What Is a Business Portal?

A "business portal" is a term that is used to describe an aspect of a business' website that allows certain authorized users to access information and content that is restricted otherwise. This is a tool that is growing in popularity, as it can provide a gateway for staff or other business members to various applications.

Some typical aspects of these business portals include expense submissions, requesting vacation days, and recording staff time, and customer relationship management (CRM). As with a lot of technology, the technology behind creating and maintaining a business portal has significantly decreased in recent times, making it much more available to small and medium sized businesses. 

There are two main features to a business portal, the software and the hardware. There is a wide number of software applications that can help businesses create an online portal. The choice of software depends on a number of criteria, like the services that are going to be offered through the portal, the size of the company, and the number of support staff that are available. For example, a company that uses SAP® would want to use a business portal that uses SAP® technology. This technology will be in the package from SAP®, along with all of the tools necessary to ensure proper connectivity. 

The hardware that can be used also varies, again depending on the specific applications that are going to be used, the number of users accessing the portal, its reliance on any other systems, and the target user group. The more robust the services that are being offered are, and the more users that will be using the portal, the more powerful the hardware will need to be to properly support them.

A lot of projects for companies start off as a test or a proof of concept, but then have to scale up quickly to adequately serve the demand from the company. It is essential that the hardware is sized appropriately for the number of users that will be using the business portal. Beginning with an agile proof of concept development allows companies to trial portal capabilities, gain user feedback, and refine requirements before full production rollout.

There are some criteria that are needed to allow a company to be able to maintain and host a business portal, these generally include web server configuration, project managers, internet security, and software developers. IN most if not all companies, the support is given by the IT department. Some businesses decide to outsource this aspect, but there are some severe limitations to the support that can be provided to users from outside of the company. Typically a direct connection to the relevant applications and company files is needed for correct support. 

A business portal is known as a tool that can save a lot of money and time when used correctly and efficiently. However, it does require a substantial investment of funds upfront to get this set up. When setting up a business portal it is vital to keep a close eye on the project budget to ensure that it doesn't get out of hand. The Return On Investment (ROI) must be justified, especially if you have to report to the powers that be once it is set up! With that being said, lets go through some of the available options on the business portal market.

Axero

Axero is a portal software that accelerates growth and unifies teams. All company documents, conversations, and people can be centralized in one easily used place so that information can be accessed anytime, anyplace.

Nasdaq Boardvantage

This is a board portal software that can help businesses of any size work faster and more efficiently. Capture minutes, vote instantly, manage tasks, distribute agendas, send surveys, and much more with this software.

IC Source

See collaboration, productivity, and morale among employees improve significantly when you choose to use this Source intranet software. This software acts as the "single source of truth" within a business, allowing the correct information to be accessed at all times. 

Jostle

This is another intranet portal focused on simplifying how a business runs, and keep it that way as the business is scaled. Workplaces nowadays are more spread out than ever, so it is critical to have an efficient way of communicating and sharing information.

OnBoard

This is a board intelligence program that helps boards tackle complex processes so that they can focus on building the organization that they want. Decision making becomes much easier when a system that has records of all analytics and data, and is accessible from any mobile device.

Clinked

Clinked is a white-label business portal software that makes your day-to-day business and client interactions easy, efficient and effective. Clinked provides bank-level data security, large data storage allocation (you can even use it as a VDR!), and a host of planning and communication tools. Find out more about all Clinked features here.

So, what do you think about these different options for business portals? Does you company use one of these, or do they use something else? Clinked would love to hear from you in the comments below!

More about business portal:

• 8 Questions To Ask Before Purchasing Customer Portal Software
• Customer Portal Examples
• Business Portal: Your Options
• Is Clinked customer portal software right for my business?
• Cloud Collaboration: Benefits and Tools
• 6 Features That Make The Perfect Client Portal Solution
• Fighting the Barriers to Effective Client Collaboration
• Customer Portal Software: Top 6 in 2022
• 4 Signs That Customer Portal Software Is The Right Solution
• Portal Companies: Top 10