Portal Strategy

It is a common management practice to carefully articulate business strategies in order to connect objectives to results. These strategies are the critical frameworks that allow companies to focus and coordinate their employees, deliver products, serve customers, streamline operations and maintain their competitive advantage.

Despite the obvious benefits that strategies provide, it remains uncommon for companies to develop formal strategies for their intranets or enterprise portals.

Like a business strategy, a portal strategy provides the essential foundation that enables a “line of sight” from the goals of the organization to the structure, design and execution of the portal. A portal strategy guides delivering the information and services that addresses workers needs, improves process efficiency and balances the needs and direction of the company while considering the requirements of its people and culture.

Its not unusual for a client to ask, “Why do we need to take the time to create a strategy? We already know what we need to do.”

Our experience shows that in many instances what seem to be tactical challenges can be traced to gaps in the company’s portal strategy, or even a lack of one entirely. Portals deployed without consideration to strategic goals often become difficult to manage. In these cases, their value is reduced as employees find it increasingly difficult to find information and features that are relevant to their tasks and goals, and they don't return.

The best time to create a portal strategy is at the beginning of a new portal deployment or major remake of an existing portal. But regardless of where you are in the evolution of your enterprise portal, creating a forward-looking portal strategy will establish the critical perspective, alignment, and support that are hallmarks of a successful, healthy enterprise portal.