2016 Enterprise Portals Market Analysis

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For a number of scenarios, especially those that are complex and require heavy integration, portal tools can be a suitable fit. In fact, portal tools may be more suitable than other tools if you require:

  • Application-driven websites as opposed to content-driven websites
  • Heavy aggregation and integration with external or internal applications
  • A dashboard-based user experience

Just remember that portal tools can be a heavy drain on resources, require a bevy of developers and architects, and are complex — but they can build scalable, mission-critical applications. 

We categorize the portal marketplace into two categories: 

  • Infrastructure Vendors: Infrastructure vendors are strong in at least one area related to enterprise software, such as database systems, application servers, operating systems, and hardware and/or IT infrastructures. These portal offerings are often bundled with one or more of these.
  • Specialist Vendors: These offerings focus on a particular departmental or process need, rather than serving as a broad portal framework to meet cross-enterprise needs. 

This briefing offers a snapshot of trends in the current marketplace, as well as a comparative analysis of the relative risks associated with each portal and integration vendor, via RSG’s “Reality Check” chart.