The increasing popularity of "enterprise portals" may be one of the main drivers of e-business growth in the Republic and Europe over the next year. The market for the technology here remains largely untapped, according to Mr Mark Ellis of e-business software firm Computer Associates (CA).
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Ellis, European product manager for CA's Jasmine Portal software, said enterprise portals promise "substantial" cost savings for companies as well as potential improvements in employee productivity and easier access to company information for clients and customers.
Enterprise portals work on the same principles as well-known Web portals such as Google. They add a number of extra features and functions designed specifically for corporate use. "At a fundamental level you're allowing people to bring information in," says Mr Ellis. Depending on your job, your interests, your expertise and other information, the portal will gather data it thinks will be of interest to you, gradually building up a profile for each individual user.
The US research group International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that the worldwide market for enterprise portals will rise from $252.1 million (€281.6 million) in 2000 to $2.44 billion in 2005.
The IDC says CA is the number one seller in the worldwide enterprise portal market, with its server-based Jasmine Portal solution. Microsoft has recently introduced its SharePoint portal technology product to a market that also includes IBM and Oracle.
Despite being available for almost four years, the take-up of the technology in the Republic has been very low, according to industry sources. Mr Ellis suggests this is due to the "wait-and-see" approach of Irish businesses to new technologies. Mr Ellis acknowledges there are varying definitions of Web portals, which may lead to difficulties in marketing them.
CA describes enterprise portals as the next step on from an intranet, in that it is designed to organise the information contained within an intranet more effectively. "The number of times an IT department will put out to tender a contract to create a data warehousing system that takes a year and a half to implement - only to find that when it is eventually in place it's not the information people wanted - is hugely frustrating," says Mr Ellis.
CA estimates that employees waste six weeks a year searching for information required for work. As well as being cost-effective and relatively cheap, enterprise portals can take less than two days to implement, said Mr Ellis.
Independent research commissioned by CA on customers in the US forecasted returns on investment on the portal technology of over 400 per cent in some cases.
