The portal movement has gained so much momentum that it's become difficult to differentiate between products. Virtually every vendor claims to have a portal offering. This allows reports to be generated from business databases. Reports can be manually executed or triggered through a variety of events. Transaction integration and processing.
Most portals have underlying component applications that serve as the driving force for the vendor.
These normally will provide access to structured databases as well as unstructured information in the form of documents. Certain vendors recognize that the portal consists not only of access, but the ability to have the component applications communicate and perform integrated processes. Consequently, processing transactions between applications can provide strategic value. Many portals offer a knowledge-management component that lets information be automatically or manually categorized into clusters. This allows for an alternative searching metaphor.