Planning Portal Initiatives:  Eleven Steps to Success

As the Internet has increasingly become a tool for connecting people to information and applications, companies have raced to support business units and their customers with online solutions. But many such solutions — corporate sites, partner extranets, intranets, self-service applications, and the infrastructure that supports them — have been designed and built in discrete initiatives utilizing the widest possible range of technologies.

Over time, the cost to maintain these “siloed” initiatives has increased significantly.  In addition, under these circumstances it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to maintain control over the aggregate customer experience. As a result, the solution may not be meeting the needs and expectations of employees, partners, customers, suppliers, and others — putting loyalty, productivity and revenue at risk.

Portals have gained a foothold because they address these issues.  Planned and implemented well, a portal provides a single point of access to diverse sets of information and applications. However, many portal initiatives fail at the point of implementation — or launch but quickly fall into disuse.

Portal initiatives are complex, but some of the reasons for failure (or success) are virtually universal. Some of the more common mistakes include failing to establish a well-grounded business plan; pushing forward without cross-organizational support; an inherently risky project plan; insufficient testing; and/or a complex user experience or an unmanageable service offering.  The 11 steps outlined in this paper will help you identify where you are and where you need to be in the process of planning a successful portal initiative.

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