Portal technology promises to deliver better and more instantaneous communications and to enable common corporate strategic objectives such as customer-centricity, employee self-sufficiency, and operational excellence. Corporate Communications will have to adapt its skills, internal processes, and perspectives if it is to be both the keepers of the business' online standards, and leaders in portal innovation and evolution. Corporate Communications has a choice: lead and innovate, or follow and comply.

Corporate Communications' Impact on the Online Channel
LDS sees Corporate Communications exerting a strong influence in corporate Web and portal initiatives:

• Minimally, Corporate Communications owns traditional corporate identity guidelines that translate on the Web into standards (e.g., use of the company logo, font and color standards; use of photography; display of tabs, page templates, etc).
• The role of Corporate Communications clients may expand to include standard utilities or "gadgets" (for example, e-meeting or collaboration features) across the business. Typically, "anything on the home page" that relates to content or features is owned by Corporate Communications.
• More often, we see Corporate Communications spearheading (or at least having a seat on) the committee responsible for the navigation structure of the portal or Website. This effort largely focuses on setting the top and next level tab names, and often the basic navigation approach for the site, such as in the use (or not) of the left-hand navigation and drop downs. This effort may evolve into the design of a high-level information architecture (IA) for the site that is given to e-business, IT and/or content owners for the addition of greater detail.

• Corporate Communications
• Portal Challenges for Corporate Communications