PRESENCE OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION PORTAL
Aleksei N. Ostapchouck[1] St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Valeri V. Trofimov[2] St. Petersburg State University Of Economic And Finance, Russia

Abstract

This article shows advantages of Enterprise Information Portal, acquaints readers with functional and logical architecture of it. Then, it shows elements of EIP�s realization according to Delphi Group�s principles. Also it contains overview of situation on World and Russian EIP markets.

IT development stages

The information economy influence on management systems is expressed, first of all, in the sharply grown information flow and the necessity of making prompt managerial solutions in the conditions of fast-changing competitive environment.

The advancement of management technologies is connected with the development, implementation and use of various management tools, which are a set of methodical, organisational and instrumental measures and provide the management of exponentially growing information resources being used in such kinds of management activity as strategic planning, marketing, product and service quality, monitoring, anti-crisis management, financial accounting, etc. At that not only the volume, shape or location of information change but also its content caused by the transformation of tasks and functions of enterprise management in modern economy, especially at the transition to electronic business.

The studying of formation and development of managerial technologies allows to make a conclusion that the basis of the enterprise management system infrastructure in the information economy is information-communicative and network computer technologies (IT), therefore the management evolution is closely connected with the IT formation evolution, which have passed the formation process in their development in several stages.

The first stage has conditionally been called the �patch-wise� automation and is characterised by the automation of individual groups of managerial problems. Information technologies act as auxiliary means of information transformation.

The second stage of development is connected with the construction of initial �supplier-user� chains and has been accompanied by the implementation of integrated information systems based on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) technologies.

The third stage has been accompanied by processes of improvement of intraenterprise links and further formation of IT, which provide the establishment of relations with outside suppliers and customers based on the interaction marketing business model. This stage is connected with the formation of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) technologies, which, apart from traditional functions, also provide the exchange of information in the supplier-customer network, the conduction of auctions, the formation of a single supplier-customer chain.

The next step is connected with the originated need in a single information space, which has called into being a concept of information support of the product�s life cycle and has been realised within the framework of the CALS (Computer Acquisition and Life-cycle Support) technology.

Information and analytical system

The above-listed technologies are based on the effective information resource management, which means the following:

�         assessment of information demands at each stage and within the framework of every management function;

�         studying of the enterprise�s document turnover, its rationalisation;

�         standardisation of document types and forms;

�         information and data typisation;

�         overcoming of the data type incompatibility problem;

�         establishment of the data management system, etc.

The information resource management technologies are used in the enterprise infrastructure in the form of an information and analytical system (IAS), which aims are as follows:

�         reorganisation of business processes,

�         improvement of the business information quality,

�         information support of strategic planning and decision-making processes.

The base tasks of any information and analytical system is the effective keeping (inclusion of a number of data sources into the IAS composition), processing and consolidation (use of data retrieval, conversion and loading means), data analysis (being carried out by means of modern business analysis tools).

The data source diversity is explained by the need to keep information differently and depends upon problems confronting the enterprise. The data source classification by types and purpose allows to reveal the following groups:

�         transactional data sources,

�         data storage facilities,

�         data show-cases.

At the initial fixation stage, the data are entered into the system both manually and automatically. Then they enter into transactional databases through information acquisition and processing systems. There may be several transactional databases in the enterprise. As transactional databases are not, as a rule, coordinated with each other, then their consolidation and conversion are required in order to analyse these data. Therefore, at the next stage, the problem of data consolidation, their conversion and clearing is solved. Then the data enter into analytical databases (data storage facilities or data show-cases), which are just the main sources wherefrom the information is drawn using the corresponding business analysis tools.

The modern information and analytical system architecture includes the following levels:

�         data acquisition and primary data processing;

�         data retrieval, conversion and loading;

�         data stacking;

�         data representation in data show-cases;

�         data analysis;

�         Web-portal.

From Internet-portal to Enterprise Information Portal

Modern development tendencies of the information and analytical system architecture are based on the use of Internet-technologies. The traditional view of the IAS architecture has recently been complemented by the Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) gradually acquiring more and more weighty role in the IAS architecture. A possibility of access to information via a customary Web-browser allows to save on expenses connected with purchases and support of desk-top analytical applications for a large number of customer working places. The EIP realisation allows to provide analytical information both to users inside the office and to mobile analyst-users at any point of the world connected to the portal via Internet.

The concept of the Enterprise Information Portal has grown from corporate portals being similar with customary Internet portals (like yahoo.com) by interface but differing from the latter by the degree of integration, personification and centralisation of information. The term of enterprise information portal itself appeared in 1998 following the example of Merrill Lynch�s specialists; however it received a clear definition only in the middle of 1999 when analysts from the consulting company Delphi Group developed the EIP concept. Nine elements being necessary for the complete EIP solution (according to Delphi Group) are as follows:

1. Integration. Integration of data and applications, in order to provide to the enterprise employees a possibility of interaction with applications and information resources (in accordance with established rights) via a single interface.

2. Categorisation. Categorisation (ordering) of data providing a convenient and effective search among information resources by individual user�s queries.

3. Search. Relevant and full search of information (structured and non-structured) in the manner being transparent for the user, with the account of assessment of the authenticity of information being obtained.

4. Publishing and Distribution. Publishing and distribution of information for maintaining of the portal content development process.

5. Process. Business process management. Users can be not only business process observers but also their active participants and initiators.

6. Collaboration. Joint (collective) work. Provision of interaction not only according to the �employee-employee� principle but also according to the �employee-customer� or �employee-partner� principle.

7. Personalisation. Personalisation of working environment. Formation of an employee�s working environment with the account of its personal needs, customs, individual operating methods.

8. Presentation. Presentation of information. Integration of all information resources in a clear and logic form.

9. Feedback. Response to the needs of all portal�s users.

In accordance with the above-listed functions, the EIP definition has appeared, which has been changed and elaborated in the course of time; let us formulate it as follows:

Enterprise Information Portal is a single resource integrating applications of the internal organisation�s environment (e-mail, databases, documents, conference communication) with external applications aimed at other influence groups); represented by means of a Web-interface enabling users not only obtain personified and adjustable access to information but also make its own contribution into it, make individual and collective decisions based thereon.

The human factor importance underlined in the last part of the definition positions EIP as a concept, which will be a basis for the next generation of Internet. In this connection, another deciphering of the EIP abbreviation has got a wide distribution, i.e. Enterprise Intranet Portal.

What attracts enterprises in the Enterprise Information Portal?

Revealing corporate needs and comparing them with nine EIP functions stated above, one can mark out the following main enterprise expectations from the use of similar portals:

Access to relevant information and time-saving. Reduces temporal expenses connected with the following:

a) Intracorporate queries. The time spend on data transmission from one department to another one, even with a strongly tuned office work system, can take a full working day under a certain developed conjuncture. (Example: The marketing department, for a press-release to the regional newspaper, urgently needs a report on sales of the goods A in the region B, whereby they send the corresponding inquiry to the sales department. The sales department places the marketing department �s application in the queue of its current operating activity. Some time passes and they begin to seek necessary information, find it, retrieve and pass it to marketing specialists. The time allocated for drawing up of the press-release decreases, and it may seriously affect the final result, i.e. the advertising will be less effective).

b) Independent data processing. (Let us take the same example, but now, due to a sharp lack of time, the sales department passes �raw� non-processed data, for the retrieval of information from which the marketing department takes even more time than in the previous case. The result may appear to be the same).

c) Report drawing-up and planning. Experts state that in many transnational corporations where the automated accounting has been conducted at a proper level for several years already, about 99% of data are not used for business analysis and planning even once and more than half of the forecasts are built on non-relevant or incomplete data. It occurs partially because even at a high level of information accounting there are some temporal expenses on the search of necessary data.

Productivity rise connected with :

a) Time-saving, which we have mentioned above.

b) A possibility of collective work by means of EIP. Besides the above-mentioned enterprise information portal�s function No. 6, it is worth to note the following fact. The investigations of international consulting groups have underlined long ago that the business contact intensity of any one individual employee is closely connected with the climate, ethnographic features and cultural traditions of a specific region **. For example, it is believed that an American clerk manages to do a job, which is three times as much as its European colleague can do. Meantime, as the investigations have shown, electronic mail in combination with a properly conceived office work system and a fast access to relevant information enables representatives if different cultures to work at the same high intensity. It occurs due to the economy on calls, transmission of facsimile messages and business trips.

c) Taking part in the solution of problems being elucidated on general public portal�s pages.

d) Decision-making support.

e) Effective personnel management. Besides a considerable simplification of accounting, control, training of personnel, etc. by the personnel service, one should note a possibility of personnel self-arrangement by means of EIP. An example of this may be the interactive experience exchange between employees.

f) Improvement of interaction with partners.

Meeting the above-mentioned expectations, the enterprise information portal becomes at present in line with most modern competitive advantages.

Enterprise information portal architecture

So a network has been deployed in your company, the office and mail software has been installed, the acquisition and keeping of data under a database management system have been tuned and the computer accounting has been established. Visible technical problems, for which formerly IT were responsible, have disappeared but a lot of new ones have appeared, mainly being of the organisational level. The necessity of determination of what information each new employee will obtain and how he/she will use it, the impossibility to get necessary data for the report in time and many other things nudges to implementation of the enterprise information portal. This is followed by a demand for determination of the portal implementation stages and a search of a most effective technical solution.

The multi-functional and multi-level nature, which should be provided for an enterprise information portal, causes the complexity of its establishment. Hedley Raynolds, an analyst from The Delphi Group company, has noted that enterprise information portals require the use of eight different-level technologies (similar to the EIP nine functions mentioned in Section 3). Wine Eckerson, an analyst from the Patricia Seybold Group company, believes that manufacturers should endow their systems with an ability to work at least in 15 functional areas � then they can be called suitable.**

So the establishment of a really worthy enterprise information portal is too many even for the best Web-resource administrator. If a company gets down to the establishment of a similar portal by its own efforts, then one should remember that this process, besides labour intensity and capital intensity has also big time expenses. So don�t be astonished, if the portal, which you will independently develop, will be considerably obsolete.

At the first stage preceding the development of an enterprise information portal, it is necessary to give answers to three groups of questions connected with the following:

-             selection of information channels (which are maintained on the basis of the requirement of representation of business participant interests);

-             tasks and goals of the portal in the Internet-, Extranet- and Intra-net media;

-             portal architecture corresponding to its tasks.

Then one should begin building the  functional and logical structure of the portal.

The portal provides access to various kinds of information sources indexing them and accumulating its own metadata base. From the user�s point of view, a variety of work variants are possible, with the most optimal of them assuming the individual tuning in accordance with its demands.

The functional architecture is supported by the logical architecture including the following set of components:

1.        Customer. It is a navigator, which provides the user with the access to pages, for example in the HTML format.

2.        Security of access via Internet. Includes means for session management, coding, authentication.

3.        Repository.  It is the most important part of the portal. Metadata on information objects, users, working groups and information channels are kept there. Metadata relating to the object indicate its type, section, to which it belongs, its storage format and location.

4.        Publication and subscription subsystem. It enables to publish own documents and perform subscription for existing sources.

5.        Data filtration. It occurs by means of a mechanism, which filtrates and sorts out objects entering into the depository by type, format or any other signs according to the given rules. This mechanism sends the user information about new objects and about changes in the existing objects.

6.        Business process analysis. This mechanism provides the support of data analysis by means of relational and multidimensional OLAP and other similar systems.

7.       Data drivers. Set of drivers carrying out the connection with relational and multidimensional database management systems, various kinds of libraries and other possible information sources.

8.       Group work technologies. Such as project libraries, discussions and call sessions.

After determination of the functional and logical architectures of the enterprise information portal, one can already begin its technical realisation.

Situation on the world and Russian enterprise information portal markets

At the direct technical realisation of the portal, one should be ready for big investments, as the price of corporate software only for a simple enterprise information portal taking account of the average statistical user request can be within the range from 100 to 300 thousand dollars for a corporate license. If licenses are sold in terms of a �working place�, then the process of each license is usually equal to 200-500 dollars.

In the table below ** , the most popular software products for the development of enterprise information portals are given; however one should note that there have been no explicit leaders among them so far.

Table 1. Most popular software products for EIP

You can choose among these software products but sometimes even the implementation of special software may not be sufficient.

The analyst opinions relating to what volume of works should be carried out by a manufacturer in order to arrange an enterprise information portal in a company are strongly different. According to the Raynolds� opinion, �simple solutions will appear in many years, today no ready-made portals exist�. However many manufacturers offer such kinds of solutions basing on their own experience obtained on the market. In its recent report, Wine Eckerson wrote: �The first specimens of most business products realising portals are only slightly updated versions of the products, which are called knowledge management or document management software tools�.

A similar situation on the market of software products for enterprise information portals has existed sufficiently long. Better changes occurred due to alliances between software companies (having technologies), big Internet-portals (having experience) and information agencies (producing information in the form suitable for sale) for the purpose of providing services to biggest customers. The most successful became joint works of Yahoo! and Verity, Viador and Infoseek. Conventional suppliers of database management systems and means of aggregating and decision-making support such as Oracle, Informix, Sybase have not also stood aside.

However considerable changes on the world market of software products for enterprise information portals occurred in the beginning of March 2002 when Hewlett-Packard and SAP Portals, Inc. declared about their entering into an agreement on the provision of fully integrated open solutions for enterprise portals to customers over the whole world. At the present moment, a great future is predicted for the union of SAP Portals� solutions being developed in the field of enterprise portals and business intelligence acquisition system with hardware being offered by HP and consulting services. The developers offer to the customers: fast implementation, reduction of risks and increased scalability. The final release of SAP Portals Enterprise Portal� on the HP-UX 11i platform is planned for the third quarter 2002.

A young but very rapidly developing market of enterprise information portals is closely connected with the development of technology and, consequently, with venture financing. The shortage of the latter, together with low paying capacity and lack of confidence in information safety, is the main obstacle on the way of development of the Russian EIP market.

Though companies in the USA have already accustomed to the new product and began buying it, the situation in Russia reminds the situation in the USA of one year and a half or two years ago. The convergence between the supplier and the final customer is taking place. Suppliers are much better adapting the portal software for business needs and potential customers show an academic interest comprehending the necessity of implementation of portal solutions.

Among first major steps on the way of development of the EIP market in Russia, one should note the implementation of a portal in the NTV television company by Sputnik Labs and active promotion of Viador�s software solutions by AviComp Services AG. It is the familiarisation work being carried out by them and connected both with presentations and with the conduction of conferences that considerably helps a domestic user to assess all EIP advantages.