Web Portal And Web Portals Functions

What are the Major Functions of Portals?

The ideal portal is based on following functionality areas:

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- search and navigation

- personalization

- notification

- task management and workflow

- collaboration and groupware

Although most of the functionality is not new, what is new is the idea that the business value of the whole is considerably more than the sum of its parts. Thus, a successful portal does not only consist of either a good collaboration support or a good integration of the information sources. Rather it consists of - just like a successful cooking recipe - a well-integrated mixture of the basic portal functionalities.

Search and Navigation

This functionality forms the basis for most of the successful public web portals meaning that a successful portal should support its users in an efficient search for contents.

A portal should:

- automatically present its users with the information appropriate to the user's role

- suggest additional information to the user, and/or allow the user to voluntarily personalize the information presented by the portal

- allow the user to search for information that was not previously known to be relevant to the user's role, but which may be available through the portal

Provide Personalization

Personalization is vital to the delivery of appropriate information to portal users: each user gets only the information which is specifically tailored to his/her needs. Personalization should be based on user roles, as well as user preferences.

There are several types of personalization:

- Personalization of navigation

e.g. shortcuts to specific information, mostly known as bookmarks or favorites

- Personalization of data/content

e.g. which stocks do I want to see in my stock ticker

- Personalization of layout

e.g. what information appears where on the screen, in which format, color or size

An important high-level distinction exists between:

- Design personalization

the initial appearance of the portal, which may be 'pre-personalized' according to the user's role

- Voluntary personalization

where the user is offered a menu of personalization options to choose from

- Involuntary personalization

where the system itself unilaterally makes decisions for the user according to 'guesses' about user preferences.

On a Web site, personalization is the process of tailoring pages to individual users' characteristics or preferences. Commonly used to enhance customer service or e-commerce sales, personalization is sometimes referred to as one-to-one marketing; because the enterprise's Web page is tailored to specifically target each individual consumer. Personalization is a means of meeting the customer's needs more effectively and efficiently, making interactions faster and easier and, consequently, increasing customer satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat visits.

Provide Notification

Notification (push technology) is referred to as a system in which a user receives information automatically from a network server. Push technologies are designed to send information and software directly to a user's desktop without the user actively requesting it. Thus, the user has the opportunity to subscribe to active information sources (such as news feeds and periodically updated reports) and ask to be alerted when documents are updated.

Provide Task Management and Workflow

Portals providing task management services can help users take part in and/or manage formally defined business processes.

The workflow functionality allows the automation of business processes. Thus, as part of a workflow-automated business process, a portal should be able to prompt its users when they have tasks to perform.

E.g. Digite Application

Provide Collaboration and Groupware

Knowledge management and groupware ensure that the required information is stored in the right place and in the right mode. By this means the right persons are brought together with the right information. Groupware software assists in less formal collaboration than workflow tools. As with workflow automation, groupware increases the value delivered by many types of specialized portals; for example, it:

- increases the attractiveness of business-to-consumer e-commerce portals

- enables informal communication between suppliers and customers in business-to-business e-commerce portals

Supply chain portals are also dependent on collaboration support in order to help suppliers and their customers manage their relationships. Moreover, collaboration support is a key requirement for knowledge portals.

Web Portal And Web Portals Functions

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Social Media and the Intranet - Is it Enough?

Alexander Wolfe (The Wolfe's Den) commented in a recent article entitled Enterprise 2.0: Confronting 2.0's Dirty Little Secret:

"At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston, there's been frank discussion this week of the question average users have been whispering (so that their bosses don't hear them): Namely, what can this stuff do for me that's actually useful? In truth, though, the answers to that question are not yet completely apparent."

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Mr. Wolfe also indicates that technology enthusiasts' implicit familiarity with social media tools can be a problem as it glosses over potential usability and training issues for staff unfamiliar with these technologies.

Social media is a fast and efficient way to share thoughts and ideas - just ask anyone on Twitter. Many web 2.0 fans are seeking ways to integrate micro blogging, status updates, and video sharing within the corporate enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 is here to stay and can be an effective and extremely valuable part of your internal communications, particularly as it is built around the idea of engaging employees to be an active participant and not a passive observer of the intranet. We have often blogged about the key factor of a successful intranet is employee participation, and have built the Intranet Connections Intranet Software around this concept, but do social 2.0 tools give you everything you need for a successful intranet implementation?

Missing in social media is the organization and structure that most organizations are built upon. A well thought out and presented navigation system is invaluable for an intranet. Content stored within three clicks that can easily be found, rather than unlimited levels of content with no structure that becomes buried and rarely viewed. 2.0 social tools can be difficult and complex to set up, and instead of tying into existing single user logins, many have proprietary security requiring users to remember yet another username and password. These are all challenges that 2.0 software vendors will eventually address, but there is something to be said for the established intranet that is getting hammered in the media. Core internal applications are the backbone of an intranet. They are the tools that serve the employee in helping them with their daily jobs.

How can you have an intranet without some form of document management, the ability for employees to fill out and submit electronic forms and the ability to streamline and report on those e-form submissions? An intranet can help the IT department in providing a support desk ticketing application and knowledgebase - one central area for employees to report problems and view what the techs are doing about it, or to search FAQ's and to share how-to tips, tutorials and the option for employees to register for training, share comments and rate the effectiveness of the courses.

HR also has a strong presence on the intranet with the much-discussed employee directory, which does not have to be passive but can be highly interactive and social. HR also posts policies, new hire procedures, updated medical and dental benefits, job postings, departmental news and upcoming company events.

You can't discredit these important intranet features that social conversation and networking tools cannot replace. A successful intranet deployment should integrate the advantages of social media with the core applications already proven to enhance corporate information sharing.

Social Media and the Intranet - Is it Enough?

Carolyn Douglas is the CEO and founder of Intranet Connections - Intranet Software (http://www.intranetconnections.com) a fully customizable out-of-the box intranet suite of applications designed for ease of use, simplicity and affordability.

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How to Gain Employee Acceptance and Get Them Into a High Performance Mindset

Have you ever been involved in a performance initiative where employees asked "why are we doing this?" Or they were apprehensive and you received strong push back. Or even worse, they flat out refused to cooperate altogether? To say this is a common occurrence in enterprise performance management would be an understatement. Creating a high performing organization involves numerous requirements, perhaps none more important than gaining employee acceptance.

While most will agree that managing performance is critical to the success of a business, strong resistance is often met when it comes to an initiative which entails scrutinizing the productivity of business units and employees. Often times, in the employees' eyes, a performance improvement initiative is a negative reflection of their current performance. It may even come across as if their performance is being singled out, or that others are telling them how to do their job. As a result, morale is diminished and the performance initiative is halted before it ever gets off the ground.

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Methods for getting employees to accept new performance initiatives include:

Involve employees
Clarify employee objectives
Strive for improvement instead of judge past performance
Getting visible support from executives and senior management
Challenging employees to act immediately
Enabling them to monitor results

To get better acceptance of the performance initiative, as with any change initiative, it is best to involve employees at all levels. Any new performance management or evaluation system is not likely to gain acceptance if it's used to rate, rank or single out people or their services. An initiative is much more accepted if it's shown to lead to individual growth and development. And employees are much more likely to have buy-in if they are offered the opportunity to participate and share their opinions and be part of the process.

Another way to improve employee acceptance and performance is to make sure they understand corporate, team and personal objectives. Once this understanding is established employees won't ask why they have to change the way they do things, because they will know what the objectives are and how they will contribute to reaching them.

The most important aspect of implementing a performance initiative and gaining employee acceptance is to encourage improvement. One of the main reasons employees resist performance management initiatives is because they are afraid they may look bad once they are measured on specific objectives. The goal of the performance initiative is to baseline your current service delivery and measure performance, and base success on improvement.

One of the most overlooked, but most effective methods of gaining employee acceptance is to demonstrate support from executives and senior management. Many performance initiatives fail simply for the fact that it doesn't appear to be a priority from executives. When employees see these objectives being communicated from the executive office, whether it be emails, newsletters, town hall meetings, or morality speeches they know that their performance is being monitored outside of their business unit or the consultants who come in and manage the project. Some organizations do not perform well simply for the fact that the employees do not believe it is very important, or is being monitored by executives.

Another effective method for getting employees to buy into the performance initiative and get into the mindset of peak performance is to challenge them. This can be done by identifying an area of improvement, providing a process that can help them do it better than the status quo, and getting them to commit to improving in those areas, starting one area at a time.

When it comes to monitoring results, the most effective way to get employees to perform at a high level is to make sure they know exactly what they will be measured against and to give them the ability to monitor the performance in which an independent reporting team reports on. When employees have access to these results and understand why and how they are being measured, they shift their focus to achieving those metrics. If the metrics are truly aligned with the organizational objectives, then individuals within your organization will be fine tuned for peak performance.

How to Gain Employee Acceptance and Get Them Into a High Performance Mindset

About the Author

Victor Holman is a performance management expert who helps organizations reach performance goals through best practice analysis and implementation and custom enterprise performance management products and services. His performance management frameworks and methodologies can be viewed at [http://www.lifecycle-performance-pros.com/index.php/methodologies.html]

His Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis measures how well organization's utilize the key performance activities that drive organizational success and identifies cost savings opportunities and the critical path to reaching organizational goals. The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit is complete with step by step guides, frameworks, templates, videoseminars, presentations, performance metrics, and more.

For a FREE performance management kit, visit the Performance Management Portal. Contact him personally at victor.holman@lifecycle-performance-pros.com

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SAP NetWeaver Fundamentals - What Can SAP NetWeaver Do for You

SAP NetWeaver is an integrated technology platform which provides seamless integration of different systems and business processes reducing the overall cost of ownership of information technology for an enterprise. To better compete in today's brutal markets, it is important for companies, to constantly evolve their business processes for efficiently serving their customers. SAP NetWeaver not only helps build efficiency in business processes, but also helps them make reliable and robust. The best part of SAP NetWeaver is that it integrates business processes and applications from any source.

SAP NetWeaver makes this possible through application integration and development in both ABAP and JAVA. SAP NetWeaver consists of many components which an organization can choose to implement. This includes components like SAP Business Information Warehouse BIW, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Business Intelligence BI, SAP XI Exchange Infrastructure, SAP Knowledge Warehouse KW, SAP Master Data Management MDM and so on. All these unique technologies are bundled together in one cool package. Since all these integration packages are built by SAP, the total cost of implementation comes down significantly.

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SAP NetWeaver and its components have the necessary flexibility so that complex business scenarios can be easily synchronized in NetWeaver. SAP NetWeaver thus enables better enterprise modeling and testing, which is much different from the standard SAP R/3 scenario. So as an enterprise and its processes develop and adapt to best practices over a period of time, SAP NetWeaver can be easily adapted to these new scenarios with minimal cost. This is a win-win situation for enterprises in aligning people, processes and technology into one common platform.

SAP NetWeaver Fundamentals - What Can SAP NetWeaver Do for You

Read more articles on SAP NetWeaver basics and concepts at Big4Guy.com. You can also find a two part, step by step guide on how to implement SAP NetWeaver in your enterprise at Big4Guy.com

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Disney Cruise Deal Tips

First and Foremost-Always deal with a professional Cruise Specialist who has access to the latest and greatest Disney Cruise Deals. While this may be logical to most, people like to ask their friends and family, who have been on a cruise. Sometimes that kind of advice can end up costing you more. What is a deal to some, may become an unhappy experience to others.

disney princess dress up

Shop around. It helps if you have an idea of pricing before you speak or think about booking online. After you find your best pricing, then contact a professional and ask questions to see if they can beat or at least match the price you have found.

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Location-Location-Location!!! While this is true enough for real estate, we are talking about Cruises. And yes, your cabin can be considered real estate for the time you rent it out. If your cabin is right next to a noisy public place, it does not make for your best option. Not only does the location of your cabin count in cruise deals, but the size of your home away from home also counts. Inside cabins will always be less expensive. Most experienced cruisers already know this. But here is how that plays out. A cabin with a porthole (Ocean view) will come at a bit higher cost than the Inside, and a Verandah (balcony) cabin will be more. Also, there are several cabins on board that have an obstructive view and these would be offered at a considerable savings. A suite is a much larger cabin that offers amenities that may be important to you but not to your kids. It's all about personal taste.

Magical Rates during off peak times. Yes, you can get a deal on Disney cruises but you must be flexible and not travel when the most popular times to travel are to get the best deals. Of course we are talking about Disney Cruise Line and with that most of you will be taking along the kids. And most kids are in school and tend to get holidays off. Well then my advice to you is, expect to pay top dollar and book as early as possible. But for those of you with little ones not yet in school and can travel during off peak times such as January, early February, May, late August-October, and even parts of November and December, excluding holiday weeks and can book your cruise at least 3-6 months in advance can get yourself a good deal on a Disney cruise.

Shipboard credits-this can give you money to spend anywhere on the ship and is definitely a good value perk. At times there may be a special on certain sailings that offers a per cabin ship board credit. These are subject to availability and must be booked within a given time frame. So take advantage of shipboard credits when they are available.

Florida resident and military discounts can be a great savings for you. Be sure to ask your Cruise Agent about this as these discounts are subject to availability.

For those of you who are considering a Land and Sea Package- This means that you will spend part of your time on the Disney Cruise and the other part at Disney World. Sometimes it ends up costing less to book these as two separate vacations. Have your Cruise Specialist figure out the cost both ways to see which would work out to be the better deal. Most times it is actually less expensive to book these separately.

For a family of 5, there is a special cost saving tip for you. You have an option of booking into a more expensive Category 4 which is a Deluxe Family Stateroom or you could get two connecting Category 9 (Ocean view) or Category 10 (Inside). You'd be saving money by booking 2 connecting cabins in the lower category, while enjoying two full bathrooms and more privacy.

Disney Cruise Deal Tips

Robbie Claus is a Cruise Specialist who has first hand knowledge and experience on Disney Cruise ships. To get your Disney Cruise Deal , contact her now.

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From Shirtless Teen Idols to Just Plain Idols

Before male icons became their well-known adult celebrity selves, these charming men had to have started off somewhere. While most male adult icons only became celebrities in their prime, some are fortunate enough to become celebrities while still in their teens. Countless teenage girls swoon upon the sights of these young matinee stars only to return to the reality that these young and famous stars are hardly single. But since imaginations and dreams are beyond the reach of the law, shirtless teen idols often fill the minds of numerous teenagers all across the state.

But the reality is that teen idols would not remain as teens, nor is there any assurance that they would keep the celebrity status as they get older, much to the chagrin and disbelief of adolescent fans. Granted, these talented individuals have the complete package - looks, talent and the right people to make it known and remembered. But the problem lies in one undeniable occurrence that although everybody dislikes, still happens anyway - aging. As much as fans would believe otherwise, it is true that even celebrities grow up. We all know of some celebrity teen radically becoming someone or even sometimes, something entirely different from what they previously were as teen celebrities.

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There are several reasons suggested to have caused this. It could be that the new fame and lifestyle attached to becoming rich and popular caused the real self of the celebrity to emerge from its hiatus. Once comfortable performing as shirtless teen idols, now they claim it's improper and unbecoming for their image and reputation. There are times when the idol publicly expresses his sentiment of getting tired of doing something, and then realizing his calling in another activity. It is common to find actors getting fame through acting, then quickly deciding to rap instead. Or, singers rising quickly to celebrity status, then using that attention to get them acting jobs. These situations almost always find conclusion in downfall. Unless a teen idol realizes and identifies his real skills and talents, he should not depart from the qualities that brought him stardom.

Looking past the apparent, the reason is just plain growing up. There are instances when the teen idol only looks good during his teens. A young celebrity solely relying on his boyish looks may not have anything else to offer once the boyish good looks fade into the past. Shirtless teen idols getting attention in the past may not be as effective when they legally past the bracket the effective age of teenagers. Case in point is when an actress pulls of an antic befitting a teen star. While the public may find amusing the pranks of a young teen idol, scrutiny ensues when dealing with mature actors and actresses.

Just as everything new at sometime loses novelty, so do teen idols lose the security of being famous and well-loved. Just as how fans cherish, love and worship their admired idols, that is not a guarantee that they would continue to cherish that affection in the years to come. Though people claim that celebrity status comes naturally to some people, retaining that standing is another matter. Teen idols should learn how to adjust and adapt to remain as a celebrity, even in their mature years.

From Shirtless Teen Idols to Just Plain Idols

A Computer Engineering student and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats.

More of Hollywood's Teen Idols [http://purelyentertainment.blog.com/4591936] here.

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7 Things You Didn't Know About Disney

Millions of people visit Disney world every year but how much do you actually know about the company?It is definitely a huge company but do you know everything about the massive mouse led company?

1. Disney owns and operates eleven theme parks and several television networks. Their resort in Florida is one of the worlds most popular theme parks but Disney actually owns another 10 theme parks and 11 TV channels as well as a Radio station called....Radio Disney.

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2. In 2008 Disney had a net income of nearly 8,500 million dollars! That income came from the 5 Disney income streams of Walt Disney studio entertainments, Disney consumer products, Walt disney parks and resorts, Disney media networks and the Walt Disney internet groups. The Disney media networks were the biggest earners, earning a whopping 4,900 million dollars.

3. Disney world resort in Florida was the second Disney park and sits in its own city and consists of 7 parks. Although it wasn't the first resort it is by far the most popular.

4. Walt Disney land in Paris is a complete financial flop and due to this fact the planned MGM studios Europe was canceled just 6 months before work was due to begin.

5. Walt Disney world in Florida has a massive network of underground tunnels that link all areas of the resort together. These tunnels allow staff and officials to travel the park quickly and without disturbing the guests.

6.Walt Disney imagineering is also known as WED Enterprises and is responsible for coming up with all of Disney's new concepts. WED is obviously Walt Disney's initials.

7. Walt himself never saw Disney world in Florida. He died the year that construction began. Since opening day the park has only closed for 5 disastrous events.

The next time you visit the magic kingdom or are sat watching the Disney channel just think of these facts that you know that the person next to you probably doesn't know.

7 Things You Didn't Know About Disney

If you like Florida you will love Miami South Florida. A Disney cruise vacation [http://www.123cruiselines.com/cruises/cruiseart/84/] is a magical vacation and a great place to spend your vacation time.

If you want to go to Florida or any of the other park locations there are some great deals to be had if you hunt around.

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Disney Lunch Boxes

During the 1950s and 1960s Disney lunch boxes became some of the most desired items that an American school kid could ask for. However, it was much earlier - in 1935 - when the Geuder, Paeschke and Frey company from Milkuakee, Wisconsin licensed the Mickey Mouse character, that Disney's association with tin lunch boxes was born. This particular box came without an accompanying vacuum bottle but did have an attractive slide-out tray and carrying handle. Seen as collectibles, these boxes now fetch several thousands of dollars at auction.

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By the mid 1950s Disney was actively capitalizing on merchandise and had licensed hundreds of items. In 1956 the Aladdin Company - which had previously seen huge success with its Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox - started designing and manufacturing boxes for Disney. During this period Aladdin enjoyed considerable success, especially when rival Adco ceased production after a series of lawsuits with Disney.

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Due to the high cost of licensing, Aladdin also diversified by introducing generic lithographed images on different shaped boxes and this gave rise to the now famous dome shaped design. The most notable of these is, without doubt, the Walt Disney School Bus lunchbox which featured an array of characters including Pluto, Dumbo, Jimmy Cricket and last but not least Mickey Mouse himself. Unsurprisingly, these too have become desirable items among collectors of vintage lunch boxes and command prices in the 0-0 range depending on condition. Upon original release Universal sold around 9 million of them priced at .69 each. This makes them the biggest seller of all time.

Following this massive success the history of Disney lunch boxes could only really take a downward path. There were 450 unique designs produced from 1950 to 1985 mainly from the "big 3" manufacturers of Thermos, Aladdin and Ohio Art. For collectors there are many other non-Disney pieces which hold greater interest during this period and for Disney themselves other items of merchandise became more lucrative.

That said Disney really did play a huge part in "front running" the lunch box market in 1935 and if anything it is perhaps surprising - even accounting for the Second World War - that it took a further 15 years for the craze to really take off.

Disney Lunch Boxes

For more information on Disney lunch boxes and buyer's guides please pay a visit to Tin Lunch Boxes Headquarters.

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The Importance of Web Portals

Web portal design is basically the most beneficial access point for the user of the web as they can easily go from one page to another navigating the information of their choices. All the portals have the information stored into links to various topics such as news, business, sports, entertainment, finance, travel and much more. Yahoo!, Google, AOL are popular portals on the internet. However, these portals can be called as personal portals as they store user's history data, profile information, emails and so on. But there are other kinds of portals too!

The technologies are highly dynamic in nature and therefore the development of the web portal software led to the expansion in terms of its interface which can include corporate databases as well. This kind of portal is popularly known as enterprise portal or business portals.

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The online portal technology has enabled the lot many advantages as it is faster, user friendly and easier to access various products and services. Not only this, but the enterprise portals have improved communication and response time as well. The usage of an efficient enterprise portal can add immensely to the overall productivity of the organization. Hence, the enterprise portals are becoming very essential for organizations of all sizes.

A corporate web portal design that works for the consumers and employees at the same time is also developed. This can help immensely in doing transactions easily and in a flexible way as it can maintain book-keeping and inventory keeping efficiently. Thus, it makes the work for the customer and the employee simple and easy. The easy accessibility that the web portal has the better it is for the user as they will return to the site quite often.

The Importance of Web Portals

For More Information: Enterprise Portal.

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