Because portals offer the ability to access and index information from disparate data sources, a user can perform a single search to locate information from a document management system like PC Docs and from web pages on the Internet. Users can also customize their desktops by choosing portal modules that are most useful to them, and deciding how to arrange the modules on the page. For example, if I have the Plumtree Corporate Portal, I can choose to have NewsEdge health industry news stories on my screen. Both Lexis Publishing and West Group are teaming up with portal vendors to offer products. Lexis has teamed up with Plumtree Software Inc. to create the Lexis Intranet Portal for large or mid-size law firms.
Portal software can be expensive depending on the product and a firm's existing systems.
So, it is necessary to understand your organization's information requirements - what's needed for daily operations, and how the requirements may change over a couple of years before trying to implement any software. Librarians can play a critical role in helping management and IT understand what those requirements are. It's doubtful that a single portal product can answer all of a company's needs, but as information professionals we can help evaluate products to determine if they might work for our organizations. The following list contains a few of the online sources I used to prepare this article. 4 April 2001.