for instance, for student records, finance and accounting, etc. However, due to the fact that several institutions had already been renovating their subsystems, this was not possible. As a result, there was poor coordination and lack of standardized technology architecture. To ensure the university will still be able to capture data from their members and provide it to the data warehouse and decision support system, the following actions had been taken: •
•
In the first place, the university established a special body that was entitled to determine a minimal set of common standards for SRIS. The standards included: a list of core functions any SRIS must support, a common data model (the entities that are required to support the core functions plus entities required to integrate the SRIS with other systems), and a common technology architecture that can ensure the system stability, security, and performance. After the common standards were defined, the university informed their members that in case they decide to develop their own systems, they have to follow the standards. Otherwise they won’t be able to prepare data for the data warehouse nor use the decision support system or any other centralised system.
Using Front-Loaded Methodologies is More Appropriate than Using Methodologies Focusing on Implementation During the first portal project, the development team took time to discuss methodologies and approaches that are appropriate for portal development. Compared with a typical business application development, portal solutions require more effort to be spent on requirements engineering and analysis of the system. This is because of user orientation, which is specifically important for portals. Activities that deserve special attention are: determination of the user groups and their privileges, GUI design, methods and techniques for personalization (services that are offered by the system depend on the group to which the end user belongs), customisation, etc. On the contrary, implementation of
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a portal is often not so complicated. Firstly, a typical portal does not implement its own functionality but offers services that are implemented in other systems. And, secondly, there are several development environments, such as Oracle Portal or Microsoft Sharepoint, that are actually portals in their own right. Such environments already implement the main portal features and thus enable rapid portal development. Hence, front-loaded methodologies focusing on analysis and design seem to be more appropriate for portal development. Unfortunately, in our case we couldn’t afford to spend much time on analysis, as member institutions were not willing to wait. Security Policy An important issue that deserves special attention in portal development is also security. On one hand, portals make access to information and services comfortable, since they provide users with a common interface, but on the other hand, they present risk, as they bring all services, even critical ones, very close to users. In order to avoid misuse of information and assure safe communication, security issues such as access restriction and data encryption must be carefully considered. In our case, the decision was taken to use digital certificates that Slovenian citizens (as well as foreign students) can obtain from the authorized government agency in order to ensure proper authentication of each system user. Additionally, special audit fields were established that capture IP address, user name, and system time every time an operation is done on the database.
Conclusion In this chapter portals were described as a promising technology that tends to help universities in transforming their legacy systems towards integrated, usercentric information systems. The systems integration, utilization of e-business technology, and the wider use of data and services that are typically available through various non-integrated and legacy university subsystems seem to be the key to the use of portals in academic environments. As indicated by the Gartner Group (2000a), not many IT environments are as complex as those found in colleges and universities. These are typically large and decentralised, including
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administrative systems, e-learning platforms, library and research systems, etc. In this view, portals bring an opportunity for academic environments to transform themselves more effectively, using existing systems as providers of the functionality, which is offered to the academic community through a single secure and personalized gateway. Unfortunately, in practice, ideal solutions are very hard to achieve as there are always obstacles, political or other reasons, driving decision makers to accept imperfect solutions. The way the University of Ljubljana is transforming their old system into a new integrated and usercentric information system has been hindered by several such obstacles as described in this chapter. The solution that has been developed is thus far from optimal, but it has laid down the backbone of a gateway which might in the future become a common entry point for all the university members.
References Cunin, P. Y., Lacombe, C., Desnos, J. F., & Lenne, C. (2002). The oortal of “GreCO-Universités”. In J. M. Santos & L. M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The changing universities: The challenge of new technologies—Proceedings of the EUNIS’2002 conference (pp. 60-67). Eisler, D. (2000, September). The portal’s progress: A gateway for access, information, and learning communities. Syllabus Magazine, 14(1). Retrieved from http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/sept00_fea.html Gartner Group. (2000a). Higher education enterprise portals (Gartner Group Research Note, SPA-11-0354). Gartner Group. (2000b). JA-SIG’s community-sourced portal for higher education. (Gartner Group Research Note, P-11-9781). Gleason, B. W. (2000). Boston College university-wide information portal: Concepts and recommended course of action Retrieved from http:/ /www.mis2.udel.edu/ja-sig/whitepaper.html Haselbacher, F. (2002). Design and operation of a Web-databased universityinformation-management-system. In J. M. Santos & L. M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The changing universities: The challenge of new technologies— Proceedings of the EUNIS’2002 conference (pp. 157-162). Krisper, M., Bajec, M., Rupnik, R., Mahniè, V., Rozanec, A., Jakliè, J., et al. (2001). Information system strategy plan for the University of
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Ljubljana. University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science. Looney, M., & Lyman, P. (2000, July/August). Portals in higher education: What are they, and what is their potential? EDUCAUSE Review, 28-35. Mahnic, V. (2001). Requirements specification for the first phase of the estudent project. University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science. Mahnic, V., & Vilfan, B. (1995). Design of the student records information system at the Univeristy of Ljubljana. In J. Knop (Ed.), Trends in academic information systems in Europe—Conference proceedings (pp. 207-220). Murray, G. (1999, May). The Portal is the desktop. Group Computing Magazine. Newton, L., Visscher, A. J., Bajec, M., Kennedy, A., Kereteletswe, C., Nolan, P., et al. (2003). Management systems in the classroom: Prospects for the future. In I. D. Selwood, A. C. W. Fung, & C. Mahony (Eds.), Management of education in the information age: The role of the ICT: IFIP TC3/WG3.7 Fifth working conference on information technology in educational management (ITEM 2002). London: Kluwer Academic. Olsen, F. (2000, May). Institutions collaborate on development of free portal software. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Information Technology, 5. Río, J., Taboada, J. A., Flores, J., & Gómez-Sobradelo, M. V. (2002). Design of a web-based MIS for the USC using multiple data sources. In J. M. Santos & L. M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The changing universities: The challenge of new technologies—Proceedings of the EUNIS’2002 conference (pp. 163-166). Shaw, T., Strachan, A., McCauley, G., & McCrae, L. (2002). The portal as the framework for the information strategy? In J. M. Santos & L. M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The changing universities: The challenge of new technologies—Proceedings of the EUNIS’2002 conference (pp. 282289). Siliè, M., Colnar, M., Krisper, M., Rupnik, R., Bajec, M., Rozman, I., et al. (2000). EMRIS—Unified methodology for information systems development—Strategy Krisper, M.important for the future development.lity that is offered to wider set of users through one, Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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common, secure and per planning. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Centre for Informatics. Woods, K., Boice, M., & Hudson, M. (2002). The evolution of the digital campus. In J. M. Santos & L. M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The changing universities: The challenge of new technologies—Proceedings of the EUNIS’2002 conference (pp. 314-318).
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Chapter XIII
Intelligent Portals for Supporting Medical Information Needs Jane Moon Monash University, Australia Frada Burstein Monash University, Australia
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to review the way portal technology can assist users seeking medical information. There has been an increase in health Internet usage, and better health-care delivery outcomes are predicted as users are better informed when making medical decisions. At the same time, there is much concern about the need for medical portals to meet community information needs. This chapter discusses what constitutes an intelligent portal, discusses desirable portal components and attributes of intelligent portal features, and how these can be implemented to meet the needs of diverse users. Seven Australian medical Web sites have been analysed according to intelligence features. The results and analysis are presented and discussed, in particular, with respect to their functionality as defined for intelligent portals. The discussion is focused on the extent
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to which these attributes help users with their information seeking and therefore support their decision-making processes.
Introduction Internet technology provides a useful and easy information channel, which enables various content materials to be streamlined to users on request. The amount of information that is now available electronically is as large as that produced in nonelectronic form since the development of print media. With the global proliferation of Internet use, obtaining information in this way has become the norm for many. This presents opportunities for providing the most relevant and current content to users when they need it. Information relating to health is no exception; more and more people are relying on the Internet as a way of accessing information relating to health. Research shows that one in four of 80 million users of the World Wide Web in 2000 visited at least one medical Web site, and the number of visitors to such sites grew faster than with other sites in general (Murray, 2002). However, studies show that many Internet users looking for information are often frustrated by a large amount of irrelevant information retrieved by search engines and by the time it takes to obtain truly relevant information. Personalization and customization of the interface through portal technology are a timely response to these problems (Finkelstein & Aiken, 2000). There are many definitions of portals. Merrill Lynch in November 1998 described portals as “applications that enable companies to … provide users with a single gateway to personalized information needed to make informed business decisions” (Quirk, 2001, p. 2). A very generic definition of a portal is as a single gateway connected by a server that connects people with information (Harvard Computing Group, 2002). The limitations in portal technology and specific human behaviour are factors affecting the efficiency of information retrieval. Consequently, modern portals are built with the intent of implementing some intelligent ways of catering for different needs. Improving in portal technology and understanding the dynamics of human nature can improve information retrieval. The aim of this chapter is to review the way portal technology can assist users in broader community contexts. In particular, we look at how portals are
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employed for meeting community medical information needs and ways to improve these medical portals. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these portals behave “intelligently” in addressing users’ needs. The analyses of medical portal intelligence issues are discussed in terms of search engines, spell checking, “sounds like” indexing, parsing, ontology, use of thesaurus, personalization, and decision facilities or expert system functionality. Finally, Australian medical portals are analysed in order to illustrate the problems and opportunities of intelligent community portals.
Health Internet Usage Increasingly people are seeking medical information on the Internet. In America, Ehrenberger in 1991 predicted that by 2005, 88.5 million Americans will be using the Internet to seek health information (Ehrenberger, 2001). The current survey exceeds his prediction. According to the Harris Interactive consulting firm, health Internet users grew exponentially from 50 million in 1998 to 69 million in 1999, 97 million by year 2001, and reached 110 million in year 2002. The research concluded that: The Internet continues to be used by huge, and growing, numbers of the public interested in getting information about particular diseases or treatments or about staying healthy. The results also demonstrate the critical importance to health care websites of the need to be quickly and easily accessible through search engines and portals. (Taylor, 2002, p. 1)
Brodie et al. report (2000) there is no significant difference in informationseeking habits due to age, and there is a direct correlation between computer usage and access to health information: Once people gain access to the Internet, its use at home to get health information is similar across income, education, race and age. Therefore the number of persons using the Internet to access health information should rise along with computer use. (Brodie et al, 2000, p. 262)
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A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2002 on Internet usage shows that there has been a gradual increase in the use of computers and the Internet at home. In 2000, 53% of households (3.8 million) had a computer, an 11% increase over 1999. About one-third had Internet access, a 49% increase over 1999. The Australian Government is taking a proactive role in developing medical portals to encourage general use of the Web for the dissemination of medical information (National Health Information Management Advisory Council, 2001). Australian government portals such as HealthInsite and HealthFinder argue that the better informed the users are, the better their health outlook (National Health Information Management Advisory Council). Because there is an increased usage of the Internet and because medical information is one of its most valuable resources, the control of this content is very important. Research shows that the degree of trust people have in the content of the information from medical portals is increasing (Ho & Tang, 2001). Anecdotal evidence suggests that some users prefer information from the Internet over advice from their consultants. For example, a woman who was recommended to have a splenectomy (removal of spleen) by her consultant refused surgery twice. However, she changed her mind after she read the same information on the Internet. She put more trust in the information she read from the Internet than her consultant. Ho and Tang showed that of their 1,232 respondents more than 60% believed that the Internet contained more in-depth information than either TV or newspapers. Whilst Ho and Tang’s research reveals trust shown by the users, there are conflicting reports, however, suggesting that users are still confused about the material they read from medical sites (Wilson, 2002). There is also an issue of retrieving vast, complex, and widely distributed medical information. How do you retrieve correct, relevant, and reliable information in a timely manner? How do you know when you have searched enough? It is extremely difficult for users to access the exact type of medical information they need (Shepherd, Zitner, & Watters, 2000). Whilst there is a growing number of Internet users and reliance on information from these sources, many users looking for information are often frustrated by the amount of irrelevant information retrieved via search engines, the time it takes to retrieve this information (Finkelstein & Aiken, 2000), and its perceived quality (Wilson, 2002).
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Current Portal Technology In Latin, the word porta means a door, gate or gateway, entrance, or opening. A portal can be defined as a gateway to information (Clarke & Flaherty, 2002; Quirk, 2002; Rao, 2001). It is Web-based and connects a set of commonly used information or services via a link from a single page (Notes, 2002; O’Leary, 1999). There are many types of portals. In general portals can largely be classified into four categories: • • • •
Corporate or enterprise (intranet) portals; E-business portals; Personal portals; and Public portals. The public portals include general public portals such as Yahoo, AOL, AltaVista, and community portals.
The types of medical portals we will be looking at are community portals. Some of the functionalities that can be implemented into medical portals are as follows (Collins, 2001; Millen, 2000; Tushkar, 2000): • •
•
• •
Browse/Navigate documents—this allows users to search for and locate information manually by navigating through a directory structure. Collaboration—represents an important aspect of a portal and is a powerful tool. It includes instant messages such as “chat,” document sharing, videoconferencing, virtual conferencing, and discussion forums. Content management—a process of approving, authoring, delivering, maintaining, and publishing content integrated with or accessed from a portal or other Web site. This can be implemented as a separate component with a common database accessible through the portal. Directory—a directory within the portal’s enterprise taxonomy. It is a collection of data structured into a hierarchy of categories. Document management—similar to content management but mainly dealing with control and management of an enterprise’s documents. It involves managing electronic files, including scanned images of pictures and documents.
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Personalization—portal personalization can be achieved at different levels. An individual can have a personal setting; a group of people sharing the same function can have group settings. An organization can set up its own setting. This feature allows a portal to be customized according to needs. Search engine—the ability to search is the fundamental component of a portal. It allows users to browse the content, retrieve information on the content basis, and link to other repositories for information. Subscribe/What’s new—allows users to register an interest in a particular aspect of a portal. Portals then notify the user when changes in content occur. Taxonomy—a classification scheme to organize information. Additional functionalities, such as metadata added to the taxonomy, could help to organize documents into different categories that could make the information easy to browse, search, or navigate. Online community—provides the opportunity for users with similar interests to share their medical conditions and experiences. This could range from sharing experiences of treatment to discussing medical conditions and alternative medicine.
For the purpose of this chapter, we assume that a portal is an Internet-based information system providing uniform access to different sources of information in an enterprise and maintaining dynamic links to information resources. A portal supports communication within the enterprise and connects people with information and applications they need for performing tasks. Unlike a conventional Web site, portals should support both push (subscription) and pull (search) functions in assisting users to gain access to essential contextual information (Probst, Raub, & Romhardt, 2002).
Intelligent Medical Portals The term “intelligent medical portal” refers to a Web gateway environment that allows users with varied medical interests and diverse backgrounds to access medical resources and information to support their decision-making processes, which often involve critical medical problems.
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Current portal technology fails to deliver the types of medical information needed by users (McKemmish, Burstein, Manaszewicz, & Fisher, 2002). In the following paragraph, some of the users’ experiences are included to illustrate this deficiency of portal technology. A 44-year-old female who wants to go on a Pap smear registry so that she can be notified automatically every two years could not get a satisfactory answer from the Australian government medical Web site, HealthInsite. It provided her with hyperlinks but these were not operational—not much use to the user. She was inundated with general information on Pap smears instead. In another medical Web site, Health Network, users were encouraged to write to the consultants. An enquirer’s e-mail did not get an answer for 3 weeks, and in that time she had already found the answers through other channels. A quality search engine with built-in intelligence features such as a thesaurus, sounds-like index, ontology, and parsing could assist users with difficult medical jargon, treatments, and the spelling of difficult drug names. However, current portal technology does not have many of these intelligence features. If a person looking for medical information on rheumatoid arthritis types phonetically rumatoid arthritis, he would not get any returns in current medical portals. Ideally some assistance should be provided as in Google: “Did you mean: …” This could help the users. Current medical portals do not have provisions for differentiating users with different educational background, age, ethnicity, location (urban or rural), and stage of disease. For example, there is no distinct information for a 63-yearold female with early breast cancer or for a 35-year-old mother experiencing advanced breast cancer living in a rural area. Hyperlinks to the actual breast cancer information seem to be provided with a “one size fits all” category, which does not suit everyone (McKemmish et al., 2002). The problems lie in the limited portal technology, which is inflexible, and inadequate search engines, which do not allow for sophisticated searching facilities. How can a portal be made to behave intelligently so that users can get access to vastly distributed medical information easily? McKemmish et al. (2002) describe how an intelligent portal “will improve the structure and manage the quantity of information presented” (p. 5). Indeed an intelligent portal should provide information that is of high-quality, relevant, and timely. It should address the needs of users by helping them to solve issues that are often critical. With the use of intelligent portal technology, combining knowledge manage-
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ment issues of personalization and decision support, the needs of the Internet users of medical portals could be better served.
Components of Medical Portals The following diagram shows the components of medical portals which should be implemented to ensure their efficient information retrieval capabilities. Figure 1 depicts the major components expected from the medical portal. These components are: •
•
Health services—medical portals should provide foremost medical information pertinent to that site, i.e., if it is breast cancer, provide medical facts on treatments, as well as associated and often sought-for information on lifestyle and complementary medicine. Gateway functionality—should provide dynamic links to other sites, facilities for cross-referencing, and links to other applications.
Figure 1. Proposed components of medical portals
Community
Health Services
•Share medical information •Promote interaction •Bulletin board •Newsletter •Alert to new information
Personalization
Provide medical information: •Treatments; •Medications; •Health specialist; •Alternative medicine; •Information on lifestyle
Medical Portal
•Customisation •Email access •Personal web-crawler •“Push” facility
Gateway •Dynamic links to information •Cross referenced to the other relevant sites •Links to applications
Governance Content of the site is: •Authoritative; •Reliable; •Current; •Relevant to the audience; •Value-added
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•
•
•
Community support—involves a space to share medical information and treatments, share personal experiences, offer a bulletin board to provide information about the latest technologies and medications; it could also be a forum for medical professionals to share their knowledge and peer reviews on aspects relevant to the medical portal. Personalization—should provide facilities to customize sites so users can get to them with ease and e-mail systems to receive the latest news and to send any queries or share any information at a personal level. Governance—the contents of the information can have significant influence on the livelihood of users. Some users could make important decisions about their treatments on the basis of what they read from the Internet. Thus it is paramount to ensure the quality, authority, currency, and relevance of the information.
Intelligence Features of Medical Portals Intelligence is the necessary interface between the users and those components that make the portal a useful and unique information system to satisfy the potential dynamic needs of a user. As pointed out by Shepherd et al. (2000), medical information is vast and distributed. To retrieve these items of information effectively, there needs to be a quality search engine that “understands” the user’s needs. The following intelligence features can be incorporated into medical portals to improve information retrieval: •
•
Search engine—the ability to search is fundamental for the implementation of a portal. It allows users to browse the content and retrieve information on a content basis, and assists users by providing links to other relevant information repositories. Use of artifical agents such as artificial neural network (pattern matching) and fuzzy logic can be applied to specify the search (Negnevitsky, 2002). Spell checking—often medical terms and the drugs that are used for treatments are hard to spell, and there are both English and American variants. Current portal technology does not have provisions for misspelt words. A list of possibilities should be shown if the word entered is spelt incorrectly.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
279
Sounds-like indexing—this is to search for “sounds like” terms. Fuzzy logic can assist in refining the search. Medical jargon is extremely difficult to spell; thus, sounds-like indexing could add value to the portal. Parsing sentences or phrases to identify key words and then searching for the content. In general, search engines are based on key words and often inadequate. For example one could be searching for “evening primrose” for either dermatitis or menopausal symptoms. Parsing allows the user to enter more than one search option, and this could be a powerful tool if implemented. Metadata—a mechanism used for resource description and specification. It can be used for marking or tagging the repository content for locating the resource according to parameters specified in the metadata. For example, the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) was introduced in 2002 for use by government departments and agencies to improve the visibility and accessibility of their services and information provision over the Internet. It uses a standard set of 19 descriptive elements (National Archives of Australia, 2000). Ontology—representing a domain discourse in a way that terms specific to this domain can be identified from synonyms. For example, the word drug can be expressed in many different ways (medicine, medication, tablets, pills, prescription). So the word retrieved should have relevance to the search. That is, if drug is typed into a breast cancer portal, the portal should return Tamoxifen, for example, a common anti-estrogen drug. Thesaurus—can be used together with ontology to describe a structure of the problem domain. In our context, it can be too broad if it includes outside knowledge not relevant to medicine. However, if complemented by a metadata repository, it can be narrowed. Personalization—special service to the specific users, which can be set up at various levels. The users can have personal settings in the portal (profile) such that they can share information and receive notifications when there is a change to the content. The user can set up a Web spider to collect information of interest and push it to the user as soon as it is collected. Users can tailor the “look and feel” of the portal interface to suit their preferences. They can also select personal services such as news, email, and relevant service sites to be available within a portal page. Decision-making facilities—some analytical tools can be provided with the portal to help users with decision-making processes (loan
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•
•
•
• •
•
calculators, for example). These can be more sophisticated if built on the basis of decision analysis algorithms, or implement if/then/else rule reasoning engines. The users’ profile information can be utilised here to assist them with their enquiries. Quality-rated information—the information retrieved is presented to the user with some indicators relating to generally accepted criteria of quality, such as author, publisher, currency, purpose, etc. This should help the user to be in a position to make an informed choice. Content management—a process of approving, authoring, delivering, maintaining, and publishing content integrated within or accessed from a portal or other Web site. It can be implemented as a separate component with a common database accessible through the portal. Document management—similar to content management but deals with control and management of the enterprise documents. It involves managing electronic files, including scanned images of pictures and documents. It can also incorporate workflow facilities for supporting organizational processes. In medical portals this can be a facility to access insurance forms and claims. Knowledge management—this can be seen as a mechanism for capturing know-how and know-why in a knowledge repository. Use of artificial intelligence—such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, expert systems for implementing learning capabilities, adaptation, and dynamic reasoning. Other intelligent agents—intelligent agents can assist in searching through the data to support “push” facilities of the portal (Probst et al., 2000). They can save users time by sifting the data, retrieving relevant information, and pushing it to the user on request.
The intelligence features listed above can be incorporated within portal components as shown in Figure 1. The following sections present the analysis done against the intelligence features identified above to see to what extent existing medical portals comprise those features.
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Medical Portals Analysis In this section, we will analyse Australian medical portals to assess the extent to which identified intelligence features are present. The features that will be investigated are as follows: • •
Search engine; Spell check;
• • • • •
Sounds-like index; Parsing; Ontology; Personalization; and Thesaurus.
The Australian medical Web sites were specifically chosen to assess to what extent medical information needs are met. The problems and types of information the users were seeking were pertinent to Australians. For example, recent user needs analysis regarding availability of breast-cancer-related information Table 1. Medical portals analyzed in this study Australian Medical Portal
Web Address
Managing Organization
Better Health Channel
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au
Victorian Government’s Department of Human Services
HealthInsite
www.healthinsite.gov.au
Commonwealth Government of Australia
Rural Health
www.ruralhealth.gov.au
Office of Rural Health (ORH), Australian Commonwealth (Federal) Department of Health and Ageing
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au
School of Nursing and Public Health, Edith Cowan University
HealthConnect Department of Health and Ageing’s Web site
www.health.gov.au
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing
Medicine Australia (MedAu)
www.medineau.net.au
Northern Rivers Division of General Practice (NSW) Ltd
Health Network
www.healthnetwork.com.au
General health information site run by an Editorial Committee of medical practitioners for educational purposes
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online showed that one third of the users live in rural areas. For those users, availability of medical specialists, treatments, and travelling and accommodation during the treatments are issues (Manaszewicz, Fisher, Williamson, & McKemmish, 2002). The current medical portals should address those needs. The seven most popular Australian medical Web sites have been chosen and analysed according to intelligence features. We have analysed how these features are implemented in medical portals. The portals analyzed are listed in Table 1. The next section provides an analysis of each intelligence feature with screen shots.
Search Engine The first analysis was to look for the presence or absence of search engines in those seven medical Web sites. Not all of these Web sites were provided with Figure 2. Rural Health gateway
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Figure 3. Search facility in Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
search engines. For example, Rural Health does not provide a search capability, either internal or external. In fact, it operates as a gateway to the various resources available from other medical or health Web sites and draws heavily on content from HealthInsite (see Figure 2). This Web site provides access to a knowledge repository selected mostly from a review of existing resources, “personalizing” them to a specific audience—the Australian rural population. Better Health Channel used an internal search engine to search the site content and used Google as an external search engine. HealthInsite used Yahoo externally and had its own internal search engine. Health Network also offered search engines for selective links. Figure 3 shows an example of a search facility for the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet portal (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au). It is a resource that provides medical information for Indigenous Australians. It contains literature reviews on various topics listed on the site map. It also uses Google for external search (see Figure 3).
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Spell Checking or Sounds-Like Search None of the medical Web sites provided spell checking or sounds-like indexes. The following is an example from Better Health. When the common antiestrogen drug for breast cancer, tamoxifen, was misspelt as Tomoxifen, there were no results returned, as can be seen in Figure 4a. However, it provided links to the Google search engine. When the drug tamoxifen was misspelt as tomoxifen, Google provided the correct drug name, as shown in Figure 4b. Other medical portals such as Health Network offered partial matching of spelling (sounds-like) in that you could type the first three letters of a word and still recognize the full word. For instance, if one was searching for the country Vietnam, typing Vie would return the country Vietnam if the first three letters were spelt correctly. However, it did not offer the facilities of thesaurus, spell check or sounds-like index (see Figures 5a and 5b). This feature provides some help to the users, but it could also retrieve many drugs or chemicals with the first three letters that are relevant to the query. However, if Vie is mistyped as Bie or betnam, it will not recognize it.
Figure 4a. Better Health Channel sounds-like search facility “Tomoxifen” was typed here
No results
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Figure 4b. Better Health Channel search facility through Google
“Tomoxifen”
Figure 5a. Health Network sounds-like search
Type the country there.
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Figure 5b: Health Network sounds-like search
When Vietnam was misspelt as betnam, no results were retrieved.
Parsing Parsing is the ability to separate a sentence into meaningful words. For example, if the sentence “Where can I find Tamoxifen?” is entered, a search engine should look for the key word in the sentence, “Tamoxifen,” in this case, and retrieve the requested information. Medicine Australia (MedAu), a general medical portal, was the only Web site that had the ability to show parsing. For example, the following: To the question “Where is Lithium?” the search result was the same as when the word “Lithium” was typed. The portal was able to extract the word from the sentence and retrieved information relevant to the sentence. It retrieved two articles that had information on lithium (see Figure 6). However, none of the other medical Web sites tested showed the ability to parse. In Figure 7 we present an example of the search with Better Health for
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Figure 6. Example of Medicine Australia (MedAu) parsing ability
Figure 7. Example of Better Health Channel search without parsing
No results
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Figure 8. Example of HealthConnect search without parsing
No option for parsing
Figure 9. Improved search in Better Health Channel with Google parsing
“Where can I find tamoxifen?”
Suggestion of other types of tamoxifen
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the answer to the question “Where can I find tamoxifen?” As can be seen, this search found no results. Another example was from HealthConnect in response to “Where can I find tamoxifen?” (Figure 8). The same question was entered into the Better Health portal through its link to Google search. When the sentence “Where can I find tamoxifen?” was entered, it was able to extract tamoxifen and returned the information shown in Figure 9.
Personalization Personalization is one of the intelligence features of the portal by which users can: • • • •
Receive an e-mail from the Web site if there is a major change to the Web site. Personalize the site interface—select the types of information they want to view. Have personal selection lists that can be placed where users can find them easily. Have automatic search items that match interests of users through “My interest link.”
Figure 10 shows an example of how HealthInsite provides personalization features. Health Network provides personalized contacts where the users can write to medical experts, who will promptly answer their questions (see Figure 11). This provides the possibility for an added intelligence that offers the users personalized service, in addition to searching facilities. However, it is entirely manual, the questions being answered by people who are also logged on to that Web site.
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Figure 10. HealthInsite personalization facility
Personalization
Figure 11. Health Network personalization facility
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Ontology and Thesaurus No medical portal we have analysed had an ontology linked to it. Only one medical portal, HealthInsite, showed some presence of a thesaurus. But it was not exactly what would be expected when the full thesaurus is implemented and accessible through the portal. For example, when the drug tamoxifen was misspelt as tomoxifen, the search could not find it. It offered links to the Thesaurus Navigator instead (see Figure 12). At present a thesaurus is only implemented to store the names of diseases but is not useful in searching for types of drugs. And, the information on diseases is only available if the correct spelling is typed in. Also, Medical Subject Headings – MeSH is used in medical portals which makes it extremely difficult for users to navigate, i.e., they have to understand the tree hierarchy, which is expressed all in generic/medical terminology.
Figure 12. Thesaurus in HealthInsite
Thesaurus Navigator or Thesaurus Search
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Analysis of Results Table 2 provides a comparative summary of medical portals. It demonstrates that very few of the intelligence features identified in the literature and listed in the section on portal technology are currently implemented in medical portals, and none of the portals analysed have more than three of them present. Most of the portals had a search engine, the exception being Rural Health. However, the position of the search engine was not always obvious and in some cases was hard to find For instance, it took some effort to find the search engine in the HealthInfoNet as it is located on a separate page as opposed to a rectangular box on the front screen, as in most of the portals. None of the portals provided spell checking, sounds-like indexing, parsing, ontology, or decision facilities. HealthInfoNet had features where if you typed the first three letters correctly, it could retrieve the information. HealthInsite offered personalization via self-registration. It also offered some level of thesaurus, in a form of a list of all topics covered in the site. However, on the whole, the HealthInsite had more intelligence features than the other sites analyzed.
Table 2. Medical portal comparison X = No, absence of the feature Australian Medical Portal Better Health Channel HealthInsite Rural Health HealthInfoNet HealthConnect Medicine Australia (MedAu) Health Network
Search Engine
Spell Check
Google
X
Soundslike Index X
Yahoo X Yes Yes Yes
X X X X X
Yes/ selective
X
Yes = Presence
Parsing
Ontology
Personalization
Thesaurus
Dec. Facilities
X
X
X
X
X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
Yes X X X X
Yes X X X X
X X X X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
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Conclusion The advantage of Web-based medical portals lies in their ability to make medical information available anywhere in the world at any time. The latest trend in health Internet usage shows that the Internet is here to stay and will be a new dimension in our lives (Shepherd et al., 2000). However, at present not many intelligence features have been implemented for medical Web sites despite the high level of development and availability of the theoretical approaches (such as general portal architectures, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy logic) and growing evidence that there is widespread interest in the Internet medical development area. This absence can lead to high levels of dissatisfaction by users. The frustration felt by many users is understandable (Finkelstein & Aiken, 2000), as demonstrated by the results of our medical portals comparison. From this evaluation of general medical portals, it is clear why tailored extraction of information is difficult. The analysis of seven Australian medical portals suggests the following categorization: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Portals with search engines: Better Health, HealthInsite, HealthInfonet, HealthConnect, and MedAu. Portals with a knowledge repository: Rural Health. Portals with a combination of 1 and 2: Health Network. Portal as a gateway: Rural Health.
From our analysis it can be concluded that from the users’ perspective, the most important features to ensure that the information available from the portal is relevant and useful are the quality of the search engine and the level of intelligence that can be incorporated into the search. The portal’s advanced search facility should ensure that users can retrieve relevant information with minimum clicks and format of input. The search facility covers the “pull” function of the portal; whereas personalization provides a means for pushing the right content depending on some kind of user profile (Probst et al., 2000). None of the seven Australian community medical portals had sufficient intelligence features to satisfy users with diverse backgrounds and needs. The Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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challenge lies in ensuring that only relevant medical information is retrieved. Portals are complex Web-based systems that can act as gateways to achieve this goal. The use of intelligence built into portal systems, this can help to achieve this goal and facilitate efficient information retrieval. Portal technology is rapidly improving with the aim to better serve the community. Modern portals are built with intelligent agents, providing artificial intelligence as a part of portal functionality to improve information retrieval (Jafari & Sheehan, 2003). Intelligent portals can improve their performance by learning from experience. Those portals will develop a better understanding of human nature and thus become better tools for meeting users’ expectations and information needs.
References Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2002). Year book Australia (No. 84). Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Brodie, M., Flournay, R. E., Altman, D. E., Blendon, R. J., Benson, J. M., & Rosenbaum, M. D. (2000). Health information, the Internet and the digital divide. Health Affairs, 19(6), 255-265. Clarke, I., & Flaherty, B. T. (2002). Web-based B2B portals. Industrial Marketing Management, 32, 15-23. Collins. H. (2001). Corporate portals: Revolutionizing information access to increase productivity and drive the bottom line. AMACON. Ehrenberger, H. E. (2001). Cancer clinical trial patients in the information age: A pilot study. Cancer Practice, 9(4), 191-197. Finkelstein, C., & Aiken, P. (2000). Building corporate portal with XML. McGraw-Hill. Harvard Computing Group. (2002). Portals and business functions: New tools to improve operations. Retrieved August 2003 from www.Portals Community.com/library/white_papers.cfm Ho, J., & Tang, R. (2001). Towards an optimal resolution to information overload: An informediary approach. ACM. Jafari, A., & Sheehan, M. (2003). Designing portals: Opportunities and challenges. Information Science.
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Manaszewicz, R., Fisher, J., Williamson, K., & McKemmish, S. (2002). Breast cancer knowledge online: Supporting the information needs of rural women. Paper presented at Using IT: Making it happen: Information technology in rural areas conference, Rockhampton, Australia. McKemmish, S., Burstein, F., Manaszewicz, R., & Fisher, J. (2002, August). Towards meeting the decision support needs of a community via an “intelligent portal”: Breast cancer knowledge online. Paper presented at Improving quality by lowering barriers: 10th National Health Informatics Conference, Melbourne, Australia. Millen, D. R. (2000). Community portals and collective goods: Conversation archives as an information resource. Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1-9. Murray, M. (2002). An investigation of specifications for migrating to a Web portal framework for the dissemination of health information within a public health network. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. National Archives of Australia. (2000). AGLS. Retrieved August 2003 from http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/gov_online/agls/summary.html National Health Information Management Advisory Council. (2001). HealthOnline action plan. Retrieved September 19, 2003, from http:// www.health.gov.au/mediarel/yr2001/dept/mr01018.htm Negnevitsky, M. (2002). Artificial intelligence. A guide to intelligent systems. Addison-Wesley. Notes, R. (2002, July/August). Free full text; Find articles and MagPortal. Online Wilton, 26, 54-56. O’Leary, M. (1999, January/February). Portal wars. Online Wilton, 23, 7779. Probst, G., Raub, S., & Romhardt, K. (2000). Managing knowledge: Building blocks for success. New York: Wiley. Quirk, M. J. (2002). A guide to defining an enterprise portal project. Retrieved October 19, 2002, from http://www.OpenDoorTechnologies. com Rao, S. S. (2001). Portal proliferation: An Indian scenario. New Library World, 102, 325-331.
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Shepherd, M., Zitner, D., & Watters, C. (2000). Medical portals: Web-based access to medical information. Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10. Taylor, H. (2002). Cyberchondriacs update. Harris Interactive. Retrieved April 20, 2003, from http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/ index.asp?PID=229 Tushkar, K. H. (2000). Building enterprise portals: Principles to practice. ACM. Wilson, P. (2002). How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly: A short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on the Internet. BMJ, 324, 598-602.
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Chapter XIV
Portal Services for Older Australians Jerzy Lepa Victoria University, Australia
Abstract The World Wide Web has the potential to be a major source of information for the older (55+) Australian demographic as well as an important recreational vehicle through the use of facilities such as e-mail, chat, current affairs (news), and music channels. Portals are varied in nature, have evolved on the Web over time, and can have tightly geared content to suit the needs of a particular demographic. This chapter reviews the needs of older people and then explores two Australian older-person portals, Greypath (www.greypath.com), and About Seniors (www.about seniors.com.au), within an older-person needs framework. The concepts of virtual communities and Web site loyalty are also discussed in terms of Greypath and About Seniors.
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Introduction The proportion of older people will increase dramatically over the next 25 years. There are several different definitions of what constitutes an “older person”, but for the purposes of this chapter older people can be defined as those of 55 years of age and over, regardless of whether they are still in the fulltime workforce.1 Globally the importance of older people is demonstrated by their large numbers: in 1999 world statistics showed 578 million people over the age of 60 (Scott, 1999). Between 1946 and 1998 the proportion of people over 65 in Australia increased from 8% to 12% (to 2.3 million people). By 2025 this figure will be 17.2% (around 4 million), and by 2051 this proportion will increase to 24% (6 million; Scott). The number of older people accessing the Internet is increasing markedly. A recent survey (Nielsen//NetRatings, 2003) reports that the number of older people 65 and above using the Internetis increasing by 25% year over year. As of October 2003, it was estimated that there were 9.6 million Web surfers using the Internet from home and work. The Internet, a communication and informational access technology, has the potential to improve the older person’s lifestyle (Fozard, Rietsma, Bouma, & Graafmans, 2000). The Australian Federal Government has demonstrated a commitment to older Australians by releasing a number of lifestyle issues papers which “impact on older people’s capacity to remain active and independent” (Bishop, 2000). A key feature of these papers is an emphasis on communication, in particular, through the Internet, which enables older people to communicate via e-mail with family and friends, to access information, and to purchase goods. This emphasis is also consistent with literature sourced from overseas (Coulson, 2000; Franklin, 1997). The use of e-mail can also reduce social isolation for those older people with reduced mobility or living in remote or rural areas (Bishop, 2000; Parekh, 1998). The Spry Foundation (2000) based in the US sees the needs of older people revolving around four interrelated themes: financial security; physical health and well-being; mental health and social environment; and engaging in intellectual endeavours. One of the key concerns for older people is their health, physical and mental. The Internet has the potential to provide health benefits due to communication (e-mail; Noer, 1995; Philbeck, 1998; Wright, 1999) and information about their health concerns (Cooke, 1999; McNamee, 1998). Some common concerns are arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, and mental illness (“Focus on Health Issues,” 2000).
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The financial security of older people may be improved due to the vast array of Internet information (Cutler, 1997; Lepa, 2002; Manchester, 1997; Sherman, 1997). The Internet can also be a source of intellectual stimulation due to lifelong learning opportunities such as studying for degrees and pursuing hobbies, such as genealogy and gardening (Baldi, 1997; Bishop, 2000). There are portals, specialised Web sites that have been developed to cater for the needs of older Australians. A large number of older person portals are available, many originating from overseas. To explore how portals can contribute to the needs of older people, the author of this chapter has chosen the following due to their Australian content: About Seniors (www.aboutseniors. com.au, Figure 1) and Greypath (www.greypath.com.au, Figure 2). Some other valuable sites are Council on the Ageing (www.cota.org.au) and www.seniornet.com.au. There are several different types of portals, but both Greypath and About Seniors can be classified as vertical portals (Rao, 2001). The establishment of a virtual community where older people can access chat facilities in the three-dimensional Greypath Village (Lewis, 2002) is investigated.
Figure 1. The About Seniors portal
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Figure 2. The Greypath portal
Some older people may prefer Greypath to About Seniors and vice-versa. A brief discussion of portal loyalty or Web site loyalty is included in this chapter.
Portals There are many terms that are used in conjunction with portals. White (2000) and Rao (2001) note that the first portals were called information portals due to the information services provided. Both Lynch (1998) and White suggest that these information portals developed out of search engine sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, and Lycos, but Lynch also refers to these sites as firstgeneration portals. These, however, quickly evolved into sites providing additional services such as e-mail, stock quotes, news, and community building rather than just search capabilities. A portal, as defined by Rao (2001), means gateway, and in terms of WWW sites a portal is seen as a major starting point for users when they access the
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Web or one that users tend to visit as a base site that provides links to multiple Web sites offering the content they require. Many portals operate by transforming the content from third-party providers into suitable packages for their target audience with the intention of making revenue through advertising. The portals do not necessarily have to develop their own content. The creators of portals aim to provide a comprehensive service so as to rapidly encourage visitors to regard the portal as a permanent “parking space” on the Internet. To be successful, Rao and Looney and Lyman (2000) suggest that portals must offer a high degree of comfort and organization such that the users feel they need not visit other sites for their needs. When accessing the Internet, the portal should be the first site that customers visit and return to each day. Rao states that “the idea is to offer everything that a surfer needs under one roof, so that the surfer is trapped forever. As more users become trapped, this in turn generates more advertising revenue. … No matter what the goals, the key to a successful portal is to offer an oasis of organization within the ‘tangled’ Web.”
Classification of Portals Whilst there is no widespread accepted definition and classification from academics and practitioners, many authors such as Lynch (1998), Rao (2001), and Isaacs (1999) suggest a broad classification of horizontal and vertical portals. Sites such as Yahoo!, Excite and NetCenter, originally called informational portals, can be considered as horizontal portals because they are used by a broad base of users. Vertical portals, however, have “a tightly focused content area geared toward a particular audience” (Lynch). Isaacs offers a further classification category of the corporate portal, which is also known as an industry or affinity portal. “These portals use the industry standard browsers to deliver an integrated view of corporate data documents, Web contents and business services to employees, customers, partners and resellers.” Greypath and About Seniors are commercial Web portals. They raise revenue by charging for advertising banners that can be found on several pages of their sites. Both portals can be classified as vertical as they have content geared to the older people of Australia (Isaacs, 1999; Lynch, 1998; Rao, 2001). There are many older person portals outside Australia. The US has many such sites including ElderNet, AgeNet, and the American Association of Retired
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Persons (AARP). A comprehensive list of older person U.S.-based portals and Web sites, including those listed below, can be found listed in a recent article by Laurich (2002). •
•
•
ElderNet, http://www.eldernet.com. This is a visually interesting Web site for older people. Visitors to the site are asked to open a door to a garden path leading to areas of interest such as What’s New, The Eldernet Lawyer, Your Health, Activities, Ideas & Fun, Money & Investing, Health & Retirement Benefits, and Senior Lifestyles Directory. AgeNet, http://www.agenet.com. “Solutions for Better Aging” is the theme of this Web site. Informative articles on Health, Drugs, Legal, Insurance, Financial, Caregiver, Housing, and Shopping can be found here. American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), http://www.aarp.org. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for individuals over 50 with information and activities that span most aspects of the lives of seniors. AARP has played an important legislative advocacy role, leading to changes to laws affecting its constituency.
Older People and Their Needs Older people have a number of important needs. However the most prominent seems to be that of health, i.e., mental and physical health. A recent study in the US showed a wide range of responses in terms of the concerns of older people. Health and mobility concerns for many older people were paramount and showed a larger degree of consensus across the sample (Wenger, 1997).
Mental Health and Social Environment Maintaining communication skills into old age is an important factor contributing to health and well-being (Worrall, Hickson, Barnett, & Yiu, 1998). Communication skills can deteriorate with age due to reduced memory capacity, sensory deficits, and increasing “word-finding difficulties”. Shulman and Mandel (1988) suggests that as people grow older it is vital that their social networks and independence do not diminish in a society that revolves around Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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more complex communication systems. Reduced communication skills in older people can result in social isolation. The Internet, through its e-mail technology, may help older people to avoid this isolation.
Physical Health and Well-Being Byles, Garris, Nair, and Butler (1996) note some other health concerns of older people: falls, inappropriate medication use, incontinence, and nutritional deficiencies. The previous medical problems, Byles et al. remark, may be alleviated with appropriate health education programs. The Internet may be an effective medium for the delivery of these programs.
Financial Security Older people in retirement need to be assured of adequate income to maintain their lifestyle. Many older persons, Australians and North Americans, must arrange their own finances and seek appropriate investment information relating to direct shares, managed funds, and fixed interest situations such as bonds and term deposits (Cutler, 1997; Manchester, 1997; Sherman, 1997).
Intellectual Endeavours Many older people are now working past the minimum retirement age of 55; indeed, some older people are commencing new careers and having to learn a new set of skills (Baldi, 1997). Others are taking up the challenge of further study, some even commencing degrees at university. Lifelong learning is seen to be a very positive aspect of the health ageing process (Bishop, 2000, p. 26).
About Seniors, Greypath, and Internet Virtual Communities Both Greypath (www.greypath.com) and About Seniors (www.aboutseniors. com.au) are portals providing comprehensive services for senior citizens,
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retirees, pensioners, and carers. Both portals provide links of interest for seniors to Australian and state government bodies, national and state associations, community service groups, aged care and retirement housing information, as well as seniors lifestyle interests such as computing, health, finance, hobbies, sport, and travel. However, Greypath differs from About Seniors in that it has a 3-D Village component where visitors can go and “chat” with each other. Lewis (2002) suggests that the Village is a “world’s first with a carefully specified and atmospherically crafted Virtual 3D community for seniors. It’s clearly more attractive to chat in, for example, than any other site anywhere in the world, despite many being far more sophisticated. Its advantage is simplicity (user friendliness), naturalized visual environment, and clear potential for further development.” The Collins English Dictionary (1991, p. 327) defines a community as “a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic or other characteristics in common.” A virtual community is a group of people who share a common interest or bond, but rather than meeting physically they “form communities that cross geographical, social, cultural and economic boundaries” (Matathia & Salzman, 1998, p. 156) and communicate via the Internet (Matathia & Salzman; Schneider & Perry, 2000). Rheingold (1993, p. 5) defines virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the Net where enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.” Examples of virtual communities, using computer and modem, include the group of older people who share a common life stage, music lovers with an affection for a particular genre, and teenagers battling through “the trials and tribulations of adolescence” (Matathia & Salzman). The groups of Australian older people who access the Greypath and About Seniors portals share the common bond of ageing (Bosler, 2001) and so can be considered to form online virtual communities. Matathia and Salzman (1998, p. 156) suggest that these online relationships can be every bit as strong and permanent as their “real-world” counterparts. The Greypath portal, through its 3-D Village, provides chat facilities so that visitors can communicate with each other. Similarly, About Seniors, through its discussion forum, facilitates communication between visitors to its site. However, the management of About Seniors feels that the provision of chat facilities is not worthwhile due to their perception that these facilities are not used or very infrequently used (Lawrence, 2003).
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Figure 3. The Greypath 3-D Village
As the author believes that the chat facilities accessed through Greypath’s 3D Village are innovative, a brief description follows. The Village at Greypath in Figure 3, through its Internet chat rooms, creates a virtual community of older people. The Village has seven chat rooms: Town Hall, Megs Café, Murphy’s Pub, the Public Library, St. Isadores, The Lyceum, and The Village Health Centre. This 3-D Village has been conceived and designed with engaging interactive activities, which will firstly attract older people to the Greypath portal and then help to instil and promote confidence and familiarity as well as alleviate feelings of insecurity or computer phobia during Internet usage (Lewis, 2002). Visitors can explore the Village in a three-dimensional manner by simultaneously pressing the mouse button and moving the mouse.
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Older People and Portal Loyalty: About Seniors and Greypath Do the visitors to About Seniors and Greypath exhibit Web site or portal loyalty, a form of customer loyalty? There can be many definitions for this type of loyalty. Lepa and Tatnall (2002) have adopted the following definition for customer loyalty in the context of using a Web portal. They consider a user to be loyal to the portal “if they consistently go to this portal first when making use of the Internet. It follows that if they are satisfied with the portal as a means of finding information and other relevant Web pages, they will return to it each time and so become loyal.” Thus visitors to Greypath and About Seniors exhibit customer loyalty to their respective portal if they access these Web sites as their first port of call on entering the Internet. If, on the other hand, they find that Greypath and About Seniors do not provide appropriate links, and they “happen to have more success using another portal, or a search engine like Google, then they will not remain loyal.”
Older Person Needs and Portals: Greypath and About Seniors Table 1 has been compiled by examining each portal site to identify the offerings that relate to the needs of older people identified by the literature, i.e., mental health and social environment; physical health and well-being; financial security; and intellectual endeavours. As seen in Table 1, both Greypath and About Seniors provide comprehensive services and information for older Australians. Because the entire group of older Australians (55 years and up) is very diverse, an evaluation of how well Greypath and About Seniors cater for the needs of this entire group is not possible. Riel, Liljander, and Jurriëns (2001) state that “because one Web site may offer different services to different customer segments, the evaluation and overall importance of different service elements for satisfaction and loyalty can vary between target segments.”
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Financial security
Intellectual endeavours
Physical health and wellbeing
Older person needs Mental health and social environment
By accessing Greypath Village, visitors can enter the Greypath Lyceum, which “seeks to bring user friendly, online learning to seniors.” There are three main alternatives to choose from at the Greypath Lyceum: U3A (University of the Third Age Online), Learn Smart UK. Greypath itself offers a free supermarket maths course and an introduction to creative writing course for seniors. At A$16 per course, offerings from U3A include Journaling, The Romans, Astronomy, Writing Family History, Botany, Antarctica, Continental Drift, Genealogy, Retirement, and Design. Learn Smart UK offers some 600 courses at varying costs, mainly IT in nature. Some examples are Microsoft Office, Home Business, Internet Browsers, Computer Basics, Estate Planning, Maths Skills, Grammar Skills, Warehousing, and Web Design. If accessed through Greypath, visitors can obtain a 25% discount. Greypath provides comprehensive financial information. Each link has a brief description of what the site offers. Links include Financial Planners Association, AXA Trustee, Securities and Investment Commission, Shareholders Association, Comsec, Australian Tax Department, Online Share Trading, David Koch’s My Money, Personal Investor Magazine, Dollar Stretcher Library, Money Manager, and Home Budget System. There are other links to older person sites such as the National Seniors Association and A Pensioners Network. These sites have links to financial Web sites that are also suitable for older people.
Greypath Social isolation can be reduced through communication by accessing the Greypath Village chat rooms and also by leaving mail on the Greypath message board. Visitors have the option of communication with each other later on by exchanging e-mail addresses. The managing editor of Greypath, Ray Lewis, endeavours to give the Web site a personal touch by personally responding to visitors who sign the guest book. Also if a visitor registers a vote on one of Greypath’s Internet surveys, they can immediately see their contribution reflected in the poll numbers. Medical advice is available for queries on a large range of issues including disabilities. Visitors to Greypath can access the Village Health Centre, which is run by eMedical Ltd., which the Greypath site describes as “a leading Australian group of medical practices.” Emedical Ltd. has three types of services: consulting (the first one is free if accessed through Greypath), pharmacy (general pharmaceutical and prescription medicines are available), and general health information (includes children’s health, drugs and medication, women’s and men’s health, mental health, travel health, etc.)
Table 1. Older person needs and portals
The About Seniors site provides the visitor with a broad range of financial information, with the main interest areas summarized in point form. For more detailed information, the visitor can access the provided links.
The Greypath site offers a Scams menu item but is mainly concerned with financial dealings and not health.
A comprehensive listing of health sites with a brief description of what each site has to offer. Sites include the Commonwealth Government departments of Health and Ageing, Family and Community Services, and also HealthInsite, an entry point to provide "safe surfing" to quality health information providers. Some of the many others are Australian Medical Websites, HealthAnswers, myDr, Health Network, Healthy Ageing Quality Ageing, Holistic Medicine, Home Medicines Review, and Medline. The About Seniors site also offers some valuable tips on "cyber health scams." A phone number is available for further information rather than a Web site. It has a Seniors Sport and Exercise page with a section on Active Australia, a program encouraging people to be more active. It includes information about how to get started, fitness guidelines, and advice for older adults. It also has many links to many sporting events that may be of interest to seniors, such as Deaflympic Games, Masters and Veteran Games, and Olympics and Paralympics. Under LifeStyle—Seniors Hobbies and Interests, a section on Education can be found. There are links to Altapedia Online (full-color physical and political maps as well as facts and figures on geography, climate, and people,). Other sites are Australian Museum Online, Coastal Atlas of Australia, Encyclopaedia.com, free-ed.com—"Free Education on the Internet," and Lifelong Learning—site that has details of ABC radio and TV learning programs.
About Seniors has the following headings under its financial information menu item and also includes links to sites which provide more detailed information to sites on the following areas: financial institution information, financial planning, superannuation, share market, home equity, and managed funds. There are individual menu links for Retirement, Seniors Card, and Government. Provides valuable advice regarding shopping online with links to Consumer’s Online, a Commonwealth Government service for consumer protection in Australia. Also has links to sites detailing financial scams and hard selling.
Comments Managers of About Seniors feel that this facility is not required as their experience indicates that chat communication is well underutilized at other Web sites.
About Seniors No chat facilities. The managers of this site felt that chat facilities at other sites were very much ignored or underutilized (Lawrence, 2003). Discussion forum—allows seniors to post messages about issues and concerns. Other seniors can post replies, with all discussion available to anyone visiting the site.
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Discussion and Conclusion The needs of older people can be broadly classified as follows: financial security; physical health and well-being; mental health and social environment; and engaging in intellectual endeavours. By exploring both Greypath and About Seniors, the author has established that both portals provide services that contribute to these needs requirements. However this chapter does not establish how well these needs are being met. Further research is needed to discover which needs are best met through the Internet, which needs are better addressed by other alternatives such as phone and direct contact, and the types of older people (profiles) that are better suited to Internet usage. The group of older people (55+) is not a homogeneous demographic; this group can be considered to have a number of diverse segments which may have differing needs. Can portals for older people be organized to cater for these segments with their differing needs? There are many portals originating from overseas that would seem to cater for older person needs. Further research involving a comparison of older-person Australian and overseas portals could lead to the development of a complete set of requirements which might cater for the needs of older persons around the world. The author believes that older people could use both portals, GreyPath and About Seniors, as their “first port of call” and use the links provided to access the informational and recreational activities they are interested in. However, issues of customer loyalty arise. Will these older people always use either Greypath or About Seniors when initially accessing the Internet? Will they make these portals their home page? I suggest that visitors to both portals can eventually end up at the same Web sites simply by following the links, and links thereon, provided at these portals. If the question arose regarding which portal, About Seniors or Greypath, would receive more patronage, then an analysis of portal features from a customer portal loyalty perspective would be required. About Seniors and Greypath, through their discussion forums and chat facilities, create a virtual community environment. Older people can use these facilities to discuss or chat about matters of common interest. However do older people actually use these facilities? Further research involving statistical methods is needed.
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Endnote 1
The author acknowledges that many baby boomers would not consider themselves as older people.
References Baldi, R. A. (1997). Training older adults to use the computer: Issues related to the workplace, attitudes, and training. Educational Gerontology, 23(5), 453-466. Bishop, B. M. (2000). Attitude, lifestyle & community support discussion paper. Canberra. Bosler, N. (2001). Communication, e-commerce and older people. Electronic Banking and Older People Seminar, Victoria University, Melbourne. Byles, J. E., Garris, M. A., Nair, B. R., Butler, J. R. G. (1996). Preventive health programs for older Australians. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 6(2), 37-43. Collins Publishers (1982). Collins English Dictionary. Australia: HarperCollins. Cooke, A. (1999). Quality of health and medical information on the Internet. British Journal of Clinical Governance, 4(4). Coulson, I. (2000). Introduction: Technological challenges for gerontologists in the 21st century. Educational Gerontology, 26(4), 307-316. Cutler, N. E. (1997). The false alarm and blaring sirens of financial literacy: Middle-agers’ knowledge of retirement. Generations, 21(2), 34-41. Focus on health issues. (2000). Newcastle Herald, p. 27. Fozard, J. L., Rietsma, J., Bouma, H., & Graafmans, J. A. M. (2000). Gerontechnology: Creating enabling environments for the challenges and opportunities of aging. Educational Gerontology, 26, 331-344. Franklin, M. B. (1997). Caught up in the “Net”: More and more seniors are discovering the usefulness of computers. The Washington Post, p. Z17.
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Isaacs, N. (1999). Types of portals. Retrieved March 12, 2003, from http:// www.cs.fsu.edu/~baldauf/projects/ cgibin/scavenge/a2/portals.html Laurich, R. (2002). The platinum Web: Sites dedicated to senior citizens on the Internet. Collection Building, 21(4), 174-182. Lawrence, G. (2003). Chat Facilities. Personal Communication. J. Lepa. Melbourne. Lepa, J. (2002). Internet information services for older Australian people. In S. Lee (Ed.), Pan Pacific Conference XIX: E-globalization in the Pacific Age (pp. 206-209). Lepa, J., & Tatnall, A. (2002). Exploring consumer loyalty to Web sites: Why older Australians return to the Greypath portal. In N. Lethbridge (Ed.), Third International We-B Conference 2002 (pp. 1-10). Lewis, R. (2002). Greypath Portal Interview. J. Lepa. Melbourne. Looney, M., & Lyman, P. (2000). Portals in higher education: What are they and what is their potential? Educause Review, 35(4), 28-36. Lynch, J. (1998, November 13). Web portals. PC Magazine. Manchester, J. (1997). Aging boomers and retirement: Who is at risk? Generations, 21(2), 19-27. Matathia, I., & Salzman, M. (1998). NEXT trends for the future. Sydney, Australia: MacMillan. McNamee, M. (1998, July). Where silver-haired surfers browse. Business Week. Nielsen//NetRatings. (2003). Senior citizens lead Internet growth. Noer, M. (1995). Senior cybernauts. Forbes, 240-243. Parekh, J. P. (1998). Distance learning for enhancing senior productivity. IEEE Computer, 1, 4805-4808. Philbeck, J. (1998). Seniors and the Internet. Cybersociology. Rao, S. S. (2001). Portal proliferation: An Indian scenario. New Library World, 102(9), 325-331. Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: HarperCollins. Riel, A., Liljander, V., & Jurriëns, P. (2001). Exploring consumer evaluations of e-services: A portal site. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 12(4), 359-377.
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Schneider, G. P., &Perry, J. T. (2000). Electronic commerce. South Melbourne, Australia: Thomson Learning. Scott, H. (1999). Seniors in cyberspace: Older people and information. Strategic Ageing Australian Issues in Ageing, 8(99). Sherman, R. H. (1997). Sources of help in financial preparation for retirement: AAAS to Web sites. Generations, 21(2), 55-61. Shulman, M. D., & Mandel, E. (1988). Communication training of relatives and friends of institutionalized elderly persons. The Gerontologist, 28, 797799. Spry Foundation. (2000). Older adults and the World Wide Web. Retrieved November 22, 2000, from http://www.spry.org Wenger, G. C. (1997). Reflections: Success and disappointment—Octogenarians’ current and retrospective perceptions. Health Care in Later Life, 2(4), 213-226. White, M. (2000). Enterprise information portals. The Electronic Library, 18(5), 354-362. Worrall, L., Hickson, L., Barnett, H., & Yiu, E. (1998). An evaluation of the Keep on Talking program for maintaining communication skills in old age. Educational Gerontology, 24(2), 129-141. Wright, K. B. (1999). Computer-mediated social support, older adults, and coping. University of Oklahoma, Department of Communication.
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Chapter XV
Functioning Portal Interfaces to Support Knowledge Enabling Jan Soutar Victoria University, Australia Beverley Lloyd-Walker Victoria University, Australia
Abstract Organising information in ways that encourage knowledge sharing turns information management into knowledge management or knowledge facilitation. This chapter investigates the role of portals in achieving this goal. A coordinated approach is required to achieve knowledge advantage (K-Adv) through the sharing of knowledge and diffusion of innovation through the organisation. Organisations, large and small and across industries, are now recognising that unless they take steps to establish the required information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure to support people to effectively use knowledge in their business activities, they will not gain the benefits which K-Adv offers.
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Introduction Organising information in ways that encourage knowledge sharing, not just within groups but between groups across the organisation, takes information management and turns it into knowledge management—or, better still, knowledge facilitation. Portals can do this, but not all portals do. Well-designed portals have the potential to provide a single point of access to information stored in a variety of repositories so that it may be used to support informed decision-making. Early claims of portals supporting knowledge management initiatives in organisations were generally misleading. With time, there has been a move from information portals to knowledge portals that do support the creation of a knowledge-sharing environment (Awad & Ghaziri, 2004). The objective of this chapter is to discuss the role of portals in supporting knowledge sharing and innovation diffusion within organisations. Portals used within organisations or by an organisation and its suppliers, customers, or partners are the focus of the chapter. A range of portals is discussed, and their role in managing knowledge within organisations established.
Portals to Support Knowledge Creation and Sharing The greatest contribution that knowledge management makes is not just in providing objective information; it is in the way it enables the transfer and use of tacit knowledge and its conversion to explicit knowledge. Expertise, creativity, innovation, and skills are some of the forms of knowledge that are captured, codified, and shared in a knowledge-creating organisation (Chong, Holden, Wilhelmij, & Schmidt, 2000). Portals can support and enable this to occur. Portals enable organisational knowledge from multiple sources to be pooled, organised, and distributed through a single access point—the gateway that the portal provides. The important point is that portals enable information from disparate databases to be integrated, categorised, shared, and used to advantage. They link people, processes, and knowledge (Chong et al., 2000). Personalised access enables individuals to gain the information they need as it Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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relates to their role in the organisation. In an environment of “information overload,” it is important that only relevant information is provided if this information is to feed into knowledge creation activities within an organisation. Portals play an important role in managing knowledge and facilitating knowledge sharing and transfer because they: • •
Streamline information Exploit customer-specific data
• • •
Foster team collaboration Gather expertise systematically in one place Combine information from multiple sources within the organisation, according to the needs of the user
As a result, portals make conversion of information to knowledge easier and quicker.
The Role of Portals Knowledge management practices, supported by well-designed portals, can assist employees to make more efficient use of their time (Pickett & Hamre, 2002). Research has revealed that especially today in the knowledge workplace, employees spend 30 to 40% of their time seeking the information they need to do their job. In global organisations, redevelopment of information has been found to occur when others, based at locations around the world, reproduce items already in existence at other sites. One study estimated this rework meant an annual cost of US$5,500 per employee (“Gains From Knowledge Management Efforts,” n.d.). Pickett and Hamre (2002) see efficiency as the major reason for developing a portal. In today’s knowledge workplace, portals can perform some of the tasks of a knowledge worker—gathering task-relevant information, searching it for the desired content, organising then analysing it, applying what is found to the specific situation, and sharing the learning from the process with other knowledge workers (Mack, Ravin & Byrd, 2001). More efficient use of an individual’s time has been found to be a major issue (“Gains From Knowledge Management
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Efforts,” n.d.), so portals have an important role to play in today’s workplace in improving the efficiency of knowledge workers, thus making them more productive. Benefits of storing and sharing information from a central database include reduced photocopying, filing, and use of paper. Retention of knowledge when an employee leaves the organisation has been estimated to increase by 70% as a result of good knowledge management practices (Gains From Knowledge Management Efforts,” n.d.). Zack (1999) breaks organisational knowledge into core, advanced, and innovative knowledge. Whereas core knowledge is the minimal knowledge required to continue to operate within an industry, advanced knowledge enables a firm to be viable relative to its competitors. Specific, differentiated knowledge that can place a firm in a niche market is termed advanced knowledge. But it is innovative knowledge that provides the organisation with what it needs to lead within its industry segment through differentiating itself from its competitors. However, Zack warns that the dynamic nature of knowledge means that today’s advanced knowledge may be tomorrow’s core knowledge. Knowledge leadership, or knowledge advantage (Zack), comes from enabling the function of three components—expertise, intrinsic motivation, and creative thinking skills—to be unleashed in an organisation (Amabile, 1998). There is an important role for portals in supporting knowledge sharing and team collaboration, but unless users and their willingness to use the portal are considered from the beginning, the contribution of a portal to knowledge leadership will be limited. Clearly identifying the purpose for which the portal is being established is important. Most KM initiatives are supported by claims of need based on easier access to an ever-increasing amount of information stored inside and outside the organisation, reducing access time, increasing relevance of information delivered, and facilitating knowledge transfer and sharing, thus supporting creativity and innovation. It is then suggested that this will provide competitive advantage to the organisation; indeed, Nonaka (1991) maintained that knowledge had the potential to be a source of lasting competitive advantage. Most claim to have linked their KM strategy to corporate goals. If this is the case, the benefits of KM initiatives, including portals to support KM (KM portals), should be able to be established according to the contribution they make to achievement of corporate goals. Firestone (2001) distinguishes between goals and objectives when discussing a framework for estimating KM benefits in organisations. Corporate goals are seen as valued states, the targets of goal
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strivings. Objectives are valued for the contribution they make to achievement of corporate goals (Firestone, 2001). Identifying the purpose of a KM portal and clearly defining the objective of the portal will enable its contribution to the achievement of corporate goals to be assessed. Reducing time taken to locate information in an organisation from 30 to 40% of employees’ work hours to 20% could be linked to goals of productivity improvement, reduced costs, and increased profits. Achievement of the objective of reducing time spent on locating information could be demonstrated as contributing to achievement of the goal of increased profit through productivity improvement and related cost reduction. A clearly stated objective for the portal linked to the KM strategy, which in turn has a demonstrated link to organisational goals, is an important starting point.
KM Portal Design Having recognised the role that a portal might play in the KM strategy, the next step is to consider how best to go about designing a KM portal to support organisation-specific needs. As with all change in organisations, unless users see the change as addressing their needs and providing a benefit to them, they are unlikely to make use of the portal. The first consideration, then, will be: Who will use the portal and what uses will they make of it? The answer to this question will drive the design of the portal. To provide a user with the information they need, a KM portal will need to be personalised to provide a single view of data, information, and knowledge within the organisation as it relates to the role of the user (Van den Hoven, 2002). Making employees aware of how portals can assist them to better perform their role, demonstrating the benefits for them and the organisation, can reduce resistance to change, making the introduction of a portal both quicker and easier. Retention of knowledge is one thing; ensuring ease of access to the knowledge for those requiring it quickly and presenting it so that it is easily understood is another. This makes the design of a KM portal extremely important. It is the way in which data and information are categorised and the manner in which the portal is personalised for the user through integration of relevant components for screen display that lead to the portal adding value to the organisation.
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Enterprise Information Portals, or Corporate Portals Enterprise information portals (EIPs) enable organisations to provide users access to both internal and external information. The range of users for an EIP can be diverse—individuals, specific user groups, partners. Each of these is now explained.
EIPs for Individuals EIPs may be used entirely by individual employees to obtain specific information. It may be an employee self-service portal, providing information on the full range of human resource activities within the organisation. This type of portal can be used by individual employees to check, for instance, their leave entitlements or to apply for leave. Corporate Yellow Pages are another example of an EIP, where information gathered on expertise within the organisation is arranged so that employees can obtain information from those who have had experience in a particular field. Another example may be a portal that gathers customer information. This information on customers may be required by sales, research and development, marketing, or customer service personnel. By providing information on where expertise may be found Corporate Yellow Pages (CYP) facilitate contact, leading to knowledge transfer between people. They have the potential not only to list expertise available but also to store information on and examples of this expertise (Davenport & Völpel, 2001). A CYP that merely lists experts may be viewed as an information portal, and a customer portal that merely lists customer interactions may be a customer relationship file (CRF), or customer information file (CIF). Many would argue these are merely examples of using technology to sort information long available in an organisation. The only advantage here is that instead of having to sort the paper files of the past to obtain the information required, technology does this quicker and probably better and can sort the same information in a variety of ways to meet the needs of a range of users. A well-designed portal will go beyond lists to present for the user information on expertise in the organisation. An information portal becomes a knowledge portal (KP) when it is able to recognise expertise from information stored in a
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range of repositories in the organisation and link this to an individual. The involvement of an employee in a project, their experience with customer groups, having performed a range of roles in the organisation, and working at various geographic locations can build into the expertise base of an organisation. A well-designed portal will be capable of mining the information available in reports and other documents written by individuals or company-wide publications—information contained in all forms in the organisation. At IBM Global Services, technology is used to mine those e-mails employees allow to be assessed and distributed databases to categorise the types of knowledge being requested or shared and by whom (Cross, Parker, Prusak, & Borgatti, 2001). Again, though, the taxonomy used will influence the extent to which any portal can be considered to have moved from an information to a knowledge portal.
EIPs for Specific User Groups The portal may be used by project teams or other groups to support the operation of communities of practice across the organisation. Because the creation “of a culture of sharing is primary to the success of a knowledge management program” (Seng, Zannes, & Pace, 2002), supporting the formation of and facilitating the sharing across a range of social, virtual, and topicspecific groups within the organisation is an important role of a KP. The link between communities of practice (COPs) and creativity, innovation, and best practice within organisations has already been established. KM portals can provide access for members of communities of practice to the information they need in relation to their work-related subject area. Internal portals provide relevant information and links between personnel to support internal operations just as Internet-based portals provide information and links between people across organisations. One global business knowledge Web portal, http://globaledge.msu.edu (Anonymous, 2003), connects business professionals worldwide to information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities. It is designed to provide a gateway to specialised knowledge on countries, cross-border business transactions, and cross-cultural management. Effectively it leads to the development of virtual communities and enables them to connect on areas of common interest such as international business, global supply-chain management, e-commerce, and knowledge management (Anonymous).
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A KM portal performs a similar role within organisations to what the global Web portal performs across organisations. In an area such as automotive design, for instance, a portal could support creativity through sharing of information between members of a COP. Research and development staff are often located at sites around the globe today. A KM portal designed to support members of an automotive design community of practice can avoid duplication and enable knowledge sharing to support creativity and, as a result, ensure new designs more quickly reach the market—providing competitive advantage. It has been found that higher performance levels were recorded where external knowledge sharing was high despite wide geographic distribution of staff. In fact, research revealed that external knowledge sharing was more important for distributed, cross-function groups than for colocated, functionally homogenous groups (Cummings, 2001). This would indicate that geographically dispersed single or cross-functional work groups could benefit greatly from the creation and use of appropriate KPs. Face-to-face meetings are not always possible. Time differences around the world may make video or phone linkups difficult. Here the KP can facilitate continuous sharing, which may or may not be further supported by face-to-face, video, or audio meetings. KPs have a role within the broad range of ways in which knowledge is shared across organisations in the 21st century. A food processing company in Australia—we will call it FPC—recognised the need to establish greater knowledge sharing across work groups. Although not involving global operations, the nature of the work conducted by a range of employees was such that they rarely, if ever, met face-to-face. Yet the knowledge that each had could provide others with what they needed to design and produce better, more highly desired products, better meet customers’ needs, and better understand the role of each in ensuring the success of the organisation. The first step FPC took toward KM was to arrange for customer service officers (CSOs) to visit customers within the region handled by them when next sales staff visited that region. Immediately, as a result of this, a stronger relationship was built between the CSO and the customer. Additionally, the sales and customer service staff shared information that resulted in more personalised service being provided to customers. Based on this initial success, FPC decided to have research and development (R&D) staff visit customers during regular sales representative visits. Again this initiative provided valuable information from customers. R&D staff learned of
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minor frustrations in relation to packaging, product design, and instructions. They also learned of suggestions that customers had received from their customers that fed into the development of possible new products or modification of current product lines. Acknowledging that visits to customers by CSO and R&D staff could not be made every time sales staff visited, the KM team is now at the stage of considering how the cross-functional relationships which have been established might be maintained so that the benefits of the sharing continue to add value to the organisation. A portal could be the next step in the KM project for FPC. This could take the form of a special purpose portal, one which could provide for each of the employee groups the information they require to better support customers and enable FPC to more quickly respond to new product possibilities being suggested by their customers’ customers. Customer comments, product defects, suggested improvements, desired product offerings, customer concerns, and resolved or unresolved customer service issues would be captured and stored. The personalised user interface would ensure the information was presented to users according to their role and thereby facilitate information exchange and build into cross-functional knowledge sharing. FPC could support the KP by providing opportunities for social interaction and face-toface discussions between staff across all areas of the organisation. Their KM strategy acknowledges the reality that these meetings cannot occur often enough to provide the level of knowledge sharing required to remain competitive today in their industry. A well-designed portal could fill the gap.
Creating Culture of Sharing Social network analysis reveals that the informal structure of an organisation can take quite a different form to the formal, documented organisational structure (Cross et al., 2001). Communication and information flow do not necessarily follow the formal organisational structure. Social network analysis both maps and analyses relationships between people, teams, and departments or across the whole organisation (Cross et al.). Research has revealed that critical information in organisations is most commonly obtained from other people (Cross et al.). The development of a culture of knowledge sharing can be built on results of social network analysis and the formation of COPs or virtual COPs, supported by technology to provide instant messaging and e-
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mail. For the level of trust to develop sufficiently to support sharing, nontechnology changes may also be required; for instance, open offices, familystyle kitchens that attract interaction, and knowledge fairs where expertise is exchanged by people from all areas of the organisation (Cross et al.). The Australian construction industry is fragmented (Sidwell, Kennedy, & Chan, 2002), with groups coming together to complete projects then disbanding and re-forming in totally different configurations for the next project. Transfer of learning from one project to another has been identified as an area of concern. An example of how one Australian construction company is addressing this situation is provided in Figure 1. Three COPs operate in this organisation and were developed in relation to the ICT used on a particular project (Peansupap et al., 2003). Project participants had not necessarily had previous experience with the technology involved. COP1 members depended heavily on the implementer (shown as L1) because of that person’s knowledge of both the construction and computing context. The community grew out of training provided by the implementer (L1) on how to use the ICT system. COP2, a COP of colleagues, existed to help novice engineers, untrained in the ICT application. The project site manager (L2), for instance, encouraged and advised subordinates on use of the ICT. The implementer also had some interaction with COP2. This interaction took place between L1 and L2, the gatekeepers controlling the flow of information between the two COPs. This
Figure 1. Communities of practice (Source: Peansupap, Walker, and Jewell, 2003) COP(1) COP(3) S ite E ngineer (L 3) Ins titution Network
F oreman (L4) COP(2)
Implementer (L1) Project S ite Manager (L2)
S ite Adminis trator (L3)
F ormal Ad hoc Combine
= Gatekeepers
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interaction included L2 seeking assistance to resolve problems regarding use of the ICT application in order to, in turn, assist his subordinates in COP2 (Peansupap et al.). COP3 has a much wider network, involving all business groups in the organisation. Made up of experts from the different BUs across the organisation, they met every three to four months (Peansupap et al., 2003). Figure 1 demonstrates the formation of social networks and shows communication and information flows. These do not necessarily follow the formal organisational or project team structure. It demonstrates that critical information for project success is being obtained from people who have the required information. Rich communication channels were used, including e-mail and other communication technologies to support knowledge sharing, feedback, and advice. It can be seen that portals could be used to support the COPs. Expertise and project experience could be also stored for access using a CYP or similar portal, so that fresh learning did not have to occur with each new project. Perhaps, even, a special purpose portal for projects, where users’ specifications would ensure they received information on similar past projects.
Special Purpose Portals Infrastructure that supports knowledge sharing optimises the development of enterprise-wide business intelligence. By coordinating data from multiple sources and using a knowledge management taxonomy to organise the data, improved decision-making is supported by EIPs, or corporate portals. The portal suggested for FPC could, therefore, be described as a special purpose EIP. Another example is that of a performance management portal (PMP), which provides information for strategic planning and operational decisionmaking by specific users within the organisation (see Figure 2). By providing a single point of access to a range of business information, this PMP supports business operations and enables business strategy to be developed and reshaped in response to changes in the information provided over time. Being able to access information from a multitude of sources enables organisations to have a much clearer picture of their overall performance and thus better respond within today’s dynamic globalised business environment (Sharif, 2003). Unless information is structured, it cannot be put to best use; indeed, its value relates to the extent to which it is structured (Rowley, 2001). Portals work best
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Figure 2. Performance management portal (Adapted from Sharif, 2003, p. 73) Validity of Information
Business Operations
Ownership of Metrics
Planning
Metric Definitions Performance Management Portal
Analysis & Budgeting
Source of Metric Information Forecasting & Consolidation Reporting
Business Strategy
in a structured database environment; they are not a means for managing large amounts of unstructured text (White, 2002). The performance management portal does just this. It structures information from a multitude of structured sources—many more might be included than those shown in Figure 2—so that it becomes a valuable source of competitive advantage for the organisation through the support it provides to strategic and operational decision-making. Assuming the PMP was established to support business goals of improved decision-making, better strategy formulation, and quicker strategy reformulation, being able to provide evidence of improvements would demonstrate the contribution of the PMP’s objective to overall organisational goals.
EIPs for Partners Increasingly, as organisations become involved in strategic alliances or other forms of partnering, often related to a specific project or business activity, they may need to share certain information with their partners. Information may be required, for instance, by suppliers. Here an extranet may be used to enable
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parties to access information from a range of databases to support their joint activities. Collaboration occurs between users “through the integration of external Web-based applications or internal back-office systems” (Awad & Ghaziri, 2004). Portals that extend EIP activities to others outside the organisation have been referred to as extranet information portals (XIPs; Sharif, 2003). XIPs can be viewed as an additional layer of access being provided to certain external users to information contained in the corporate portal (Raol, Koong, Lui, & Yu, 2002). Access is provided to the information required according to the role of each of the external users. Access will be limited to the period of association.
Enterprise Knowledge Portals An enterprise knowledge portal (EKP) goes beyond providing information; it enables knowledge to be produced from the data and information stored in the organisation’s databases (Awad & Ghaziri, 2004). The move from information to knowledge portals is now discussed.
Information or Knowledge Portal? The benefits a portal provides will depend on the quality of its design and its ability to provide personalised access. Evaluating the contribution of a KM portal to the organisation will require that clearly stated goals are established as part of the early decision to design a portal. Early portals were criticised. Concern had centred on providing a gateway to enable employees to access information stored within and external to the organisation. This was expected to support more informed decision-making. But it soon became apparent that even greater value could be gained by more carefully considering the use individuals and groups from all areas of the organisation might wish to make of the information. This led to a move to knowledge portals—portals designed to facilitate dissemination of knowledge across the organisation, worldwide, if necessary, and to support knowledge production, acquisition, and management (Awad &
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Ghaziri, 2004). Knowledge portals focus on particular areas of business; they can be customised to meet the needs of users from all areas of the organisation, ensuring that they receive only information appropriate to their needs. This is done through an interface that enables gathering and analysing of information, collaboration with peers, and generation of new knowledge (Awad & Ghaziri, 2004). The ongoing debate over the difference between information management and knowledge management has again been highlighted in our research into the implementation of knowledge portals in Australian organisations. One organisation suggested the development of their knowledge portal had actually bypassed information—they had moved from an intranet pilot project in the late 1990s to a business case for the knowledge portal in 2003. The intranet was reported to have minimal use initially but a changed mind-set as a result of new staff, organisational structure changes, and appointment of knowledge management staff, together with improved computer literacy amongst staff, had resulted in expectations rising. So in this case the project has been business needs rather than IT driven. A staff survey indicated the top two priorities for the KM portal were the ability to access past decisions and the opportunity for networking. Guidelines for communities of practice have thus been incorporated into the business case for this KM portal. The second organisation reported having two knowledge portals. Both of these portals have been designed for use by the public and for providing information for employees within the organisation. So, are they knowledge or information portals? We would argue they are information portals at this point. However, the organisation is currently undergoing a knowledge “revolution” internally, with a massive upgrade of their intranet. An electronic document management system has recently been implemented along with a Web content management system allowing distributed authorship. A portals manager has been appointed to work with several other staff who work in the area but also have other duties in the organisation. The organisation has been actively encouraging a knowledge environment by appointing a knowledge manager, making sure that “like” groups are located together, setting up breakout areas, and providing training for staff on issues such as how to store e-mail and how to capture electronic material which their old records system was unable to. Thus, in a fairly short period of time, we are likely to see a “true” knowledge portal in this organisation. Like our suggestion for FPC, these two organisations are moving from information toward knowledge management supported by appropriately designed portals. The examples demonstrate, though, that planning tends to begin
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at the information level and the move to knowledge management supported by knowledge portals evolves over time.
Successful Knowledge Management Using Portals Successful knowledge management projects are made up of one-third technology and two-thirds people-oriented enablers (Davenport & Prusak, 2000). These enablers include both hardware and software infrastructure and support systems to ensure that the hardware and software are used effectively. Knowledge portals can do this; they have the potential to enable people to create, transfer, and use knowledge to advantage. The human processes of knowledge include creativity, conversation, judgement, teaching, and learning (Butcher, Crispen, Espinal, & Griffin, 2001). To move from a knowledge-managing to a knowledge-enabling environment, a set of organisational activities that positively affect knowledge creation need to be installed (Butcher et al.). This is seen as an organisation using knowledge to advantage. The concept knowledge advantage (K-Adv) has been described as an organisation’s “capacity to liberate latent creativity and innovation potential through effective management of knowledge both from within its organisational boundaries and its external environment” (Walker, 2003). A coordinated approach is required to achieve knowledge advantage through the sharing of knowledge and diffusion of innovation throughout the organisation. Organisations, large and small and across industries, are now recognising that unless they take steps to establish the required information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure to support people to effectively use knowledge in their business activities, they will not gain the benefits which K-Adv offers. This ICT infrastructure creates the right context for knowledge facilitation to occur, but it requires also that organisations install a knowledge vision and develop ways of managing conversation, mobilising knowledge activities within the organisation, and globalising local knowledge. An effective functioning portal can link people and the ICT infrastructure of hardware, software, and networks to achieve knowledge sharing. The effectiveness and user friendliness of the portal and the scope of its content will affect the extent of its contribution to organisational performance.
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Portals That Support KM The five steps in managing knowledge are to capture, store, process, share, and use knowledge (Seng et al., 2002). A successful portal will support knowledge harvesting and sharing within organisations; it will provide access to and processing of information to enable its use within and outside the organisation. In organisations where knowledge creation is supported through continuous capturing of new knowledge, the KM process may be seen to include six steps: creation, capture and storage, refinement, distribution, use, and monitoring, through which continuous feedback that influences the beginning of the process—creation—occurs (Davenport & Völpel, 2001). A successful KM portal will incorporate this feedback loop and continuously support the creation process. It is when this happens that a corporate portal moves from an information to a knowledge portal.
Features of Successful Portals The features of a successful portal demonstrate that designing a KP to support achievement of business goals can be a complex and time-consuming process. Examining these features and reasons for inclusion also reveal why it is important to invest the time at the design stage. A KP that lacks some of these features may be relegated to information portal status or, worse still, may prove to be an unused expensive experiment.
Integrating and Personalising Information Gathered Unless the gateway developed is capable of accessing and integrating disparate data stores, documents, and items from the Web according to the needs of the user, it will not serve a purpose greater than that which most organisations have the resources to do now. Information is already gathered and stored in multiple repositories within organisations, and it is possible to access the information from all these sources. The important difference with a portal is that this information is not accessed separately but integrated with other relevant information to tell the full story, according to the needs of the user. Current methods of access usually provide information in the same format and combi-
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nation for all those accessing it. Integration and personalisation of the information gathered is a vital component of a successful KP. Personalisation includes allowing users to modify their interface according to their specified preferences (Watson & Fenner, 2000).
Categorisation and Analysis for Search and Integration Purposes The use of a taxonomy or hierarchy for organising the information is as vital here, perhaps more so, than it is in information or knowledge management systems. The information needs to be indexed in a manner that will allow it to be searched, analysed, refined, and filtered according to specific business needs (Watson & Fenner, 2000). By organising the information in this manner, it will be possible to integrate information in a variety of different ways and present it to users according to their specifications. The KP’s ability to add value will depend on its ability to deliver specific content according to each user’s specifications.
Connecting People Through the analysis feature, the KP will not only be able to connect employees with experts based on their declared expertise, it will be capable of inferring expertise based on records of actions and information stored in relation to an individual (Watson & Fenner, 2000). This could include involvement in a particular type of project, experience with a certain customer or customer group, role, geographic location, or reports and other documents written. The KP will identify business information related to an individual’s specified needs and establish links between employees through the provision of this information. This could extend to the point of supporting the development of a virtual community, a network of people with a common interest (Oudshoff, Bosloper, Klos, & Spaanenburg, 2003) who perhaps have never met and may never do so. Successful portals will be those designed with a specific business goal in mind. Users will have been involved, and the designers will understand the culture of the organisation and have used this knowledge to guide the design process. Knowing of the advantages of KPs is one thing, gaining senior management
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support is another; yet without this support, it is unlikely the effort will be successful. With the support of senior management, your KP initiative should be driven by the realisation that IT alone will not make it happen because knowledge is about people. A good starting point can be a content-specific portal for a small group of end users whose behaviour is understood. Using the knowledge of the users, the portal should be designed to meet a specific need and fit with employee behaviour. These users should be involved in the development of the content of the portal. IT staff involved should resist the temptation to keep the design of the user interface simple, as this has been found to lead to increased usage (Hoffman, 2002). Suitable rewards for knowledge sharing should be shaped by the type of users, their roles, and the business objective of the portal.
How Many Portals is Enough? As we have established throughout the chapter, the greatest benefit of a portal is in its ability to provide precisely that information an individual requires, presented in a format that makes it quickly and easily understood by them. Then, perhaps, the answer to the question: Have some organisations created too many and too diverse a range of portals? would be “yes”. This doesn’t mean that the learning from attempts to develop a range of portals for specific users and specific purposes has been a failure or that the learning has no value to organisations. In fact, the learning from this phase has been vital for firms in better organising the information stored in their diverse repositories to enable it to contribute at a variety of levels to strategy developments and for operational purposes. Applying the learning will move many databases from flat data or vaguely categorised information to information sorted in a manner which makes it immediately more readily useable. However, that all information in the organisation could ever be arranged, using the gateway provided by a large range of portals, so that every user could find everything they wished to locate for every possible purpose was perhaps a pipe dream. The dream, though, has delivered learning which can be leveraged to improve knowledge management practices overall in organisations and to ensure that those portals developed do all that a portal should. What is indicated by the questioning of the development of multiple KPs is that as KM becomes more embedded in the organisation, individuals will become
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more adept at extracting—or pulling—from both external and internal information sources, which they require for their specific purposes. This has been graphically represented in Figure 3 as it relates to stages of maturity in KM practices in organisations. At Stage 1, the organisation effectively draws boundaries around the information, from all sources that it will allow to influence its operations. As it becomes more KM mature, the boundaries dissolve until at Stage 3 the boundaries have become porous. This allows and, in fact, encourages a greater amount of “pull”, or extraction, from the external environment of information that can build the knowledge resources of the organisation. At the same time, this level of maturity will support the exchange of information from inside the organisation to external sources, be they other areas of the organisation, partners, or even competitors, over time. This encourages existing knowledge to be re-framed through exposure to different contexts— thus new knowledge is generated and enhances that knowledge for use in different contexts.
Figure 3. Organisational learning and interaction with external sources (based on Maqsood, Walker, & Finegan, 2003)
E XT E R NAL KNOWL E DGE BANK Pull
T HE
• •
E xternal S ources of Innovation Increas ing over time
Pull
Pull
Gap R educed
INT E R F ACE
Push
Gap E XT E R NAL E NVIR ONME NT Competition and T hreats
Push Push
OR GANIS AT ION at S T AGE 1
OR GANIS AT ION at S T AGE 2
OR GANIS AT ION at S T AGE 3
Cycle repeats and refines
Innovation Innovation Knowledge Management Initiatives T HE L E AR NING OR GANIS AT ION
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An organisation at Stage 3 will be best able to capitalise on the application of portals for KM. Part of planning for a portal involves, therefore, examining your organisation’s readiness to make good use of portals to support knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. For an organisation at Stage 1, the first step toward installing a portal may be to bring about changes in KM maturity to reach a level that will best support the use of the portal. A range of products have been available to support portal development for organisations ready to further improve their knowledge-sharing capabilities. New products just entering the market take the form of integrated software infrastructure technologies, including a combined application server, integration server that provides the connection to back-end data sources, and a portal product. Another technology, termed a smart enterprise suite, is made up of search, classification, content-management, collaboration, knowledge-management, and process-management components. These new, integrated products make it unlikely that portal technology will be added to an intranet in the future. Integrated technologies provide the likely alternative for leveraging knowledge assets in the future (White, 2002).
Conclusion We began this chapter by discussing the use of portals to support sharing for good knowledge management practices in organisations. We acknowledged that if done well, this could enable innovation diffusion within organisations, thereby providing competitive advantage. Types of portals, their application in particular circumstances, and the possibility of misuse or overuse was discussed. Our discussions concluded with the view that well-designed portals can support knowledge sharing, providing the lasting, competitive advantage Nonaka (1991) predicted. However we cautioned that as with all change in organisations, consideration of culture, people, uses, users, objectives, and goals must precede careful planning and implementation that is staged to align with the KM maturity level of the organisation.
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References Amabile, T. M. (1998). How to kill creativity. Harvard Business Review, 76(5), 76-87. Anonymous. (2003). Focus on Net. Measuring Business Excellence, 7(1), 98-100. Retrieved September 1, 2003. Awad, E. M., & Ghaziri, H. (2004). Knowledge management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education. Butcher, G., Crispen, P., Espinal, D., & Griffin, C. (2001). Enabling knowledge creation. Retrieved November 10, 2003, from http://netsquirrel.com/ pepperdine Chong, C. W., Holden, T., Wilhelmij, P., & Schmidt, R. A. (2000). Where does knowledge management add value? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1(4), 366-380. Cross, R., Parker, A., Prusak, L., & Borgatti, S. P. (2001). Knowing what we know: Supporting knowledge creation and sharing in social networks. Organizational Dynamics, 30(2), 100-120. Cummings, J. N. (2001). Work groups and knowledge sharing in a global organization. Academy of Management Proceedings. Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Davenport, T. H., & Völpel, S. C. (2001). The rise of knowledge towards attention management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(3), 212221. Firestone, J. M. ( 2001, April 15). Estimating benefits of knowledge management initiatives: Concepts, methodology, and tools. Knowledge and Innovation: Journal of the KMCI, 1(3). Gains from knowledge management efforts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2003, from http://www.computerworld.com Hoffman, T. (2002). IT panel says start small with knowledge management portals. Computerworld, 36(31), 14-18. Retrieved November 11, 2003. Mack, R., Ravin, Y., & Byrd, R. J. (2001). Knowledge portals and the emerging digital knowledge workplace. IBM Systems Journal, 40(4), 925-955.
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Maqsood, T., Walker, D. H. T., & Finegan, A. (2003). A conceptual model for exploring knowledge channelisation from sources of innovation in construction organisations: Extending the role of knowledge management. In 19th ARCOM Conference. Nonaka, I. (1991, November-December). The knowledge-creating company. Harvard Business Review, 14-37. Oudshoff, A. M., Bosloper, I. E., Klos, T. B., & Spaanenburg, L. (2003). Knowledge discovery in virtual community texts: Clustering virtual communities. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 14, 13-24. Peansupap, V., Walker, D., & Jewell, M. (2003). Diffusion of information and communication technology: A community of practice perspective. In A. S. Kazi (Ed.)., Knowledge management in the construction industry: A socio-technical perspective. Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Pickett, R., & Hamre, W. (2002, Spring). Building portals for higher education. New Directions for International Research, 113, 37-55. Raol, J. M., Koong, K. S., Lui, L. C., & Yu, C. S. (2002). An identification and classification of enterprise portal functions and features. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 102(67), 392. Rowley, J. (2001). Knowledge organisation in a Web-based environment. Management Decision, 39(5), 355-361. Seng, C. V., Zannes, E., & Pace, R. W. (2002). The contributions of knowledge management to workplace learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 14(4), 140. Sharif, A. M. (2003). Benchmarking performance management systems. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9(1), 62-85. Sidwell, A. C., Kennedy, R. J., & Chan, A. P. C. (2002). Re-engineering the construction delivery process: Report and case studies. Construction Industry Institute. Van den Hoven, J. (2002, Summer). Adding value to data. Information Systems Management, 89-92. Walker, D. H. T. (2003). The knowledge advantage (K-Adv): Unleashing creativity and innovation, Best business practice guide. Brisbane, Australia: CRC in Construction Innovation. Watson, J., & Fenner, J. (2000, July). Understanding portals. The Information Management Journal, 18-22.
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White, M. (2002). Intranets: Web services, portals and intranets. Retrieved November 11, 2003, from http://intranetfocus.com/blog/ archivesZack, M. H. (1999). Developing a knowledge strategy. California Management Review, 41(3), 125-145.
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Chapter XVI
Developing a Portal to Build a Business Community Alex Pliaskin Deakin University, Australia Arthur Tatnall Victoria University, Australia
Abstract In June 2000 the Western Region Economic Development Organisation (WREDO), a not-for-profit organisation sponsored by the six municipalities that make up the western region of Melbourne (Australia), received a government grant for a project to set up a business-to-business portal. This innovative project was to create a horizontal portal, Bizewest, which would enable the whole range of small to medium enterprises in Melbourne’s West to engage in an increased number of e-commerce transactions with each other. Although Bizewest ceased operations in June 2003, the portal project as a whole must be considered to be a considerable success as it produced substantial benefits in compiling a register of businesses in the region, interesting many small to medium enterprises in the benefits of e-commerce and training school students in the design of e-commerce Web pages.
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Introduction Melbourne is a city of about 3.5 million people and is the capital of Victoria, one of the states that make up the Commonwealth of Australia. The Western region of Melbourne contains around 20,000 businesses and is regarded as the manufacturing, transport, and distribution hub of southeastern Australia (Tatnall, Burgess, & Singh, 2004). Traditionally, this region had encompassed much of the industry in metropolitan Melbourne and has consequently been regarded as an area populated by “working-class people”. With the expansion of Melbourne, however, and the desire of many professionals to live close to the central business district of Melbourne, the demographics of this area are changing. The Western Region Economic Development Organisation (WREDO) is sponsored by the six municipalities (Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton, Moonee Valley, and Wyndham) that make up the Western region of Melbourne. It is a not-for-profit organisation and is also supported by five major business enterprises operating in the western suburbs: Australian Gas and Light Limited, City West Water, McGregor By Road, Powercor Australia Limited, and the Urban and Regional Land Corporation. WREDO is charged with fostering economic growth and encouraging investment within the Western region of Melbourne and is involved in a variety of regular and one-off initiatives. One of these regular initiatives is a monthly networking breakfast when businesses in the area get to know each other better and listen to a guest speaker. This chapter describes one of WREDO’s one-off initiatives: the Bizewest B-B portal.
The Beginnings of the Bizewest Portal In February 2000 the Victorian state treasurer issued a press release announcing a new state government initiative known as the Victorian E-commerce Early Movers Scheme (VEEM). The scheme was designed to provide assistance to local government to allow it to encourage small to medium business units operating within their boundaries to use e-commerce for the purpose of expanding business and also to make these trading entities more competitive. A cornerstone of the scheme was the acknowledgement that insufficient numbers of small to medium organisations were using new technology to build business and to enhance competitiveness. This was of concern because Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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international experience with the information economy indicated that significant benefits fall to early movers into e-commerce. The Victorian Government thus decided to empower businesses by providing them with opportunities to reap the benefits of being online early. The government addressed its vision for sharing the benefits of the information and communication technology industries across the community in its “Connecting Victoria” strategy statement of November 1999 (VEEM, 2000). This statement outlined a significant agenda item that set out to “vigorously promote e-commerce” in Victoria. Assistance under the VEEM scheme could cover up to 75% of all costs associated with projects, and grants were to be made on a case-by-case basis. The maximum funding for individual projects was to be $45,000 for any discrete e-commerce enabling proposal, but councils were able to put in joint submissions in order to obtain a higher level of funding for a project that crossed municipal boundaries. Funding could involve capital, equipment costs, and labour implementation costs but was not to include ongoing maintenance, or operating costs of the project. Funding to cover salary costs associated with the project was only to be made available if those involved were to be employed specifically for the purpose of the project. Projects needed to demonstrate that they were to improve one or more of the following: • • • •
The economic performance of a region. The business competitiveness of a region. The level of available infrastructure. The ability of councils to perform their economic development role.
Projects also needed to demonstrate that they would provide significant leverage to indirectly improve local economies, and that they would reach a level of self-sustainability within the period of their business plan, as no funding was to be provided for maintenance purposes (VEEM, 2000). After internal discussions, WREDO decided to apply for funding for the “Western Melbourne B-B portal”, but because of the short time allowed for the lodgement of proposals, the submission was drawn up in haste in the expectation that it would not be accepted. In its submission WREDO argued that the Western Melbourne B-B (or e-business) portal was to provide a tangible regional approach to enabling business in Melbourne’s West to actively participate in the information economy. It was to be a true B-B portal with trading facilities and a payments gateway linked with a major bank. Only Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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businesses in Melbourne’s Western region would be permitted to set up trading on the portal. Specifically, the project was to: •
•
•
•
Create a Web portal for business and local government in Melbourne’s West to provide a mechanism for businesses to engage in business-tobusiness e-commerce and to encourage business-to-local-government transactions in the local area. Initially target 50 businesses from each of the six Western region municipalities, making up a total of 300 businesses to participate in the project. These businesses were to come primarily from the key and emerging industries in the region in the transport and distribution, manufacturing, and services sectors. Develop a regional Web-based registry for the businesses involved. This was to include a Web site for each business and the provision of a range of e-commerce–enabling tools that would facilitate business-to-business transactions taking place. Create an ongoing program of regional seminars and training, both informal and formal, for the pilot businesses involved and for new entrants. Training was to focus on effective trading and exporting opportunities in the online environment and was to be provided through existing programs available in the Western region: various groups, including Austrade, AusEnet, AlGroup E-Commerce, and Victoria University, were cited as such training providers.
The submission outlined the objectives of the project as to: •
•
•
Increase awareness of emerging technologies—specifically, the project aimed at encouraging small to medium enterprises (SME) in Melbourne’s West to be more aggressive in their uptake of e-commerce opportunities. Increase participation in emerging technologies—specifically, the project aimed at working with enterprises located in the West and operating in growth-industry sectors in the region to find and exploit e-commerce solutions for their businesses. At the time, the growth-industry sectors were identified as transport and distribution and manufacturing. Focus on involving the youth of the area in the promotion of new technologies for business—specifically, the project team were to work
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with secondary schools in the region to involve senior high school students studying information technology or engineering and design in the development of e-business solutions for businesses in the region. The project, WREDO claimed, would directly benefit students, educational institutions in the region, the transport and distribution industry, manufacturing industries, and individual companies in a number of ways. Specifically, the project would: •
•
•
•
Enable students to increase their awareness of the choices, careers, and training options available in the information technology and telecommunications industry as they apply in the growth sectors of transport, distribution, and manufacturing in Melbourne’s West. The project was to provide relevant learning and experience in an industrial setting and to provide skill development in communications and new technology in a practical situation. The Western Melbourne B-B portal would open up employment pathways into business in the local area. Enable educational institutions in the area to strengthen industry-education partnerships with local business and to provide options for students to pursue alternative paths to training and work. The project was to assist in increasing student retention rates by offering curriculum programs responsive to student, community, and business needs. Promote the region and WREDO by highlighting the Western area of Melbourne as the transport and manufacturing hub of Australia. Also as an area that is innovative and enterprising and with a strong learning culture. The portal would assist to increase the skills base of the resident young people and local business in the uptake of information technology for promotion of electronic commerce. The Western Melbourne B-B portal would support the key industry sectors underpinning economic growth in the area and encourage further investment in transport, distribution, and manufacturing. Enable the transport, distribution, and manufacturing industries by allowing them to promote themselves to young people in a way that reverses some of the negative and outdated attitudes and beliefs that exist about these industries in the community. The project will help to strengthen the networking and cluster links between companies operating in the region
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•
and to increase the uptake of training in the introduction of new technology. Enable individual companies to promote their business within the region, the state, and nationally. It would also increase their awareness of training opportunities and support available in e-business and information technology and telecommunications. The project would also increase the pool of current and future recruits for employment vacancies. Companies would also benefit from the promotion and growth of industry as a whole.
In June 2002 it was announced that WREDO’s submission for a B-B portal had been successful and that government funding of $247,400 for the project was to be provided for a period of 12 months on condition that WREDO provide an additional amount equivalent to one third of this amount from its own funds. WREDO then allocated the further $88,000 towards the project, making a total project budget of $345,400 for the year.
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Building the Portal After receiving a grant for what it thought to be a large amount of money, WREDO originally intended developing the portal, possibly with the assistance of a software company, and providing training to locals SMEs itself (WREDO staff, 2001). It did not really anticipate the size or complexity of the task it was undertaking. WREDO issued specifications to both Telstra Australia and Cable and Wireless Optus for hosting the portal, pointing out that they were looking at small business sites of around 10 Mb. They requested a price for hosting these sites, but the telecommunications companies did not appear to understand small business requirements, and what WREDO got back had nothing to do with the specifications and little to do with businesses of this size. It was clear that more work would also have to be done to identify a software company to assist with building the portal.
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Negotiations continued and an arrangement was finally made with Optus to host the portal and to find a software company to build it. At the WREDO networking breakfast in November 2000, it was formally announced that the Bizewest Steering Committee would work with Cable and Wireless Optus and Infosentials Limited on the development of the portal. Unfortunately, in December 2000 Infosentials was placed in voluntary administration, forcing WREDO to terminate that company’s involvement. Cable and Wireless Optus then sought an alternative provider of services for building the portal, and final agreement was reached in January 2001 with Optus for the supply of services to build and host the Bizewest portal. Building of the portal was subcontracted by Optus to a company called Batteries Included, who used a product called ReadyHub to construct the portal infrastructure. The development of the portal infrastructure and services commenced in late January 2001, with initial testing beginning in late April of the same year. The Bizewest site (www.bizewest.com.au) became operational on May 22, 2001, but without a payment gateway. This gateway did not become available until February 2003, after 21 months of further development. WREDO soon discovered that what they were doing was anything but straightforward, and that little precedent existed, at the time, for a horizontal community portal of this type. They also discovered that the money they had available did not go as far as they had thought it might. Some of the difficulties they experienced in building the portal have subsequently been discussed by other researchers (Gengatharen & Standing, 2003; Lepa & Tatnall, 2002). Further, to add to these difficulties, some internal issues associated with Batteries Included meant that this company eventually split into several bits. The part that built the portal became known as Kitchen Sink Software and assumed responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the Bizewest site. Once the portal was operational, getting local business online was the next step, and this involved two parts: convincing business to adopt the portal and providing them with suitable Web sites. Business breakfasts, workshops, lots of publicity, and no initial costs to the business who adopted were part of the considerable effort made by WREDO to convince SMEs that getting onto the portal would be a good idea. To assist businesses to create Web pages to link to the Bizewest portal, WREDO held two Web-a-thons at local shopping centres. At these sessions, year 11 students from local secondary schools assisted local organisations to create their Web pages. WREDO also arranged for some of these students to consult with local businesses on a one-to-one basis on their “work experience” days to set up their Web sites. This had the
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advantage to these businesses of a cheap Web site, costing only $5 per day to set up, which would serve their initial needs very well. This arrangement continued for some time.
Getting Business to Adopt the Portal For the project to be successful, the Bizewest portal needed to be seen by the proprietors of the SMEs as a necessary means of undertaking e-commerce and business-to-business transactions. They needed to be convinced that this technology was more worthwhile and offered them better business prospects than the approaches, such as post or fax, they had previously used. It was not enough for those promoting the portal to eloquently espouse its benefits, the SMEs would also have to give up at least some of their old methods of businessto-business transactions. The portal could be judged to be truly successful when SME proprietors begin advocating its advantages to each other (Tatnall & Burgess, 2002). Interviews with various stakeholders involved in the project, including the project manager, software designers and programmers, and some businesses that were using the portal, were conducted in late 2001 and early 2002. One particularly important group was the five companies designated by WREDO as “business champions” for this project. Some of the issues considered important by several of these business champions are discussed below. One of the business champions was a medium-sized Melbourne company, with about 100 employees, that stores frozen food and transports it to supermarkets and other locations around the country. A major reason that this company adopted the portal was the hope that it would provide a better opportunity to deal with people in the local region (Tatnall & Burgess, 2004). The general manager indicated that he thought it was going to provide benefits for everybody and not just his company. This was important to him. He could see use of the portal changing his business by enabling it to use people in the local region, and that “working together for the benefit of everybody” would be advantageous for the region (Cold Storage, 2001). Another business champion was a small printer with 15 employees that had just begun using the portal. They saw the portal as having “fantastic possibilities” but there were currently some problems: “I suppose that people who are on the
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portal see us and they contact us, but there is something wrong with it at the moment. The problem is that they can’t actually ring a quote with us. It has to be fixed up, but once it is fixed, it will be good” (Printing Press, 2001). A firm of solicitors had also just started making use of the portal and were trying to work out the best ways to utilise it to advantage. Their primary goal was to use the portal to increase their visibility. “What we want is for people to discover something that they may not have recognised and that is that there is a top-quality legal service in the Western region that they can come to for most of their legal services.” They had few specific expectations of the portal but hoped later to allow businesses to register interest and gain some access to their legal services using the portal (Footscray Solicitors, 2001). Finally, a textile company just outside the metropolitan area was using the portal mainly for promoting its image but did intend to move to B-B operations in the future. “I think that it will be inevitable, but not next month—it’s still a year or two off. I’m uncertain of what the plan is at this point; there is no plan.” One of the problems that this small business faced was lack of computing expertise. This is a common problem among small businesses (Burgess, 2002). Typically there are one or two people who know something about computers but do not have much spare time to plan and implement these systems. “I think the way that we will go is like many businesses; we will dip our toe in the water and do some basic ordering: stationery, that’s a common one. We will choose to start the ball rolling, get our head around a few of the practical issues of that, and then on to bigger things” (Textile Company, 2001). In summary, the interviews showed that most businesses adopting the portal did so because it seemed to them to be “a good idea” rather than because they had any clear idea of its benefits. Few had looked objectively at the characteristics of portal technology or business-to-business e-commerce. Common reasons for adoption included: • • • •
“If other businesses adopt it and we don’t, we will be left behind.” “All the talk is about e-commerce and how it is the way of the future.” “It doesn’t look too hard to make it work and we have little to lose.” “My kids tell me that everyone will be on the Internet soon and we had better be too” (Tatnall & Burgess, 2002).
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The Demise and Transformation of the Portal Activity on the site was always extremely disappointing. The proportion of sessions that were one page hits and/or lasted for one minute or less seems to indicate that a large proportion of sessions were accidental or unintentional. Although a considerable number of businesses had taken up the offer and joined with Bizewest, many baulked when it was suggested that in future they would need to pay an annual fee to cover the costs of Kitchen Sink Software hosting the portal. The problem was that the grant to set up the portal provided no funds for ongoing maintenance and enhancement, and Bizewest was running out of money.
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In early 2003 the WREDO board began considering options for the Bizewest portal. It was clear that WREDO could not continue to spend money on the hosting and maintenance of the portal at the rate it had been doing. It was also clear that insufficient local businesses would be prepared to pay for the privilege of using the portal. The Bizewest site was intended primarily for business-tobusiness trading with an internal, regional focus. To use the portal you had to be a business in Melbourne’s West. The SMEs in this region, however, seemed to be resistant to embracing their new toy. Even though the portal infrastructure was in place, there was still a great deal of work to be done to encourage business to use this tool. In June 2003 operation of the Bizewest portal ceased. However, WREDO operates another Website (www.melbwest.com.au) and some parts of Bizewest will live on in this portal. The MelbWest site has recently been redesigned with an outward look to market the region, and WREDO believes that it has potential to be further developed as a broad regional portal with sections on tourism, learning, and other matters.
Conclusion The attempt to establish and maintain an inward-focused business-to-business e-commerce portal to allow small and medium-sized businesses in the Western region of Melbourne to take advantage of emerging technologies was a brave move. However, given the lack of opportunities for SMEs to engage in ecommerce, it was a worthy one. The Western Melbourne B-B portal (Bizewest), however, was probably doomed to failure right from the outset. The project plans were formulated in a hurry in order to secure a grant and were extremely ambitious given the amount of funding requested. This is understandable given that this was a very forward-looking, innovative project. In hindsight it would probably have been better to scale down the size and scope of the portal and to treat it as a pilot project. To attempt to change the culture of 300 businesses was also a monumental task as there were not the resources to even deal with one tenth of the participants. Because WREDO has a good, solid reputation in the West, a lot of the businesses became involved because WREDO convinced them that this was the way to go. However, they were not willing to contribute money when the portal floundered financially, as they could not see any immediate tangible
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benefits. The training needed to make these businesses appreciate the longterm benefits of e-commerce could not be had because of time and resource constraints. Also, in hindsight, the establishment of a payment gateway probably was a mistake. The Bizewest site, at least for a period, could have remained a catalogue only and resulted in a good deal less anguish to its managers. WREDO was paying so much less for the maintenance of its main MelbWest site (www.melbwest.com.au) compared to the cost of Bizewest that it would seem that this excessive cost ultimately precipitated the collapse of Bizewest in its original form. Despite its final demise, however, the emergence and development of the Bizewest portal left a legacy of useful benefits, and its development costs were certainly not wasted. The legacy of Bizewest included: •
• •
•
• •
A multifaceted Web portal site was developed (www.bizewest.com.au) and went live on May 2001, less than one year after WREDO obtained its VEEM grant. The portal allowed businesses to register online from June to December 2001. Because of the development of the portal, a number of school students were able to be trained to work in e-commerce in local businesses between May and November 2001. A model was established for the development of regional Web portals for business-to-business e-commerce. This model is capable of being replicated in other regions. An e-commerce toolkit for small to medium-sized businesses was developed. In conjunction with the development of the portal and because of its introduction, WREDO was able to compile a regional register of 11,000 local businesses. This register, which had been incorporated into the Bizewest portal, has now been made available through the MelbWest site.
References Burgess, S. (2002). Information technology and small business: Issues and challenges. Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
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Cold Storage. (2001). Private correspondence - Bizewest. Melbourne. Footscray Solicitors. (2001). Private correspondence - Bizewest. Melbourne. Gengatharen, D., & Standing, C. (2003). A conceptual framework to support the development of government sponsored community-portal regional electronic marketplaces for SMEs: A stage approach. In 14th Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Lepa, J., & Tatnall, A. (2002). The GreyPath Web portal: Reaching out to virtual communities of older people in regional areas. In IT in Regional Areas. Printing Press. (2001). Private correspondence - Bizewest. Melbourne. Tatnall, A., & Burgess, S. (2002). Using actor-network theory to research the implementation of a B-B portal for regional SMEs in Melbourne, Australia. In 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference—eReality: Constructing the eEconomy. Tatnall, A., & Burgess, S. (2004). Using actor-network theory to identify factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce in SMEs. In M. Singh & D. Waddell (Eds.), E-business: Innovation and change management (pp. 152-169). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Tatnall, A., Burgess, S., & Singh, M. (2004). Community and regional portals in Australia: A role to play for small businesses? In N. Al Quirim (Ed.), Electronic commerce in small to medium enterprises: Frameworks, issues and implications (pp. 307-323). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Textile Company. (2001). Private correspondence - Bizewest. Melbourne. VEEM (2000). Victorian e-commerce early movers scheme. Victorian Government, Melbourne. WREDO staff. (2001). WREDO background interview about Bizewest. Melbourne.
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About the Authors 349
About the Authors
Arthur Tatnall (
[email protected]) is an associate professor in the Victoria Graduate School of Business at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. He holds bachelor’s degrees in science and education, a graduate diploma in computer science, and a Research Master of Arts, in which he explored the origins of business computing education in Australian universities. His PhD involved a study in curriculum innovation, in which he investigated the manner in which Visual Basic entered the curriculum of an Australian university. His research interests include technological innovation, information technology in educational management, information systems curriculum, project management, and electronic commerce. He has written several books relating to information systems and has published book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. He is a member of IFIP Working Groups 3.4 and 3.7 and a professional member of the IEEE and the Australian Computer Society. He recently chaired the 13th Australasian Information Systems Conference. *
*
*
*
*
Tony Aitkenhead (
[email protected]) is the first chief technology officer of Victoria, Australia, and was appointed in late 2003 to support and progress the government’s position as a leader in e-government. Dr. Aitkenhead commenced his career in information technology in the early 1970s, working for a large telecommunications carrier. He has held many IT executive officer positions in a number of government departments, including
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350 About the Authors
the Attorney General’s Department, Department of Justice, Department of Human Services, and, more recently, Multimedia Victoria in the Department of Infrastructure. His research interests include the innovative application of technology; interorganizational relationships in IT-intensive environments, particularly electronic commerce in government settings; ICT governance; and the application of emerging new-wave technologies. Dr. Aitkenhead has a graduate diploma of applied science (information technology) from Monash University, Master Degree of Management (technology) from the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, and a Doctor of Business Administration from Victoria University. Marko Bajec, PhD (
[email protected]), is a lecturer of information systems and information systems development in the Faculty of Computer and Information Science at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is currently conducting research in information systems development and management of systems development. Dr. Bajec holds BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in computer engineering from the University of Ljubljana. He is a member of SDI (Slovenian Society of Informatics), AIS (Association of Information Systems), and PMI (Project Management Institute). Frada Burstein (
[email protected]) is an associate professor at Monash University, Australia. At Monash, Professor Burstein initiated and continues to lead the Knowledge Management Research Program, which comprises a Virtual Knowledge Management Laboratory. She has been a chief investigator for a number of research projects supported by grants and scholarships from the Australian Research Council and industry. Professor Burstein has published extensively in academic journals and collections of papers. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Information and Knowledge Management and Journal of Decision Systems. Charles E. Downing (
[email protected]) is an associate professor in the Operations Management and Information Systems Department of the College of Business at Northern Illinois University (USA). Professor Downing researches and consults in topics such as measuring the effectiveness of management information systems, the implementation and management of decision support systems, and telecommunications and electronic commerce. His articles have appeared in major journals and books, and he has been quoted
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About the Authors 351
in several popular press venues. Professor Downing has significant experience as an information technology consultant in the financial services industry, having designed, programmed, and implemented numerous interactive business-toconsumer systems for Fortune 500 companies. John M. Gallaugher (
[email protected]) is an associate professor of information systems at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management (USA). His research focuses on e-commerce, IS economics, and IS strategy and has appeared in MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Information & Management, and Electronic Markets, among others. He is a recipient of the Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award and has been recognized for his teaching excellence by BusinessWeek, Syracuse University, and Beta Gamma Sigma. Professor Gallaugher previously led IS development projects for a Fortune 100 firm and has worked in the former Soviet Union. He has consulted for many organizations, including Accenture, Staples, State Street, and the United States Information Agency. Jatinder N. D. Gupta (
[email protected]) is an eminent scholar of management of technology; professor of management information systems, industrial and systems engineering, and engineering management; and chairperson of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama (USA). Most recently, he was a professor of management, information, and communication sciences, and industry and technology at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. He holds a PhD in industrial engineering (with specialization in production management and information systems) from Texas Tech University. Co-author of a textbook in operations research, Dr. Gupta serves on the editorial boards of several national and international journals. Recipient of the Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Researcher awards from Ball State University, he has published numerous papers in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems, International Journal of Information Management, Operations Research, INFORMS Journal of Computing, Annals of Operations Research, and Mathematics of Operations Research. More recently, he served as co-editor of several special issues, including the Neural Networks in Business of Computers and Operations Research, and books, including Decision Making Support Systems: Achievements and Challenges for the New Decade (Idea Group Publishing). His current research interests include Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
352 About the Authors
e-commerce, supply chain management, information and decision technologies, scheduling, planning, and control, organizational learning and effectiveness, systems education, and knowledge management. Dr. Gupta is a member of several academic and professional societies, including the Association for Information Systems, Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), and the Information Resources Management Association (IRMA). Paul Hawking (
[email protected]) is a senior lecturer in information systems at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has contributed to the Journal of ERP Implementation and Management and contributed many conference papers on IS theory and practice. He is responsible for managing the university’s strategic alliance with SAP and is coordinator of the university’s ERP Research Group. In 2002 he was chairperson of the SAP Australian User Group. Jerzy Lepa (
[email protected]) is a lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Australia. He has a background in education and has a Master of Business relating to data warehousing. He is currently working on a PhD focusing on the use of the Internet by older people. His other main research interests are in database management and data modelling. He has written and published a number of book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. Beverley Lloyd-Walker (
[email protected]) is a senior lecturer in the School of Management at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. She has published in the knowledge management, information technology, and human resource management fields over several years. She is the co-author of a human resource management text and has conducted research on knowledge management in organizations, including the role of HR in establishing knowledge management systems in organizations. Her PhD looked at the role of IT in bringing about change in the Australian banking industry. Her current research includes investigating how organizations go about implementing knowledge management systems and the effect of KM systems on organizational performance.
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About the Authors 353
Marshall Major works for Moffatt Thomas Barrett Rock and Fields, Chartered (USA). Nikos Manouselis (
[email protected]) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus, Greece, and a research assistant at the Advanced eServices for the Knowledge Society Research Unit (ASK) at the Informatics and Telematics Institute (ITI) of the Center of Research and Technology–Hellas (CERTH). He holds a diploma in electronics and computer engineering (2000), an MSc in operational research (2002), and an MSc in electronics and computer engineering (2003) from the Technical University of Crete, Greece. His research interests are in the area of multi-criteria decision-making and technology-enhanced learning. Ian Michael (
[email protected]) is a lecturer in marketing with the School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Marketing, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He is at the final stage of completing a doctor of business administration (DBA). The title of his thesis is “Consumer Behaviour in a Computer Mediated Environment—Implications for Marketers.” As part of his MBA, he completed a research thesis which investigated the impact overseas students had on the economy in Victoria in their role as tourists. This research is in press to appear in a 2004 edition of the Journal of Vacation Marketing. He has presented at various e-commerce, marketing, and tourism conferences. He has published in the fields of management, brand management, and electronic marketing in journals and textbooks. Prior to being an academic, he spent 17 years in industry in various sectors such as logistics, advertising, pharmaceuticals, and tourism overseas and in Australia. His professional memberships include the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) as an associate fellow (AFAMI), and he has been accredited as a certified practising marketer (CPM), Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC). Jane Moon entered the field of information systems late, coming from a diverse background of immunology, linguistics, and an international MBA. She has a degree in medical science (immunology) and a Master of Arts (linguistics) from the University of Melbourne; graduate diplomas in health administration and business studies, and an MBA from LaTrobe University; as well as a graduate certificate in European business studies from ESC-Rouen, France, and a postgraduate diploma in immunology and a graduate diploma in computer
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354 About the Authors
science from Monash University, Australia. She has special interest in health informatics and is currently conducting research funded by the Australian Research Council in the area of portal technology. Alex Pliaskin (
[email protected]) is a part-time lecturer in the School of Accounting and Finance at Victoria University and Deakin University, Australia. His background is in the electricity industry, where he worked for more than 31 years before retiring from that sector and coming across to academia. A certified practising accountant, he also holds undergraduate degrees in politics and business computing. He is currently working on a thesis relating to inward-looking regional Web portals. He has been involved in academic research relating to political issues and holds several senior advisory positions within the Australian Labor Party. Demetrios Sampson (
[email protected]) is an assistant professor on eLearning at the Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus, Greece, and head of the Advanced eServices for the Knowledge Society Research Unit (ASK) at the Informatics and Telematics Institute (ITI) of the Center of Research and Technology–Hellas (CERTH). He holds a diploma in electrical engineering (1989) from the Demokritus University of Thrace, Greece, and a PhD in multimedia communications (1995) from the University of Essex, UK. His research interests are in the areas of technologyenhanced learning and semantic and context-based knowledge systems. Ian Searle (
[email protected]) is a lecturer in the School of Business Information Technology at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, but has a background working in both education and the computer industry. His previous jobs have included: senior business analyst to Metiom Technologies Pty Ltd., principal consultant (Industrial and Technical Advisory Service) at BHP Information Technology, office systems consultant at BHP, lecturing positions at various universities in Melbourne, and secondary school teacher. His qualifications include: a Bachelor of Arts (University of W.A.), majoring in philosophy; Bachelor of Education (Monash), majoring in educational administration; graduate diploma of educational studies in computers in education (Charles Sturt University); and Master of Business in information technology (RMIT). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Association of Computing Machinery. His current research
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About the Authors 355
interests include ICT-based logistic systems with particular focus on the role of fourth-party logistic systems in the power utility industry and the interface between third- and fourth-party logistic systems. Sushil K. Sharma (
[email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana (USA). He received his PhD in information systems from Pune University in India. Prior to joining Ball State, Dr. Sharma held an associate professor position at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India, and visiting research associate professor position at the Department of Management Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. Coauthor of two textbooks (Programming in C and Understanding Unix), Dr. Sharma’s research contributions have appeared in many peer-reviewed national and international journals, conferences, and seminar proceedings. He has extensive experience in providing consulting services to several government and private organizations, including World Bank–funded projects in the areas of information systems, e-commerce, and knowledge management. Dr. Sharma’s primary teaching and research interests are in e-commerce, networking environments, network security, ERP systems, database management systems, and knowledge management. Sandra Sieber (
[email protected]) is the academic director of the PwC&IESE eBusiness Center and assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems at the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain. She has a PhD in management from IESE and has been a visiting scholar at the Sloan School of Management, MIT. Her areas of interest centre on strategic management and IS/IT, organizational learning, capability development and the role of information technology, organizational structure and the new organization of work, as well as the impact of new technologies, in particular, the Internet, on business. She has published scholarly and general articles in national and international journals, books, magazines, and newspapers. Jan Soutar (
[email protected]) has been a lecturer in the School of Management at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, for more than 14 years and has coordinated both the postgraduate and undergraduate degree programs in administrative management. She is currently lecturing in managing knowledge, managing conferences and meetings, and human resource manage-
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356 About the Authors
ment. She has an associate diploma and a degree in business, a diploma of education, and postgraduate qualifications in administrative systems and computing, including a master of business (IT) from RMIT University. Her areas of research include knowledge and information management, electronic document management, document imaging, and the impact of technological changes on organizations. Andrew Stein (
[email protected]) is a lecturer in the School of Information Systems in the Faculty of Business and Law at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has contributed to the International Journal of Management, Journal of Information Management, and Journal of ERP Implementation and Management and has contributed many conference papers on IS theory and practice. His research interests include enterprise systems, e-procurement applications, e-marketplace business models, and reverse auction systems. He is a member of the university’s ERP Research Group. Christopher A. Thorn (
[email protected]) is director of the Technical Services Department and an active researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (USA). Dr. Thorn is engaged in research on software tools for improving decision making in educational systems. He is also principal investigator of a research team that has developed multimedia data analysis tools and model research processes for managing and analyzing digital video and audio data. His earlier research on successful models of collaborative research and development partnerships is particularly relevant for his current work as technology lead for the $35 million System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) partnership. Josep Valor-Sabatier (
[email protected]) is executive director of the PwC&IESE eBusiness Center and professor and chairman of the Department of Information Systems at the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain. He holds a PhD in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an ScD in medical engineering from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. His current research interests are the new strategies in the management of IT resources, outsourcing and alliances, competitive strategy and IT/IS, new businesses based on IT/IS, and e-business. He has widely published in national and international journals and has co-authored several books. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
About the Authors 357
Wita Wojtkowski (
[email protected]) is a professor of computer information systems in the Networking, Operations, and Information Systems Department at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho (USA). She received a PhD in engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (1975), following an MSc in physics from Warsaw University in Warsaw, Poland (1965). Dr. Wojtkowski speaks at many international academic conferences and has published in Transactions in International Information Systems, Journal of Systems Integration, International Journal of Failure & Lessons Learned in Information Technology Management, and others.
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358 Index
Index
A About Seniors 297, 303 access portals 121 adopt the portal 343 advertisers 80 advertising 67 AgeNet 302 “aggregators” 80 AltaVista 48, 81 Amazon.com 43 America Online (AOL) 75, 81 American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) 301, 302 annual reports 127 annual standardized tests 233 application server 23 appropriate deployment of portal 99 artificial agents 87 artificial intelligence 280 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) 82 Australian Bureau of Statistics 273 Australian organisation 172 Australian Tax Office (ATO) 84 automation 103
B Barnes & Noble 43 Better Health Channel 217
Bizewest 335 Bizewest portal 336 Blue Mountain Arts 46 brand value 44 brand-related make effects 43 bubble-sheet forms 235 building sales 99 bundling agreements 44 business champion 343 business community 335 business decisions 99 business model 65 business-oriented portals 150 “business-to-business e-commerce” 150 business-to-business portal. 335 “business-to-consumer e-commerce” 150 business-to-employee (B2E) 6 business-to-employee portals 162, 163, 165
C c-commerce applications 110 campus-specific information 254 categorization engine 24 central access points 212 Charles Schwab 43 chat rooms 8 choiceboard 87
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Index 359
Coles Myer 127 collaboration support 191 collaborative commerce 109, 110 collective procurement portals 119, 158 Collins English Dictionary 304 common interface 258 communication support 191 community building 8 community portals 4, 5 community support 191, 278 competitive advantage 319 CompuServe 81 connecting people 328 consumer behaviour 92 consumer portal 16 consumer Web portals 40 consumer-oriented portals 150 consumer-oriented Web portals 40 content creditability 189 content integration 189 content management 38, 99, 112, 274, 280 content management system 25 content model 223 content organization 189 content providers 72, 73 content usefulness 189 corporate governance 127 corporate governance statement 127 corporate information portals 125 corporate intranets 173 corporate or enterprise (intranet) portals 4, 274 corporate portal 16, 125, 172, 317 corporate procedures 174 Corporate Yellow Pages (CYP) 317 corporation portals 123 CorProcure 158 crawler 24 credit system 257 culture of sharing 320 current portal technology 274 customer churn 44 customer expectations 100 customer information file (CIF) 317
customer management 8 customer portals 86 customer relationship file (CRF) 317 customer relationship management (CRM) 104 customer service 104, 119 customer service officers (CSOs) 319 customer service portals 146, 164 customized systems 231 Cyberlynx Procurement Services 158
D data network 109 database 23 database design 107 database systems 107 database technology 107 decision support 230 decision support in education 230 decision support systems 236 decision-making facilities 279 decision-making processes 271 digital images 86 digitizable goods 72 directory services 8 document management 38, 274, 280 document type definition (DTD) 36, 106 dynamic ecosystem 109 dynamics of general portals 64
E e-business 255 e-business (extranet) portals 4 e-business applications 108 e-business “marketplace” 110 e-business portals. 274 e-commerce 72, 318 e-commerce and portals 83 e-commerce portal 99, 102 e-commerce transactions 335 e-commerce Web pages 335 e-government initiatives 212 e-mail account 67 e-marketplace portals 4, 6 early-mover advantages 43
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360 Index
easy information channel 271 easy-to-use interface 212 educational organizations 231 educational portals 252 educational system 235 effective content management system (CMS) 112 ElderNet 302 electronic payment systems 111 employee portal case study 179 employee portals 172 employee relationship management (ERM) 174 employee self-service (ESS) 176 employee-facing portals 100 enterprise 99 enterprise application integration (EAI) 25 enterprise (or corporate) information portals (EIP) 6 enterprise information portals (EIPs) 4, 6, 16, 174, 317 enterprise knowledge portal (EKP) 324 enterprise portal 15, 17, 101, 120, 123 enterprise resource planning (ERP) 104, 175 enterprise resource planning systems vendor (SAP) 172 enterprise-wide e-commerce portal 106 enterprise-wide integrated e-commerce portal 99, 104 enterprise’s intranet portal 162 evaluation framework 185 Excite 48 existing systems 239 extensible markup language (XML) 34, 106 extensible style language (XSL) 35 extranet information portals (XIPs) 324 extranets 4
F Fidelity 43 filters 24 financial security 303
G Gadget 24 gateway 3, 125, 212 gateway functionality 277 general portal industry 66 general portal market 65 general portals 4, 5, 66 global performance 195 global supply-chain management 318 Go-Digital portal 200 Go-Digital Web portal case 187, 200 Google 59 governance 278 government online strategy 215 government portals 212 government service 212 graphical design 190 Greek Go-Digital portal 201 Greypath 297, 303 Greypath Village 299 guiding principle 246
H health Internet usage 272 health services 277 health-care delivery 270 higher-education 252 higher-education institutions 254 home bases 85 horizontal industry portals 4, 5 horizontal or functional portals 121 horizontal portal 73, 335 horizontal portal industry 76 Hotmail 46 HR portal applications 174 hubs 85 human resource management (HRM) 174 human resource management information systems (HRMISs) 174 human resources (HR) 176 Hummingbird Ltd. 17 hypertext markup language (HTML) 34, 106
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Index 361
I index 24 individual employees 317 individual student needs 233 information and communication technologies (ICT) 312, 326 information architecture 190 information extraction (IE) 113 information gathered 327 information management 102, 313 information portals 4, 7 information quality 246 information retrieval 278 information seeking 271 information sharing 163 InfoSeek 48 Inktomi 48 innovation diffusion 313 innovations 44 innovative ways 71 instant-messaging services 8 integrated e-commerce portals 99 intellectual endeavours 303 intelligent agents 280 intelligent medical portals 275 intelligent portals 270 internal back-office systems 324 international business 318 Internet 4, 65, 86, 298 Internet access providers 74 Internet portals 119, 120, 187 Internet search 187 Internet service providers 64, 74 Internet technology 271 Internet users 271 Internet virtual communities 303 intranets 4 “iviews” 179
K KM portal design 316 “know-how” collection 237 knowledge advantage (K-Adv) 312 knowledge creation 313 knowledge environment 237
knowledge facilitation 313 knowledge management (KM) 102, 236, 238, 280, 313, 318 knowledge management initiatives 313 knowledge management practices 314 knowledge portal (KP) 317, 318 knowledge repositories 237 knowledge sharing 312, 313 Knowledgenet 216
L large corporations 120 large enterprises 123 large portals 28 legacy system 261 lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) 36 low stakes measures 232 Lycos 48
M market dominance 43 market share 49 marketers 80 marketing 80 marketing function and portals 86 marketplace portals 122 media-type portals 122 medical information needs 270 medical portals 278 medical portals analysis 281 medical Web sites 270 mental health 302 message boards 8 messaging technologies features 108 metadata 279 metadata repository 24 Metcalfe’s law 46 Microsoft Network (MSN) 75 middleware 113 mobility barriers 67 multi-criteria analysis 185 multi-function portals 214 multilingual content for e-commerce 110 Multimedia Victoria (MMV) 215
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362 Index
N National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) 7 navigation sites 187 network effects 46 network externalities 46 network-accessible resources 4 next-generation network (NGN) 109 niche portals 4 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) 232 non-community features 43
O occupational health and safety 176 OEM services 48 off-line advertisements 94 older Australians 297 older person portals 299 online access 101 online community 275 online content 81 online greeting cards 8 online service providers (OSP) 67, 75 online trading 8 online value chain 65 online value network 70 ontology 279 operation team 192 opportunity to learn (OTL) 240 organisational knowledge 315
P parsing 279 personal (WAP) portals 4 personal portals 274 personal-computer-based spreadsheets 235 personal/mobile portals 4, 6 personalised access 313 personalization 190, 278, 279 personalization of information/content 191 personalization of interface 191 personalization of navigation 190 personalized portal page 19
physical health 303 “plain old telephone service” (POTS) 75 point-of-presence (POP) 76 portal 1, 2, 15, 16, 80, 81, 82, 95, 99, 120, 125, 231, 271, 300 portal action request 21 portal archetypes 27 portal combat 40, 47 portal environment 22, 204 portal industry 67 portal interfaces 312 portal linking 222, 226 portal models 215 portal navigation 218 portal players 41 portal services 221, 297 portal technology 17, 231, 252 portal vendors 27 portal-based solutions 252 portals in large enterprises 119 portals market 15 portals that support KM 327 portlets 20 “price takers” 87 print media 271 process portals 213 product information 119, 127 product information portals 135, 164 product life cycle 80 “product takers” 87 production planning 176 PSTN voice network 109 public corporate information 119 public corporation information portals 163 public key infrastructure (PKI) 111 public or mega (Internet) portals 4 public portals 274
Q Qantas Ventures 158 QSP’s gradebook 245 quality school portfolio (QSP) 244 quality-rated information 280 “query-based decision aids” (QDBAs) 92
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Index 363
R rationalization 103 REACH 48 real-time enterprises 100 real-time information 100 “real-time” school performance 237 recruitment information 127 reengineering 103 regional portals 121 regional relationship 8 regulation 75 returns on investment (ROI) 238 role of portals 314 rumatoid arthritis 276
S safety information 127 SAP employee portal evolution 178 SAP portals 178 SAP R/3 176 SAP’s ERP system 176 school-level performance 235 scores 235 search and integration purposes 328 search costs 45 search engines 8, 278 secure environment 8 secure socket layer (SSL) 111 security policy 266 security technologies 111 selling online 150 selling portals 149, 164 senior management team 192 sharing 313 simple object access protocol (SOAP) 37, 105 simple portals 27 single-function portals 214 “site-centric” 89 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 15, 338 social environment 302 sounds-like indexing 279 specialised/niche portals 7 specific user groups 318
spell checking 278 Spry Foundation 298 standardized assessment data 235 state-mandated tests 235 statewide reporting systems 244 stickiness 45 structured generalized markup language (SGML) 106 student records information system (SRIS) 261 successful knowledge management 326 supply chain integration 109 supply chain management 119 supply chain management portals 119, 159 supply chain portals 119, 158, 164 sustainable advantages 44 switching costs 43 “symbiotic Web” 89 synthesis model 195 systems integration 254
T target audience 226 task-score data 235 taxonomy 23, 275 technical development and support team 192 technical integrity/performance 190 technology-based service innovations 41 Telecoms 76 tenant placement revenues 67 Thesaurus 279 total utility 195 transformation of the portal 345 travel management 176
U UIS subsystems 258 UIS users 258 Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) 37, 105 university information system (UIS) 253 University of Ljubljana 256
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364 Index
usability 190 user customization 231 user profiles 25 user satisfaction 188 user-centric information system 252 “user-friendly” portal models 80 using portals 326
V value appropriation 64, 67, 69 value creation 64, 67 value-added analysis 237 vertical enterprise portal 16 vertical industry portals 4, 5 vertical portals 122 very small and medium enterprises (vSMEs) 186 Victoria 212 Victoria Online 223 Victorian e-commerce early movers scheme (VEEM) 336 Victorian government portals 212, 215 viral marketing 46 virtual card 25 virtual community 43, 46, 304 virtual Web communities 7 voice-enabled e-business (v-business) 108
Web services description language (WSDL) 37, 105 Web services user interface (WSUI) 38 Web site 80, 123, 338 Web site loyalty 297 Web-based applications 100, 324 Web-based HR solutions 172 Web-based registry 338 Web-enabled world 99 Web-marketing model 88 Webtends 226 well-designed portals 313, 314 well-understood vocabularies 243 Western Region Economic Development Organisation (WREDO) 335, 336 white papers 239 wireless application protocol (WAP) 89, 105 wireless network 109 work scheduling 176
X XML schema definition (XSD) 36 XML-based messages 105
Y Yahoo! 48, 80, 81
W Web content 82 Web hosting services 45 Web interface 99 Web portal 2, 3, 42, 172, 185, 187, 212, 338 Web portal community 185 Web portal content 185 Web portal design 185 Web portal dimension 188 Web portal evaluation 193 Web portal industry 42 Web portal personalization 185 Web portal stakeholders 191 Web server 23 Web service 25, 38
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IT Solutions Series – New Releases! Humanizing Information Technology: Advice from Experts Authored by: Shannon Schelin, PhD, North Carolina State University, USA G. David Garson, PhD, North Carolina State University, USA With the alarming rate of information technology changes over the past two decades, it is not unexpected that there is an evolution of the human side of IT that has forced many organizations to rethink their strategies in dealing with the human side of IT. People, just like computers, are main components of any information systems. And just as successful organizations must be willing to upgrade their equipment and facilities, they must also be alert to changing their viewpoints on various aspects of human behavior. New and emerging technologies result in human behavior responses, which must be addressed with a view toward developing better theories about people and IT. This book brings out a variety of views expressed by practitioners from corporate and public settings offer their experiences in dealing with the human byproduct of IT.
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Information Technology Security: Advice from Experts Edited by: Lawrence Oliva, PhD, Intelligent Decisions LLC, USA As the value of the information portfolio has increased, IT security has changed from a product focus to a business management process. Today, IT security is not just about controlling internal access to data and systems but managing a portfolio of services including wireless networks, cyberterrorism protection and business continuity planning in case of disaster. With this new perspective, the role of IT executives has changed from protecting against external threats to building trusted security infrastructures linked to business processes driving financial returns. As technology continues to expand in complexity, databases increase in value, and as information privacy liability broadens exponentially, security processes developed during the last century will not work. IT leaders must prepare their organizations for previously unimagined situations. IT security has become both a necessary service and a business revenue opportunity. Balancing both perspectives requires a business portfolio approach to managing investment with income, user access with control, and trust with authentication. This book is a collection of interviews of corporate IT security practitioners offering various viewpoint on successes and failures in managing IT security in organizations.
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Managing Data Mining: Advice from Experts Edited by: Stephan Kudyba, PhD, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA Foreword by Dr. Jim Goodnight, SAS Inc, USA Managing Data Mining: Advice from Experts is a collection of leading business applications in the data mining and multivariate modeling spectrum provided by experts in the field at leading US corporations. Each contributor provides valued insights as to the importance quantitative modeling provides in helping their corresponding organizations manage risk, increase productivity and drive profits in the market in which they operate. Additionally, the expert contributors address other important areas which are involved in the utilization of data mining and multivariate modeling that include various aspects in the data management spectrum (e.g. data collection, cleansing and general organization).
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E-Commerce Security: Advice from Experts Edited by: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A., Information Resources Management Association, USA The e-commerce revolution has allowed many organizations around the world to become more effective and efficient in managing their resources. Through the use of e-commerce many businesses can now cut the cost of doing business with their customers in a speed that could only be imagined a decade ago. However, doing business on the Internet has opened up business to additional vulnerabilities and misuse. It has been estimated that the cost of misuse and criminal activities related to e-commerce now exceeds 10 billion dollars per year, and many experts predict that this number will increase in the future. This book provides insight and practical knowledge obtained from industry leaders regarding the overall successful management of e-commerce practices and solutions.
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NEW RELEASE Virtual Teams: Projects, Protocols and Processes David Pauleen, Ph.D. Victoria Univesity of Wellington, New Zealand
Virtual teams are a relatively new phenomenon and by definition work across time, distance, and organizations through the use of information and communications technology. Virtual Teams: Projects, Protocols and Processes gathers the best of academic research on real work-based virtual teams into one book. It offers a series of chapters featuring practical research, insight and recommendations on how virtual team projects can be better managed, as well as in depth discussion on issues critical to virtual team success, including the place of virtual teams in organizations, leadership, trust and relationship building, best use of technology, and knowledge sharing. ISBN: 1-59140-166-6; US$79.95 h/c • ISBN: 1-59140-225-5; US$64.95 s/c eISBN: 1-59140-167-4 • 325 pages • Copyright 2004 ‘‘As large organizations have become more geographically distributed, the need to work in distributed Virtual Teams has become commonplace. The case studies and research results presented in this book give new insights into the real behavior of Virtual Teams, facing real challenges. Organizations can only benefit from this deeper understanding, as we use Virtual Teams to solve real problems’’ - Doug Busch, Vice President and Chief Information Officer Intel Corporation
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