Silver Spring, MD, USA -- The latest research from CMS Watch finds enterprise portal technology buyers struggling with adoption, as diverse portal products target different use-cases, and customers grapple with oft-immature tools, persistent performance bottlenecks, implementation delays, cost overruns, and poor usability.

The Enterprise Portals Report was released today by CMS Watch (www.realstorygroup.com), an independent analyst firm that evaluates content technologies for prospective solutions buyers.

Based on interviews with more than 60 enterprise portal customers and integrators worldwide, the Report examines enterprise portal software from the perspective of 6 canonical use-cases: Web Publishing, Self-service, Collaboration, Enterprise Intranet, E-business, and Enterprise Integration.

Specific Report findings include:

• Portal technology vendors target divergent use-cases, and no single platform excels across the broad spectrum of portal applications. For example, while Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server has seen tremendous growth on the strength of its Collaboration facilities, it is a comparatively poor platform for Enterprise Integration. Conversely, BEA WebLogic Portal offers strong E-business capabilities, but may not be well suited for Collaboration and Enterprise Intranet use-cases.
• Despite supplier consolidation, portal software remains a comparatively immature technology, with vendors and customers alike struggling to address chronic performance problems, usability shortcomings, and low adoption rates.
• Several prominent portal products -- including Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, BEA WebLogic Portal, and IBM WebSphere Portal -- will see major upgrades this year, with attendant potential costs, dislocation, and opportunities for their customers.
• Multiple open-source portal projects offer serious alternatives to commercial products, but their platforms tend to focus on Web Publishing and Collaboration over more transactional use-cases.

Danish IT consultant Janus Boye (www.boyeit.dk) served as Lead Analyst on the research team, and confirmed widespread challenges facing portal implementation teams. "Enterprise Portals really represent a point of departure for further integration," explained Boye, "and are typically much less out-of-the-box than licensees expect."

"There are real differences among the various portal vendors," added Report Publisher and CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne, "and customers should carefully examine a product's 'fit' against their particular use-cases before committing to a portal platform."

The Enterprise Portals Report provides highly detailed, 9- to 16-page comparative product surveys of 13 Enterprise Portal offerings as well as information about 12 other packages across 3 product categories. Vendors covered include: ATG (NASDAQ:ARTG), BroadVision (OOTC:BVSN), BEA - AquaLogic and WebLogic (NASDAQ:BEAS), IBM (NYSE:IBM), JBoss, Liferay, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Plone, SAP (NYSE:SAP), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW), and Vignette (NASDAQ:VIGN). The Report is available for purchase and immediate download from the CMS Watch secure storefront.

The Enterprise Portals Report is designed to help enterprises save time and make informed portal technology buying decisions. Like all CMS Watch offerings, the Enterprise Portals Report does not rank "best" vendors, but instead details the strengths and weaknesses of the various suppliers, identifies their suitability for different use-cases, and isolates vendor tendencies that may influence longterm product roadmaps.