It's called a portal, and it seems like everybody's installing one.
Corporate portals manage end-user access to a business's network of applications and resources.
Portals can also offer security, end-user administration, collaboration, search mechanisms and data management from a single interface. Analysts say there are more than 200 vendors offering portal products, and more enter the market every day. In just the past few months companies such as Bowstreet, SAP, IBM and Microsoft have announced portal initiatives to compete against pure-play portal software vendors such as Plumtree, DataChannel, Hummingbird and Epicentric. As businesses in growing numbers launch intranets and digitize more of their functions, software vendors are realizing that the portal will be the new business desktop. To start, there's the decision of whether to buy packaged portal software or to build the portal in-house.