An enterprise portal best practice document - aimed at business rather than IT professionals.

1. WHITE PAPER
ENTERPRISE PORTALS:
DESIGNING FOR BUSINESS RATHER THAN
PRODUCT FEATURE - JUNE 2013

2. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION
WHITE PAPER - PORTALS FOR BUSINESS // PAGE 1 OF 5
OVERVIEW
Agile is a cloud technology consultancy that
provides design and implementation services for
cloud technologies.
This deck provides considerations in terms of:
- How to design and govern an enterprise portal from
a business rather than technology perspective
- What the key value pillars are
- Some UX and design recommendations

3. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION
VALUE PILLARS
Enterprise portals help achieve business value through:
- Streamlining Processes
- Improve decision making *
- Build and retain intellectual capital
- Increase employee engagement
- Open Communication
- Unlock Innovation
* Typically when used in conjunction with business intelligence or decision support solution
ALIGN BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Understand your business objectives and ensure you:
- Align portal initiative with your business (unit) strategy
- Determine the value drivers e.g. Improve efficiency, reduce head count
- Understand the behaviours that you are attempting to drive
LINK OBJECTIVES WITH USER
When designing portal, end users are the ones that will drive the value,
be sure to:
- Understand What is in it for them? WIFT?
- Include desired behaviours in their performance review
- Link portal to your corporate culture
- Make it intuitive (get design help, don’t leave this to the techies)
WHITE PAPER - PORTALS FOR BUSINESS // PAGE 2 OF 5

4. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION
ASSESS YOUR MATURITY
How digital minded is your organisation? Be sure to understand phase your
implementations to gradually introduce more functionality.
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 1
Communication
& Information
Sharing
Intranets
High
Low
Low Information Usage High
Busines Value
Self-Service
Intranets
Collaboration -
Driven Intranets
Enterprise
Information
Portals
Digital
Dashboard
The
Consolidated
Workplace
Interface
CHANGE RULES FOR TOOLS
CONTENT MANAGEMENT COLLABORATION
Formal Content (Records and Docs)
Web Content (Intranet, Newsletters)
Wikis, Blogs
Micro messaging, team tools
Communities of Practice
Ideation Platform
Work Groups
Informal Networks
Less control / rules
User Owned
Clear Owners
Formal Management
WHITE PAPER - PORTALS FOR BUSINESS // PAGE 3 OF 5

5. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION
MANAGE ENVIRONMENT
- Keep governance rules simple to understand
- Align with existing frameworks, portals do not work in isolation
- Develop handbook for collaboration
- Provide coaching for key influencers
DESIGN RECOMMENDATION
- Make actionable - ensure designs are created that provide actionable paths
- Make process oriented - craft solution along the logical process steps
rather than down functional silos
- Remove alternative practices - make portal solution part of the process.
- Align business and individual goals - Portals succeed when business goals
are related to individual objectives
- Start simple to build confidence - look at interaction frequency and develop
elegant interfaces
- Facilitate rather than control, adoption is key driver in deriving value from
portal assets
- Organise - develop a simple governance framework upfront
LINK OBJECTIVES WITH USER
- Ensure clear achievable business objectives are defined
- Make portal useful, relevant and viable
- Inculcate in work practices
- Measure impact
- Appoint a user experience custodian
WHITE PAPER - PORTALS FOR BUSINESS // PAGE 4 OF 5

6. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION
MORE INFORMATION?
We provide innovative IT solutions
to business challenges. The new
economy demands faster, more
agile capabilities, whilst ensuring
that every rand spent has a return
on its investment.
CONTACT US
For more information about what we
do please contact us via any of the
following channels:
Telephone: +27.21.808.1805
Email: warrene@agile.co.za
www.agile.co.za
WHITE PAPER - PORTALS FOR BUSINESS // PAGE 5 OF 5