Towards the Management of Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Portal Implementations

Towards the Management of Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Portal Implementations Ulrich Remus University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Dept. of Information Technology D-90403 Nuremberg, Germany ulrich.remus@wiso.uni-regensburg.de Abstract Today, companies become more and more aware that portal projects are complex, time- and cost-consuming, with a high risk of failing. Nevertheless, there still seems to be a lack of knowledge to guide the implementation of complex portals during the development process. Based on six theses, representing the main issues when implementing enterprise portals, we present the state of the art of portal engineering using the responses of portal integrators in Germany. Furthermore, we identify and carefully review the most important factors, which are critical for the success of the implementation of enterprise portals. Based on these findings, instruments that can improve the engineering and management of portals can be proposed and developed. Keywords Enterprise portal, portal engineering, critical success factors, state of the art, German portal integrators INTRODUCTION The implementation of Enterprise Portals has been cited in the literature as the most important business information project within the next ten years. The percentage of organizations that treat portals as core systems are projected to increase from less than 10 percent in 2003 to 15 percent in 2004 to 35 percent by 2007. By the end of 2004, 85 percent of the Global 2000 will have implemented an enterprise portal framework (Metagroup, 2004). One reason for this success is that enterprise portals have become the backbone for the integration of a large number of different applications, content and services. Nowadays, electronic business can hardly be imagined without the use of these portals as central entry points, as they promise to provide secure, customizable, personalizable, integrated access to dynamic content from a variety of sources, in a variety of source formats, wherever it is needed (Collins, 2001, Davydov, 2001, Hazra, 2002, Amberg et al., 2003, Kastel, 2003, Sullivan, 2004, Smith, 2004). At the same time, companies become more and more aware that portal projects are complex, time- and cost- consuming, with a high risk of failing. Costs and benefits to build up and operate an enterprise portal are weighed up in a systematic manner, including make-or-buy decisions with regard to packaged portal platforms versus open source developments, individually developed versus purchased portal components (so called portlets) (Hazra, 2002). One of the main problems concerning the development of a portal solution is its enormous complexity, which is nearly comparable to the costly and tedious customizing of ERP-systems. Influencing factors that lead to this complexity are in the first place the variety of potential areas of application for portals and sub portals, leading to a wide range of different types of corporate portals, e.g. EC-portals, supplier portals knowledge portals, process portals). Second, the amount of portlets, which have to be integrated into the portal, and finally the different views on portals from internal and external user groups, which define specific requirements for information structures and –processes, that have to be mapped in the portal. Altogether, it is astonishing that the implementation of enterprise portals gets only little attention from the academic community. Even though many studies and surveys cover aspects about the portal market and the technological features of packaged portal platforms (see e.g. the reports from the big market researchers Gartner, Meta Group, Ovum, Delphi Group) there seems to be a lack of knowledge on how to guide the complex development and implementation process of an enterprise portal. In particular, answers with regard to the state of the art of methods, work procedures, critical success factors (CSFs) and best practices are missing, which might help to overcome existing weaknesses in portal projects. These findings can be the starting point for the development of suitable instruments in building enterprise portals, what we call portal engineering. The goal of this article is to present the state of the art of portal engineering: the main players in a multi-layered portal value chain, and the stages of the implementation process, and to identify and carefully review the most important factors that are critical for the success of the implementation of an enterprise portal. Finally, we can provide advice on how to manage these CSF by the use of methods and tools. STATE OF THE ART OF PORTAL ENGINEERING Our research approach followed a multi-method design (e.g. proposed by (Esteves and Pastor, 2004), combining quantitative as well as qualitative methods, however with a strong focus on qualitative research methods. We started with an extensive literature review about the state of the art of portal engineering. We analysed papers in journals and conference proceedings as well as case examples provided by companies from the portal industry. In a next step we tried to enhance our findings by conducting explorative expert interviews. We chose portal integrators as target group (in contrast to client companies implementing portals) because we are convinced that especially portal integrators do have the necessary expertise to give in-depth answers to our mostly explorative questions as they have already been involved in several portal projects implementing packaged portal software. Based on a web research we identified 56 companies in the business of portal integration & consulting in Germany, from where 15 agreed to give interviews (response rate: 27%). The interview guideline used in this study was structured, tested and adapted to the needs of the specific audiences targeted in this study. The refined interview guideline addressed the topics portal strategy, portal project, portal technology, portal engineering and portal management (Remus, 2005). With regard to the data analysis we applied methods from grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), i.e. open coding, axial coding and selective coding to identify categories into which the discovered concepts can be classified and structured. THE PORTAL VALUE CHAIN The increasing importance of component-based software is influencing the structure of the software industry. In the near future, software vendors will reduce their vertical range of manufacturing and will split up into vendors specialized in integrating components within pre-built portal frameworks, vendors of components, and vendors who concentrate on the development of subsystems. The whole portal industry might shift continually towards a multi layered supply chain – comparable to the automotive, the plant engineering and construction or the mechanical engineering industry (see Figure 1). requirements feedback licence documentation portlet API technical support portlet portal contract supplier certification supplier request, interfaces provides (Portlet-API) portal portal- portal- services software- support product request requests, modifications, controlling provider user requirements feedback requests, modifications, reporting supplier controlling requirements analysis portlet- portal packages reporting integrator assignment, portal requirements (feedback) licence requirements feedback Figure 1: The portal value chain During the configuration of portals, portlets of different portlet suppliers can be combined and integrated into the portal solution. Portlet suppliers that are located at the end of the portal value chain deliver their modules and components either to the first level of supply, i.e. large-scale software vendors, portal integrators, or directly to the organization which will use the portal solution.