Using the latest in Portal technologies, we enable enterprises to build internal and external web-based systems that allow employees, business partners and customers to access information, people, processes and applications via a single composite view.

The enterprise portal is your single point for data access and publication across a distributed network. Because core portal functionality requires the linking of different data stores within one metadata framework, the result is an efficiently organized set of corporate data. The need for an enterprise portal solution reflects the growing need for companies to identify and consolidate their data in a structured environment. Since traditional IT strategies for storing and accessing data have simply not been enough, the use of the web along with its embedded search engine power not only unleashes information that may not have been readily accessible in the past, but also provides an organized categorization capability that would have required detailed database designs in the past. Today, organizations choosing to plan a subject-based categorization strategy are able to easily implement an available corporate directory on all desktops accessing the company' s Intranet.

Business Benefits

Consider the amount of time spent trying to locate target items (programs, data, reports, applications, web sites, etc.). How often do employees come up empty handed? More important, how often is the located target the least optimal, yet still used to substantiate or fuel business decisions? Enterprise portals allow organizations to plan search results before the searches are even initiated. As information becomes ready for prime time, it can easily join the existing portal-based infrastructure.

Well-architected solutions represent a business-based set of electronic company assets, all within a mouse click of those employees granted appropriate security. Instead of searching outside of your organization for factual support, employees would benefit from the reuse and revitalization of many of the already developed sets of corporate documentation. A well-designed portal will link all of these currently disparate sets of knowledge with existing databases, data warehouses, installed software packages, and any other aspect of the enterprise that is organized and related to the underlying metadata base.

Our Approach

Successful enterprise portals are based upon a corporate metadata gateway reflective of common metadata categories. These categories can be linked to existing sets of information throughout the enterprise. The metadata gateway or "roadmap" is developed based upon a full analysis of an organization's search and retrieval needs along with an inventory of existing knowledge components. With our expertise in metadata management and focus on data-intensive initiatives, we have the experience and the industry knowledge to provide the best strategy to build each enterprise portal. Our vendor neutral approach provides us with the flexibility to customize the solution to fit individual needs rather than tailoring your business needs into a tool's functionality.

The thorough data analysis process will result in a description of all key information types (i.e. data feeds, databases, interface tools, etc.) that will comprise the portal solution. The "search categories" or "subjects" will then be developed and associated with locatable information targets.

Detailed design involves the development of an underlying meta metamodel populated with categories and locations of information targets. The "locate and retrieve" aspects of the portal then often involve the use of generated metadata tags that are based upon this developed meta-meta infrastructure. Alternatively, an evaluation of existing marketplace portal software solutions can be conducted for compatibility with the defined organization requirements. Database Design Solutions customizes portal development for all organizations.

• Requirements discovery, itemizing current information search shortfalls and desired portal effects
  
• Analysis of targeted information components, developing a to-be-located inventory
  
• Development of proposed search categories and criteria
  
• Organization of inventoried corporate assets
  
• Development of a flexible meta metamodel to serve as the underpinning of the portal's metadata gateway
  
• Design, development and implementation of automatic component categorization functions
  
• Design, development, and implementation of consistent user-friendly web interfaces, with implemented security restrictions as required
  
• Development of portal cataloguing processes for continuation of corporate information accessibility
• Enterprise Portal Solution
  
  
  

  Enterprise Portal Solution Deliverables - An Example Detailed Project Plan Interview Write-Ups Corporate Asset Inventory Recommended Corporate Categorization Fully designed meta metamodel with automated population procedures Metadata-based information categorization and exchange functions Phased Portal Roll-out Strategy Buy vs. Build Analysis Web-based user interfaces Portal Test Plan Portal Expansion Plan