As you build out your portal strategy and decide on a platform, there may be many thoughts going through your mind. After all, portals are hardly simple technologies, requiring expert customization, development, and planning in addition to marketing and communications lift. Choosing the wrong features or looking at the wrong strategies can be limiting to building out a platform that lasts for years and offers business value.
We have worked on portal and digital experience technologies extensively over the past decade with clients across industries including finance, government, and automotive. In our experience working with customers, we’ve found the following portal characteristics to resonate with our audiences.
1. A Simplified User Experience: In business, customers want to get in, get out, and get on with their day. That’s why a simple user experience is crucial for attracting and retaining end-users. Whether you deliver your experience over a mobile or desktop platform, having easy to navigate web content, good fonts, and a quick load time will ensure that customers can rely on you for the answers or products they need.
2. Secure Single Sign On (SSO): Many organizations have multiple applications in use so creating a single-sign-on (SSO) capability is helpful for efficiency and security. Make sure your portal technology offers this feature alongside a secure back-end. Which leads us to…
3. Security and Backup: In today’s rough and tumble online world, security is of the utmost importance. The best portal technologies are also supported by the best security software and storage options, provided the amount of data that is created through portal interactions.
4. Unique User Attributes: There’s no doubt that customizations are critical to good portal platforms. Being able to not only add user information but also unique identifiers like company name and logging data makes every member of a portal unique. Furthermore, unique attributes supporting web pages, documents, and media also add value to the community at large.
5. User Groups and Sub-Sites: Finally, your users may want to contextualize their conversations even further through user groups and sub-communities. These are always useful for geographic entities or for members who are located in specific regions, should your portal need to be international or topical.
Learn More
If you’re looking for a unique open-source portal solution, check out Liferay and join us for the Liferay North America Symposium on September 26th and 27th in Chicago. There will be a variety of activities and speakers where you can learn more about the platform.
Learn more about our partners here.
