The informatization construction of contemporary enterprises is nothing more than two directions. The first is the e-commerce website, which is an open window for enterprises to face the Internet. The second is the management information system, which is the organization and manager of information within the enterprise. The development speed and scale of e-commerce are amazing. It seems that overnight, many enterprises from all walks of life have established their own websites on the Internet. Some of these websites mainly introduce products, some mainly provide technical support, and some enterprise websites carry out e-commerce and use the Internet to organize the purchase and sales of enterprises.
These "windows" enable enterprises with it to keep abreast of industry trends and market changes, and make quick responses, so as to seize market opportunities. Whoever owns the Internet will own information; Whoever has information can occupy a favorable competitive position, which has become a new market competition rule. Of course, the strategic position of management information system in enterprise development cannot be underestimated. It helps enterprises to manage from simple official documents and technical data to complex production processes and cost accounting, and even assists enterprises to make more advanced business decisions.
The above-mentioned achievements of informatization are not achieved overnight, and it has gone through a quite long period. At various stages of development, various modes of information tools alternately occupy the dominant position, but in the end they will inevitably be replaced by newer and more perfect modes or technologies. Today's enterprise e-commerce and management information systems are no exception. At the same time, it has its own continuous fission and development. Then, a forward-looking question is: where will enterprise informatization develop in the future? How do enterprises view the separation of e-commerce and management information system?
Second, the modern "portal" of modern enterprises
1998165438+1October, MERRILLYNCH published a research report on the EnterpriseInformationPortal, which became a guide to the imagination of e-commerce and caused great repercussions in American business circles. The title is "Beyond Yahoo! The report Enterprise Information Portal on the Road estimates that the global EIP market has reached $4.4 billion in 1998 and will reach148 billion in 2002. In addition, according to the survey of Ghana Group Market Research Center, in 2003, 60% of Fortune 500 companies will be imported into the enterprise information portal.
It can be said that enterprise information portal (EIP) or enterprise portal (EP) represents the development direction of enterprise informatization and e-commerce in the future. Enterprise portal, like other concepts in IT industry, has no unified definition, and different professionals and institutions have different understandings.
The concept of EIP in DOCUMENTUM company can be understood as a simple formula: enterprise file system +WEB. In its traditional file management system, the functions of automatically generating abstracts, reviewing and publishing on the WEB are added, which actually forms an EnterpriseKnowledgePortal. Its characteristic is that it is not objective. The second concept, represented by PlumtreePortal3.0 and BrioPortal6.0, is a WEB interface based on existing ERP applications and host systems. The enterprise portal here is actually an extended ERP.
SYBASE believes that enterprise information portal is an application system, which enables enterprises to publish all kinds of information stored inside and outside the enterprise, and enables employees, customers and partners to obtain the personalized information they need from a single channel. These users use the information obtained from this channel to make reasonable business decisions and implement them. Enterprise information portal optimizes enterprise operation and improves productivity by providing accurate information to users in time. He believes that the enterprise information portal has three characteristics: a single access mode (browser+enterprise home page); Integration of existing application systems; Personalization. An enterprise information portal should be composed of three key parts: application-providing integrated user environment and services-integrating business operating system with scattered documents and work information, providing integrated services and integration for EIP through extensible application program interface-integrating the application of various technologies in today's information technology organizations.
Case believes that from the perspective of information asset management, the information distribution of most enterprises is scattered now. In this working environment, knowledge workers will need a special tool, such as DigitalDashboard, to coordinate and browse the huge knowledge bases of enterprises, which are collectively called Enterprise Information Portal (EIP).
Its characteristic is that it can cross the limitation of time and space and quickly transmit all kinds of information of enterprises to the market and customers. The content of enterprise information portal defined by Case Company includes four parts: enterprise situation, products/services, membership management and electronic market. On the basis of enterprise information portal, the concept of enterprise business portal is an extension of enterprise trading activities on the Internet.
Viador's enterprise portal can be summarized as a technical platform including Internet (BusinesstoBusiness) and Intranet (BusinesstoEmployee). The former provides a secure platform for enterprises to share information and services with customers, suppliers and partners. The latter helps enterprises collect global information and distribute it to employees, thus improving customer service, assisting decision-making and improving employees' work efficiency.
There is also a view that enterprise information portal, enterprise knowledge portal or enterprise transaction portal can all be incorporated into such a comprehensive concept as enterprise portal. Enterprise portal is "grasping the net", that is, a Web portal provides all enterprise-related information and services to all people related to the enterprise, and it can even be considered as a web-based application.
Combined with the above definition, we can now imagine and describe the enterprise portal as follows:
First of all, enterprise portal has surpassed the traditional concepts of management information system and ordinary website. It is the combination of enterprise management information system and e-commerce. The demand, growth and diffusion speed of enterprises for knowledge and information are the main driving forces for the emergence of the concept of enterprise portal. The application of enterprise portal technology will surely push the information technology revolution to a new stage.
Secondly, the characteristics of enterprise portal are uniqueness, integration, personalization and integrity. It is with these new features that the enterprise portal has vitality. Among them: uniqueness is the requirement of enterprises and the significance of portals; Integration is the restriction of realistic conditions and reflects the continuity of enterprise management; Personalization is the preference of customers and the vitality of enterprise portal; Honesty is the high-level requirement of enterprises for information.
Third, the portal is only a portal, and enterprises can only use it as a tool to serve their basic goals. Any blind development divorced from actual needs is not desirable. Of course, the goal here refers to the long-term goal of the enterprise. In the short term, the effect of implementing enterprise portal may not be immediate, and it is likely to deviate from the short-term profit target of enterprises.
Fourthly, the concept of enterprise portal needs to be expanded and improved. Similar to the new concepts in other IT industries, there is no ready-made "dictionary" in this emerging field, and the understanding of concepts is dynamic.
Third, the necessity of implementing enterprise portal
In foreign countries, especially in the United States, the implementation of enterprise portal strategy is not just empty talk, it has been included in the agenda of many large enterprises. Compared with the lively scenes abroad, few enterprises in China understand the concept of enterprise portal, and even fewer enterprises plan to establish enterprise portal. However, it should be noted that the development speed of Internet in China is quite fast. According to CNNIC statistics, in June1997+February alone, there were 600,000 people surfing the Internet in China. By June 1999, the number of people surfing the Internet reached 9 million, and it will exceed 20 million by the end of this year. Among them, Sina, Yahoo, Sohu and Netease are the first choice websites for most netizens to surf the Internet. The concern of so many netizens certainly means unlimited business opportunities for the above-mentioned websites, but it is a huge loss for other enterprises. Therefore, it goes without saying that enterprises in China should establish their own portals to provide comprehensive services for customers, employees and agents.
Judging from the characteristics of network economy, speed and knowledge are the two pillars of network economy. First of all, it has become the common sense of the industry that only with the help of the network can enterprises get opportunities for development. However, where does the new acceleration come from after large and small enterprises touch the net one after another? It depends on who can contact customers, suppliers and agents with the fastest action to organize production and sales. There is no doubt that the enterprise portal is the driving force of the new acceleration.
Credit Acceptance Corporation (CAC) is a large financial consulting company in the United States. Before the implementation of the enterprise portal, the response time for each customer's inquiry was at least 4 hours, but now it is accepted immediately. The advantage of 4 hours is unimaginable in modern consulting service industry. Secondly, the network economy is a knowledge economy, and enterprises urgently need to make full use of the network, accelerate the accumulation of knowledge and grasp the development trend of technology. On this basis, enterprises can accurately seize market business opportunities and win profits. Enterprise portal can be an effective way for enterprises to acquire knowledge, integrate knowledge and accumulate knowledge. It helps enterprises to collect differentiated information of customers through personalized service, and discover new business opportunities by tightening suppliers, agents and customers.
From the perspective of resource utilization, enterprise portal is the most feasible way to maximize the development and utilization of existing resources at the lowest possible cost. First of all, the enterprise portal integrates applications that need to occupy multiple different hardware systems into fewer system devices, thus saving hardware investment. The Computer Technology Association (CTA) is a national e-commerce provider in the United States. Through the implementation of enterprise portal, it integrates the existing procurement system into a unique, secure and personalized portal, effectively connecting more than 80,000 government customers and nearly 6,543,800+products from 2,000 manufacturers. Therefore, compared with the traditional solution with multiple processing systems, it greatly improves efficiency and saves equipment investment and operating costs. Of course, this integration also has certain scale restrictions.
Thirdly, enterprise portals use efficient Internet as a tool for information transmission, which is cheaper than building or renting lines. The cost savings achieved by CAC using enterprise portal instead of the original communication mode is $4,000 per month. Fourth, the manpower input has been reduced. Personalized enterprise portal has been able to meet the needs of customers to a great extent, which can save a lot of personnel investment.
Fourthly, the implementation of enterprise portal can improve the supply chain management of enterprises. Because through the enterprise portal, distribution enterprises can obtain accurate customer demand information at any time, and can answer such questions at any time: what products are sold where, what distribution schedule is more in line with customer demand, and what sales and distribution channels are the most efficient, so the enterprise portal can help enterprises achieve zero inventory in the true sense.
Fourth, the open door has unlimited prospects.
Enterprise portal represents a new wave of IT technology application, and will surely become a new idea of enterprise information construction. Open door means that enterprises can get higher efficiency and broader vision and space at lower cost. Therefore, for enterprises, enterprise portal is not only an IT technical tool, but also a development strategy.