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Press Release —
February 11, 2002 |
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Corporate World Embraces B2B
Portals,
New Study Finds
Global 2000 gets quick payback from Portal investments,
but too many build "silos"
LOS ALTOS, CALIF. (February 11,
2002) Portals, a concept that bombed in the consumer arena, are fast
becoming major hits in the business-to-business market for major
corporations, according to new research from The FactPoint Group ( www.factpointgroup.com).
"B2B Portals are rapidly
becoming a requirement for doing business for the Global 2000," said
David Kaplow, the FactPoint Group partner who spearheaded the
ground-breaking B2B Portal research. "In fact, pioneering Portal
builders in the Fortune 500 can articulate the benefits better than the
technology vendors selling into this market."
The research, called
"Understanding the Economic Value and Business Impact of B2B Portals,"
studied both sell-side (customer or distributor portals) and buy-side
(supplier portals), but not internal Portals for employees. B2B Portals
often are created by a single department within an enterprise for a
specific group of customers and functions, the research found, often
evolving from an "extranet." However, these "siloed" portals should be
moved quickly to a single technology infrastructure, The FactPoint Group
recommends.
"Siloed Portals might
make sense as a starting point, but corporate planners should drive
quickly to an end-to-end Portal strategy built on a common technology
infrastructure," Kaplow said. "Adopting a single platform early creates
savings in the long run since corporations won't have to rip out the old
Portals and replace them."
Noting the confusion over
what constitutes a B2B Portal, FactPoint Group's research with 25 major
global companies produced a working definition:
"A B2B Portal offers
users a complete view of one or more business processes via a
personalized Web interface. A user's "view of the Portal" is based on
his or her role in an organization. This single gateway to role-based
information allows users to transact and to make informed, actionable
business decisions more quickly. "
However, putting a
Web-based interface on a single enterprise application does not create a
Portal, Kaplow cautioned. "The B2B portal must deliver multiple business
processes between trading partners. Portals are not defined by software
applications but by business processes, and most business processes
require multiple applications." |
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Among other findings: |
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B2B Portals can deliver quantifiable
returns on investment (ROI) in a matter of months. |
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Early Portal adopters are creating a
plethora of metrics to measure their impact, but few rely on
more than two or three metrics as benchmarks. |
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Saving the Portal sponsor money is
not enough. To succeed, Portals must benefit trading partners as
well. "Many times when you put an application on the Portal,
you're changing the way the supplier does something that they've
always done," one manufacturer said. "By bringing applications
to the Portal, the supplier gets better information more quickly
and easily." |
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A best practice among B2B Portals is
to create a "magnet application" that creates a substantial
benefit to partners. By making that magnet application available
only on the Portal, the sponsor drives higher usage.
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Re-tooling with Internet
technologies, once considered sufficient to justify new
technology spending, is no longer enough. In the current
economic climate, business cases to justify Portals should be
based on IT cost savings and benefits from more efficient
business processes. |
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"One automaker created a dealer portal
and quickly found it could move 4,000 servers from dealerships, cutting
IT costs 35% in the first year," Kaplow said. The manufacturer also
pared 260 dealer applications to around 100.
FactPoint also predicts that XML-based
Web services will gain from the new-found enthusiasm for B2B Portals.
"Over time, the Portal will become a
leading vehicle for delivering Web services," said FPG partner Tim
Clark, who is leading a FactPoint Group multi-client research study on
early adopters of Web services. That study is due in March for
subscribers.
Methodology
FactPoint Group's research involved
in-depth interviews with 25 executives of Global 2000 companies, 20 of
which are Fortune 500 companies. Five technology vendors also were
interviewed.
About The FactPoint Group
The FactPoint Group ( www.factpointgroup.com)
is a Silicon Valley-based research, publishing and consulting firm that
helps enterprises adopt and vendors market new technology. Leading
companies have used FactPoint Group for economic analysis to justify
investments in Portals and other e-business activities. The FactPoint
Group (formerly Internet Research Group) is a new name for a team which
has been producing world-class research, analysis, and consulting since
1993. In addition to its Portals research, The FactPoint Group is
focused on Web services, wireless and storage.
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