Internet Life : Understanding Extension

Abstract

If it's green, it's biology, if it stinks, it's chemistry, if it has numbers it’s math, if it doesn't work, and it’s technology.

We are in era of Information Technology. Information Technology is full of buzzwords. Besides every new technology, a reader needs to understand hundred buzzwords.

Internet is network of independent networks. Basically Internet is used for information sharing purpose. Jim Clark said, "The Internet is not just one thing, it's a collection of things - of numerous communications networks that all speak the same digital language."

A virtual page on which either information or links are drawn or wrote is called Web page. The collection of web pages can be described under different titles.

Portal – Vortal – Enterprise portal – Corporate portal – B2B portal.

Internet is best used when it is targeted. Internet is collection of different communities. Community is basic word, which differentiates Portal – Vortal or Enterprise portal.

Understanding solutions…

Portal

A platform on Internet to access information, applications and collaborative services like
E-mail, forums, search engines, on-line shopping and directory of links to sites.

AOL and Yahoo are the best examples to understand Portal.

Vortal

It is a platform on Internet to access information, applications and collaborative services relating to a particular industry. Vortal may provide services like E-mail, forums, search engines, on-line shopping and directory of links to sites. It is similarly technical sound to Portal. It is nothing but Vertical Portal.

CNET (Computer and Technology), E bay (Auction), Find Law (Legal) and About.com (Series of Vortals) are best examples to understand Vortals.

1. If Portal is horizontally extended, Vertical is vertically extended.

2. As a person – Portal is broad minded where as Vortal is narrow-minded.

3. Vortal is niche player in its segment. It provides definitive, comprehensive, one-stop source of information.

4. Providing statistics, research, news and online polls are key features in Vortals.

New buzzwords, which are being major revenue earning weapon for software solution providers, are Enterprise Portals and Corporate Portals

Enterprise Portals or Enterprise Information Portal

1. It is web-based service provided to enterprise’s customers, partners and employees.

2. It is ease of access and integration of vital business content and business applications.

3. It is access to a variety of internal and external E-business and E-commerce applications, databases, software tools, and services.

Enterprise portals fall in enterprise solutions, which is being new cash cow for software solutions providers companies. Major infrastructure solution providers are IBM, SAP, BEA, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle and Sybase.

Business-ready integration, Knowledge management, Collaboration, Personalization, billing & account management and Security are key functionalities of most respected Enterprise portal solutions.

Portal to Enterprise portal is journey of providing in – depth, secured and narrow but niche services. Corporate portal is very similar word to Enterprise solution. As such difference in between corporate portal and enterprise portal to my understanding. If a company is providing just contents on their own portal and links of associated clients or partners, I prefer to say it "Company’s web site" rather "Corporate portal".

Plumtree, Epicentric, Citrix, Corechange, Hummingbird and Viador are major players in providing enterprise portal solutions other than infrastructure solution providers.

Knowledge management and business intelligence are new born businesses out of Corporate Portal solutions. Many small players are turning their business under niche segments of Data warehousing, data mining, knowledge management, document management, BI, Collaboration and integration.

B2B portal

It specializes in one industry and "vertically" integrates transactions between buyers and suppliers based on networking buyers and suppliers in a specific industry. B2B portal make sure security of money transactions for you to do on line business. Such portals are mostly certified and signed with full money transaction security. According to the Gartner Group, Inc., Stamford, Conn., the worldwide B2B market is expected to grow from billion in 1999 to .29 trillion in 2004.

E Bay is the best example of B2B Portal. B2B Portal will give rise to e marketing and e-branding.

Knowledge management Portal

If your firm is working as multinational firm or global firm and your wish to create a platform, which helps you to manage knowledge across the countries branches, " Knowledge management portal" is the one solution you are looking for. Knowledge management is however one part of Enterprise solutions but sometimes individually implemented as per client requirements.

KM is new century buzzword in IT dictionary. According to Delphi Consulting Group " The systematic management and use of the knowledge in an organization; or, more abstrusely, "the leveraging of collective wisdom to increase responsiveness and innovation."

What next?

Technology is fast changing. As the world’s business is becoming paper less offices, above solutions are implemented on big or small infrastructure.

Even Government is implementing such solutions under title of E-Governance to make paper less offices and easy transactions to satisfy public at large.

As a century passes, new technologies will come to reduce time, cost and improving process under different buzzwords and theories. But objective will remain same.

And that is to access information!