Web Portal

Web portal
A web portal, also known as a links page, presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine feature, web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices, information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether. Examples of public web portals are AOL, iGoogle, MSNBC, Netvibes, and Yahoo!.

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Types of portals
The portals can be differentiated on the basis of their content and intended users. They can be categorized into: Vertical Portals (Vortals) These are web portals which focus only on one specific industry, domain or vertical. Vertical portals or vortals simply provide tools, information, articles, research and statistics on the specific industry or vertical. As the web has become a standard tool for business vortals provide an ideal gateway for businesses to market their products & services and to gain exposure within their vertical by developing and using vortals. Classic examples of vertical portals are cnet.com which focuses only on computer and related issues, mp3.com only on mp3 audio etc. Most of the times, vertical portals offer information and services customized to niche audiences about a particular area of interest. Vertical industry portals, known as vortals, are sites that provide a gateway to information related to a particular industry, such as, insurance, automobiles, etc.
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Types of portals
There are innumerable possibilities for establishing special vertical portals on the market. The numerous solutions can be divided into 2 major groups that partially overlap: Corporate Portals: Provide personalized access to selected information of a specific company Commerce Portals: Support business-to-business and business-toconsumer e-commerce Horizontal Portals These are web portals which focus on a wide array of interests and topics. Horizontal portals try act as an entry point of a web surfer into the internet, providing content on the topic of interest and guiding towards the right direction to fetch more related resources and information. Classic examples of horizontal portals are yahoo.com, msn.com etc which provide visitors with information and on a wide area of topics.

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Types of portals
Horizontal portals target the entire Internet community. These sites, often referred to as "megaportals", usually contain search engines and provide the ability for user to personalize the page by offering various channels (i.e. access to other information such as regional weather, stock quotes or news updates). Intranet Portals (Enterprise Portals) These are portals developed and maintained for use by members of the intranet or the enterprise network. In todays demanding business enterprise the key to productivity of the employees depends on access to timely information and resources. The most common implementation of enterprise portals focus on providing employees with this information on a regularly updated manner along with document management system, availability of applications on demand, online training courses and web casts etc along with communication in the form of emails, messaging, web meetings etc.
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Types of portals
Knowledge Portals: Knowledge portals increase the effectiveness of knowledge workers by providing easy access to information that is necessary or helpful to them in one or more specific roles. Knowledge portals are not mere intranet portals since the former are supposed to provide extra functionality such as collaboration services, sophisticated information discovery services and a knowledge map. Enterprise Portals An enterprise portal (sometimes called a corporate portal) provides personalized access to an appropriate range of information about a particular company. Enterprise portals have become one of the hottest new technologies of the Internet. Initially called intranet portals - enterprise portals existing for the benefit of the companys own employees, this set of technologies has developed to assist and provide access to a companys business partners (suppliers, customers) as well. As opposed to public web portals, enterprise portals aim at providing a virtual workplace for each individual using them - executives, employees, suppliers, customers, third-party service providers. Rather than offering access to consumer goods, services, and information, enterprise portals are designed to give each individual using them access to all of the information, business applications, and services needed to perform their jobs.
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Types of portals
A companys public website itself is not automatically a corporate portal. It can become one if the Website provides personalization and navigation functionality, as many are beginning to do. More advanced enterprise portal solutions provide access via mobile devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, handheld PCs etc. facilitating on the road work, decision making, and business processes. Marketspace Portals Marketspace portals exist to support the business-to-business and businessto-customer e-commerce. Major functionalities: software support for e-commerce transactions ability to find and access rich information about the products on sale ability to participate in discussion groups with other vendors and/or buyers GMI is one of the largest independent solution providers in social networking website development, web application development, web portal design & Offshore software development.
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Intranet
An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet Protocol technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network within an organization. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the organization's information technology infrastructure. It may host multiple private websites and constitute an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration. The first intranet websites and home pages began to appear in organizations in 1990-1991. Although not officially noted, the term intranet first became common-place among early adopters, such as universities and technology corporations, in 1992.

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Characteristics of Intranet
An intranet is built from the same concepts and technologies used for the Internet, such as client-server computing and the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Any of the well known Internet protocols may be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer). Internet technologies are often deployed to provide modern interfaces to legacy information systems hosting corporate data. An intranet can be understood as a private analog of the Internet, or as a private extension of the Internet confined to an organization. Intranets are also contrasted with extranets. While intranets are generally restricted to employees of the organization, extranets may also be accessed by customers, suppliers, or other approved parties. Extranets extend a private network onto the Internet with special provisions for access, authorization, and authentication (AAA protocol). Intranets may provide a gateway to the Internet by means of a network gateway with a firewall, shielding the intranet from unauthorized external access. The gateway often also implements user authentication, encryption of messages, and often virtual private network (VPN) connectivity for off-site employees to access company information, computing resources and internal communications.
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Uses of Intranet
Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools and applications, e.g., collaboration or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer relationship management tools, project management etc., to advance productivity. Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues. In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better understood by using web metrics software to track overall activity. User surveys also improve intranet website effectiveness. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access public internet through firewall servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and going keeping security intact. When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that part becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another. Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house sites. Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large organizations, or some combination of these.
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Benefits of Intranet
Workforce productivity: Intranets can also help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and subject to security provisions - from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users. Time: Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being distracted indiscriminately by electronic mail. Immediate Updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws/specifications/parameters can change. With an Intranet and providing your audience with "live" changes, they are never out of date, which can limit a company's liability. Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also be linked to a companys management information system, for example a time keeping system.
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Extranet
An extranet is a private network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually via the Internet. Enterprise applications During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several industries started to use the term extranet to describe central repositories of shared data made accessible via the web only to authorized members of particular work groups. Some applications are offered on a Software as a Service (SaaS) basis by vendors functioning as Application service providers (ASPs). Specially secured extranets are used to provide virtual data room services to companies in several sectors (including law and accountancy).

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Extranet
Advantages Exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks Share news of common interest exclusively Disadvantages Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g., hardware, software, employee training costs), if hosted internally rather than by an application service provider. Security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information.

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