“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” #apereo13

1. ARE PORTALS REALLY DEAD?
“THE REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED”(MARK
TWAIN)
June 4, 2013
Tom Freestone, Senior Developer and Portal Technical Lead, Brigham Young University
Peter Sentz, Director Product Management, Brigham Young University
June 4, 2013 1

2. Enterprise Portal =
Swear Word
• Phil Windley“Portals Are Dead”
• Shutdown of iGoogle
• We use it because we have to …
• No more free lunches from portal vendors
A Christmas Story. Directed by Bob Clark. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers 1983 “http://cinemajaw.com/wordpress/?p=817”

3. Why do we care about
Portals anyway?

4. Reality
(http://shakeout.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/what-should-a-grain-silo-look-like/)

5. Student and Faculty
View
http://media.techeblog.com/elephant//ul/35625-450x-a_12.jpg

6. How they want to
interact

7. A Definition
A portal is a personalized, single point of access to relevant
information, processes and people.
Gartner: Gene Phifer, Jim Murphy
http://comp.webstockpro.com/tetraimages/ti0145101.jpg

8. What do our users
want?
http://blog.vivoparacristo.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/my_way_aviso.jpg

9. How do we meet our
users needs?
1. Commercial
2. Write our own
3. Collaborate
Mark Philbrick
http://photo.byu.edu
Mark Philbrick
http://photo.byu.edu
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ell0bio-1

10. Forrest Gump“Life is like
a box of chocolates”

11. What is our investment
in uPortal

12. Value

13. User Experience
User Experience
Identity and access
User Personalization
Search & Navigation
Content Aggregation
Content Discovery
User Productivity Developer Integration Platform

14. June 4, 2013 14
myBYU v3.0
Things we are doing Well…

15. myBYU: A Brief History
• myBYU v1: (8/2009) Route-Y
• myBYU v2 (10/2010)
• myBYU v3 (4/2013) (uPortal v4.1)

16. Analytics & Feedback
Site
Visits Last
30 days*
BYU Home Page 1,423,471
myBYU 1,038,236
Continuing Education 441,831
Library Home Page 369,211
AIM Menus 316,787
MyMap 264,814
My Financial Center 118,814
BYU Mobile App 69,993
BYU Bookstore 38,753
SAS 37,486
*January 8, 2013-February 7, 2013
20,000 pieces of
feedback in 2 ½ years
32% with comments
Currently Adding in
Portlet analytics

17. • Only 2 Outages in the last 20 months
• Both occurred within the first 10 days of the 9/2011
release.
myBYU is Reliable
http://www.earthlingcommunication.com/images/articles/achieve-multiple-targets-goals.gif

18. We Allow Full
Customization
• Nothing locked down
• Can Add
• Portlets
• Tabs
• Themes/Skins

19. Pre-Built Tabs

20. Theme/Skin Template
• Default Theme aligns with
campus web page
templates
• Only One Theme for now
(more coming soon)

21. Portlet Gallery
• Enterprise "app store"
• Many portlets (200+)
• Several portlets are user
configurable
• Bookmarks, Announcements, Calendar,
Weather, Classifieds, Email

22. Usability Design
• Detailed Requirements, Use Cases
• Usability Studies
• Usability Testing
• Card Sorting
• Surveys
• Analytics & Feedback
June 4, 2013 22
http://riyajs.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/usability.jpg
http://forecasting.tstc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/usability.jpg

23. We Encourage Campus
Portlet Development
• Anyone may participate
• Campus Portlet Governance
• Developer documentation
• Portlet Registration/Documentation
• API’s and Integration

24. Mobile Web
• myBYU mobile web
• As opposed to the BYU
Mobile App
• Looking into implementing
uMobile as native

25. User Help & Support
Documentation
• Video’s
• Documentation and FAQs
• Portlet documentation
• Support Desk KnowledgeBase articles
https://www.desktopaper.com%2Fgreat-help-button

26. Challenges
Missing Key Content
Resource Constraints
Marketing & Promotion
Social Media Integration
myBYU in the Cloud
http://www.channeltivity.com/blog/2013/how-to-make-rain-in-the-
cloud/
http://www.sanjuancollege.edu/Images/HR/people.jp
http://www.inboundmarketing.co.uk/Portals/59252/images/eBook
s%20vs.%20whitepapers.png
http://www.inc.com/uploaded_files/image/promotion-
panoramic_16688.jpg
http://www.mcginnismedia.com/wp-content/uploads
/2012/09/Social-Media-mcginnis-media.jpg

27. BYU Portal/Mobile
Strategy Review
• Portal/Mobile User Experience Today
• Requirements for Optimal User Experience
• Determine the Architecture
• Technology Review/Gaps
• Portal/Mobile Strategic Roadmap
• Wrap-up for Executive Presentation

28. Long Live the Portal!
• With all due respect Mr. Windley; Portals are very much
alive!
• Consumers always need a unified, personalized point of
access to relevant information, business processes and
people
http://starchefs.com/features/tools_of_the_trade/holding/images/holding_not_a_dirty_word.jpg

29. Questions/Comments?
http://www.ezdiyelectricity.com/images/icons/question-mark7a.jpg