Enterprise portals: Measurable productivity and ROI tools

The words `enterprise portals` and `must have` are seldom mentioned in the same sentence. This is especially applicable to the South African market, currently under a great deal of economic stress.

The reality, however, is that enterprise portals can save thousands of rands if properly utilised. Not only do portals consolidate the various dispersed islands of organisational information, they also save on valuable time and manpower.

"The degree to which a portal is integrated into the business directly affects return on investment (ROI). The time saved in searching and navigating across disparate information systems when the information could be easily accessed by a portal translates to direct cost savings," says Ben van Niekerk, product manager at Compuware SA.

Another added benefit is when people have access to a central point of information, duplications are eliminated - once again saving on time and therefore cost, as savings in both the management of information and the bandwidth required by organisations can be experienced.

Compuware estimates that enterprise portals save approximately 30 minutes a day per user. This adds up to 125 hours per person in a single year. Multiplied by the hourly rates of company employees and the number of employees, this figure adds up to a significant amount of valuable company money saved.

Explains Van Niekerk: "For example, a mid-sized South African company of 100 employees has an average cost to company of R100 per hour (based on the average salary for staff level IT employees in the latest IT Salary survey conducted by online news service ITWeb). When calculated, this could amount to a yearly saving of R1 250 000."

The cost of a typical portal running on a Windows environment could be as little as $35 000, with no restrictions on the number of staff using the portal. Companies can experience immediate ROI through the direct benefits of implementing a portal solution, such as reduced cost of information management; improved interaction with the corporate assets through a single unified interface to the information, applications and processes of the organisation; and improved quality of execution.

The medium-term benefits that an effective portal solution enable include reduced cost of IT deployment and enhanced corporate integration, while in the long-term, headcount could be reduced through employee self-service. Another method of calculating portal cost savings is to follow well-known research group Gartner`s proposed ROI exercise:

"Identify the top five business units or geographic units of the enterprise, then identify a veteran middle manager in each of the units. Take this person out to lunch and pick his or her brains for the top five ugly, time-consuming business processes that his or her people must execute on a regular basis," says Gartner.

Take these processes and identify how an effective enterprise portal would reduce decision-making and improve decision quality - thereby reducing process cycle times. The resulting increase in business and velocity can then be quantified.

In essence, an enterprise portal is a necessary and effective productivity tool and cost saving mechanism that enables a single unified view into all the information, applications and processes of an organisation.

Van Niekerk points out that the drive behind portals is to create knowledge workers that actively contribute and participate in the creation and aggregation of information through the portal, vital in today`s business environments. According to him, the initial deployment of an enterprise portal can be fairly static, but as the portal evolves in an organisation so it will become more dynamic, including business processes and other important functionalities.

"When deciding on a portal solution, room must be left for further expansions. It is essential that a portal is not vendor or technology restricted as this could cause endless integration problems, particularly when introducing new applications or processes."

Compuware`s enterprise portal offering OptimalView is vendor and environment independent, empowering organisations to utilise their intranets and extranets in an organised and controlled way.

"OptimalView supports the broadest range of technology, servers and operating systems of any portal solution - enabling organisations to keep abreast with the latest market trends while ensuring ROI and escalated productivity," concludes Van Niekerk.