Portals allow users to view information from disparate sources and are a key technology for Collaborative Manufacturing Management (CMM), along with Web application servers and integration servers. ARC views portal technology as critical for manufacturers in providing visibility and connectivity between people and systems. Portals consolidate information, empower users, and help align operations decisions with business goals.
1. Portals Remain a Key to CMM
BY GREG GORBACH NOVEMBER 28, 2001 ARC INSIGHTS# 2001-050E
KEYWORDS:
Enterprise Portals, Plant Portals, Visibility, Connectivity, CMM
SUMMARY:
Portals allow users to view information from disparate sources, but there are some im-
portant differentiators between consumer portals, enterprise or corporate portals, and
plant portals. ARC views portal technology as a key to providing visibility and connec-
tivity between people and systems, and will be a critical element for manufacturers.
Portals constitute one of the three key technologies for Collaborative Manufacturing
Management (CMM), with Web Application Servers and Exchange or Integration servers
being the others.
ANALYSIS:
With minor differences, many portal suppliers can access and present data from a public
Website, an Intranet, or a data store via special connectors and applications. Typically,
the data is filtered or personalized based on user profile. Some portals go beyond the
basic visibility functionality to provide knowledge management, or document-based
workflow management, but only a few go all the way to providing an environment to
unify the various applications and services for a user.
As companies shift to collaborative manufacturing, boundaries to
ARC views portal technology as a
information sharing will change dramatically. Customers, suppli-
key to providing visibility and
ers, design partners, and corporate managers will all require secure
connectivity between people and
systems and a critical element for access, based on their profiles, to information and applications
manufacturers. across the complete enterprise and value chain. These users will
have little knowledge of how to access information and little pa-
tience for searching multiple databases, combining information from disparate systems,
and maintaining a multitude of passwords to gain access to different systems. Portals
will lessen such hurdles to information.
Portals provide a convenient way to establish an efficient desktop work center that
drives information flow and problem solving. Recognizing this benefit, many portal
suppliers provide role-based templates that organize user interfaces for efficiency while
allowing personalization that can address individual preferences.
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