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Chad Corneil, CA, is the product manager for Great Plains Hosting Services, and previously managed large corporate and multinational implementation of Great Plains Dynamics CS+ for SQL. A chartered accountant based in London, Ontario, he currently is on the Board of Directors and secretary/treasurer of the ASP Industry Consortium.
A portal is an Internet based community that provides its members or visitors with information and services to suit a particular need. In the past, we have seen a number of consumer-focused portals, and are now starting to see the emergence of a number of corporate focused portals or vortals (vertical industry portal sites).
All About Portals
There is a lot of talk these days about rapid changes in online technology. The development of portal sites has exploded to include interest groups, industry and trade associations, industry information, consumer goods, and online game activity. There are hundreds of portal sites that strive to deliver a quality, and often specialized, experience to the end user, while continuing to attract their attention.
A portal site should provide content that creates a sense of community to the end user, and ultimately drives a commerce transaction. Some sites are less focused on the commerce entity, but all want users to return to their sites.
Content may include a number of items, such as trade and press articles, airline booking services, chat forums, training programs and stock quotes. Overall, building a sense of community creates an environment in which user feels comfortable returning. This is important to ensure that their return visits are longer in duration. The longer users are on line at a site, the more likely it is that they are enjoying the experience, will refer others and may complete a commerce transaction.
Commerce transactions also are varied and include, for example, software downloads, subscriptions to investment articles, buying and selling stock, and buying and selling goods and services. There are several things that portal sites have to consider in conjunction with the three Cs of content, community and commerce. If a user does not experience quick response time when links are selected, the experience of the user is tainted and the likelihood to return diminishes. If goods and services are sold over the Internet, the portal must...