What are Information Portals?

An information portal is an online application, accessed from an organization’s website. Portals provide a single interface with access to applications that consolidate, administer, analyze, and dispense information to diverse users. These online portals allow for access of information by internal users and external visitors such as customers, business partners, and the public. These applications allow users to retrieve information from an organization, which may be located in disparate areas of the enterprise, with a single click. The virtual resource library can be searched at the user’s convenience as it is accessible through the Internet.  The self service nature of these solutions helps reduce operational costs while at the same time providing the information and documents that the user needs.

When architecting these solutions, security of the information and documents is paramount. Critical and proprietary information can be exposed on the web and you need to make sure that only authorized users can get access to them.

USES AND FUNCTIONS

• Personalization
  • A portal can be uniquely configured to the user’s preferences.
  • A history of past searched items and predicted search terms can provide an improved user experience.
  • Certain information can be regulated and secured based on a user’s rights. 
    • Proprietary information and documents must be kept separate from those available for general public access.
       
• Content management
  • Information is stored and retrieved from one location by everyone.
    • Users are more apt to:
    • Be aware and notify others of new information
    • Obtain the right information to help make better decisions
       
• Collaboration and communication among employees
  • With a single location to access information, user can correspond and collaborate more effectively from anywhere anytime making them more productive.
     
• Security
  • Users are only granted access to information they authorized to access
  • Passwords and log on features distinguish between users and their authorization levels.

INFORMATION THAT CAN BE OBTAINED FROM A PORTAL

Any information or documents that an organization has can be stored electronically on a portal including:

• Brochures
• New product versions
• Policies
• Notices
• Project in process
• Templates
• Accounting documents 
• Human resource forms
• Purchasing and expense forms
• Request for information forms

Portals are most effective when they provide the right information to the right users. When done right users are able to make better decisions quicker. In order for this to work these services need to work seamlessly with the organizations’ Document Management solution. Systems like FileBound are architected to work seamlessly  with portal applications to provide document retrievals, automated workflows, and e-form processes from within an easy to use web interface. When these systems work together the organization is able to reduce costs and gain measurable efficiencies in the way they share, protect, and distribute the information and documents that support their mission.