Enterprise Portals Federal Lessons Learned June 6, 2007

Enterprise Portals Federal Lessons Learned

June 6, 2007

This document contains Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. proprietary business information and cannot be used without prior permission

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Topics and Discussion Points

Why Deploy a Portal

How to Select a Suitable COTS Portal Product

– Product Landscape

– Selection Methodology

– Best Practices

How to Successfully Implement a Portal

– Methodology

– Lessons Learned

Questions

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Portal technology can provide organizations with a framework for improving service delivery and increasing business process efficiency

ConsolidatedWeb

Content

ConsolidatedCall Centers and Knowledge Base

Customers access the

enterprise portal for services

Agencies use the enterprise portal

to deliver services

Consolidated WebInfrastructure

ENTERPRISE PORTAL BUSINESS OPERATING MODELENTERPRISE PORTAL BUSINESS OPERATING MODEL

Enterprise Portal

ConsolidatedAccess to IT/LegacySystems

Value AddedIncrease performanceGreater efficiencyGreater effectiveness

Service Requests

Service Delivery

Service Request

ITSystems

Paper documents

ContentManagement

Customer Agency

COMMON E-gov BUSINESS OPERATING MODELCOMMON E-gov BUSINESS OPERATING MODEL

Legacy Systems

Electronic Documents

DatabaseFiles

InternetWeb Sites

IntranetWeb Sites

WebAccess

EmployeeSupportCenter

WebAccess

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Customers derive value from portals by accessing a common gateway to tailored information that meets their specific needs and requirements

Portal Customer BenefitsCommon “look and feel” to

web applications with standard URL and branding

Single access point for information and data

One stop shopping for content, products, and services

Single sign-on functionality so customers are no longer required to login multiple times with several passwords

Provides personalized viewsAllows customers to design

and manage their own pages (i.e. – Mypages)

ILLUSTRATIVE

ILLUSTRATIVE

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From a technology perspective, enterprise portals coupled with a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure can provide organizations with an approach to tame “Web Sprawl”

Source: BEA

Portal Technology Benefits Better reuse of components Increased ability to create

composite applications Reduced development and

code maintenance costs Easier application

integration More flexible solutions Decreased time required to

deploy new services Higher visibility into

business process execution Easier to upgrade

Portal Technology Optimization Portal Technology Optimization

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Why Deploy a Portal

How to Select a Suitable COTS Portal Product– Product Landscape– Selection Methodology– Best Practices

How to Successfully Implement a Portal– Methodology– Lessons Learned

Questions

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Industry reports such as Gartner and CMS Watch have identified the major portal vendors and their position in the marketplace

The Enterprise Portal Report groups vendors into three categories: Infrastructure, Specialized, and Open Source

Infrastructure Portal Vendor Examples– BEA WebLogic and AquaLogic (Plumtree)

– IBM WebSphere

– Microsoft SharePoint Server

– Oracle Portal

– SAP Netweaver Portal

– SUN Java Portal Server

Specialized Portal Vendor Examples:– ATG

– BroadVision

– Hummingbird

– Vignette

Open Source Portal Examples include: eXo, JBoss, JetSpeed, LifeRay and Plone

Gartner Research Report: Portal Magic Quadrant, 2006Gartner Research Report: Portal Magic Quadrant, 2006 CMS Watch Enterprise Portal Report, January 2007CMS Watch Enterprise Portal Report, January 2007

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It is important to follow a methodology that provides a list of viable COTS portal vendor options and allows organizations to make a final selection

Comparison Matrix of Vendor Options

MS SharePointMS SharePoint

Oracle PortalOracle Portal

MS SharePointMS SharePoint

BEA AqualogicBEA Aqualogic

COTS Product Vendor Selection MethodologyCOTS Product Vendor Selection Methodology

Adapters*

Security Administration

IBM BEAMicrosoft

Messaging

Community Definition

Integration*

Search

Standards

Content Management*

Personalization

Security

BPM/Workflow

Collaboration

Reporting

PlumtreeVignettePortal Evaluation

Criteria

Adapters*

Security Administration

IBM BEAMicrosoft

Messaging

Community Definition

Integration*

Search

Standards

Content Management*

Personalization

Security

BPM/Workflow

Collaboration

Reporting

PlumtreeVignettePortal Evaluation

Criteria

Relevant Research

Facilitated Workshops

Inputs included research on leading content management products as

identified by market analysis and Booz Allen vendor knowledge

Inputs included research on leading content management products as

identified by market analysis and Booz Allen vendor knowledge

Vendor Filter 1Vendor Filter 1

Vendor Filter 2Vendor Filter 2

ILLUSTRATIVE

ILLUSTRATIVE

General Requirements

Client Specific Requirements

Identify Needed Functionality

Goals

Final Selection

Research2-4 Weeks

Workshops2-4 Weeks

Selection2-4 Weeks

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It is usually helpful to do a side by side comparison of standard portal services when evaluating COTS portal products

Standard Portal Services

Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3 Vendor 4 Vendor 5 Vendor 6 Vendor 7 Vendor 8

Utility Applications

Content Management

Collaboration

BPM/Workflow

Search and Navigation

Personalization

Application Integration

Single Sign-On

BI and Reporting

Legend

Does not exhibit Low exhibition Partially exhibits High exhibition Fully exhibits

Example of Vendor Comparison MatrixExample of Vendor Comparison Matrix

Note: Standard Portal Services for this example taken from CMS Watch Portals Report, 2007

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Usually a more comprehensive comparison of COTS portal products is possible, and recommended when purchasing an enterprise license

Note: Product Comparison examples taken from CMS Watch Portals Report, 2007

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Portal Product Selection: Best Practices

Too many requirements – not enough analysis– It is okay to gather a lot of requirements, but try to roll them up into standard functionality and/or

services

– Weight your comparison criteria, only if needed

– The data needs to make good common sense - it is hard to explain to your sponsor (person who is paying the bill) the difference and between a 13.5 with a 12.2 score

– Try to avoid casting too broad a net when looking at products…get to the short list quickly

– Use industry reports to eliminate products from the list of candidates

Do not let vendors run the show - make the most of your vendor demos– Provide scenarios or use cases for the vendors to demonstrate, otherwise they may go astray on you

– Try to avoid letting the vendor demo a version that has all the bells and whistles

– Leverage consultants if you need someone to help manage the vendors (yes – they will keep calling you)

– All vendors are not equal: some of them are not very good at demos (if the person just rolled into town, do not expect much from the demo)

– Expect a deal, and make the vendor earn your business

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Why Deploy a Portal



Questions

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Booz Allen’s Web Value Management (WVM) methodology enables clients to successfully deploy portal technology, from strategy to implementation

• Develop Portal Business Strategy– Perform Stakeholder Analysis– Create portal management plan– Create change management plan– Develop communications plan to

include branding strategy– Create user training plan– Identify critical success factors

• Develop Portal Customer Strategy– Perform Detailed Customer

Segmentation Analysis– Interview Customer Segments– Identify Customer Information and

Services Demand– Design Customer portal experience

(Branding with look and feel)

• Develop Portal Technology Strategy– Baseline COTS portal components– Gather high-level functional and

technical requirements– Identify technical integration points– Perform COTS portal product gap

analysis and recommendations– Create technology roadmap for

portal (short and long-term)

• Design Unified Web Strategy, to include:– Organizational Ownership– Mission, Objectives– Core Business Processes (Content

Creation, Content Management, Content Analysis, Performance Measurements)

– Enterprise Business Rules

• Design content, taxonomy and navigation to support service integration (Customers) and process alignment (specialists)

• Complete Portal Usability Testing to verify design to include branding

• Create detailed portal design document• Establish development environments• Install and configure portal COTS products• Configure COTS portal and develop custom

code, as needed• Integrate other systems and applications

with the portal• Conduct portal testing

• Manage a consistent brand and message targeted to Customers

• “Road Show” presentations to Customers with live demonstrations

• Communicate with stakeholders to prepare operations for influx

• Stand-up governance body• Execute portal management processes

• Solicit feedback and learn from Customers • Continually refine and improve solution

using Focus Groups• Certify site meets accessibility

requirements and standards

• Launch production portal• Certify portal meets all security and

privacy requirements and standards• Maintain service levels and accessibility

based on portal traffic and demand• Fix technical issues, as needed• Develop requirements for future releases

Customer

Business

Technology

Web Value Management Approach

Portal Strategy Portal Development Portal Deployment

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PLAN & PREPAREPLAN & PREPARE DESIGN & DEVELOPDESIGN & DEVELOP LAUNCH & LEARNLAUNCH & LEARN

1 2 3

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NOVEMBERNOVEMBERNOVEMBERNOVEMBEROCTOBEROCTOBEROCTOBEROCTOBER DECEMBERDECEMBERDECEMBERDECEMBER JANUARYJANUARYJANUARYJANUARY FEBRUARYFEBRUARYFEBRUARYFEBRUARY MARCH…MARCH…MARCH…MARCH…

Phase I:Main office static web sites

Phase II:Other static web sites

Phase III:Collaboration and workspaces

Phase IV:Database driven applications

Other Leadership Priorities

Client Sample Migration PlanClient Sample Migration Plan

To migrate existing static web sites into a portal solution, migrate content employing a phased approach to show progress and true business value

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Portal Implementation: Business Lessons Learned from Federal Clients

Identify a clear champion, steering group, and working group– Champion: gets you resources (people, budget, infrastructure, etc.)

– Steering Group: make decisions (from simple like design, to complex like timeline)

– Working Group: represent the various business elements (offices, centers, etc.)

Sell the idea at every meeting, and at every chance– How is your portal supporting the mission and/or business?

– How is the portal going to make people’s lives better?

– How can the portal decrease the IT cycle time for solutions?

Think about new ways of managing your business– Document management can ease the “email attachment” burden

– Portal collaboration can help solve a lot of problems

– Single Sign-on should always be a goal

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Portal Implementation: Customer Lessons Learned from Federal Clients

Look and feel is important, but not the most important thing– Avoid designing the interface “by committee”

– Remember that the interface can improve over time

– Not everyone is going to like the visual design

Include an ample amount of training for your various user groups– Admins and community managers: configure workspaces and community pages for you

– Power users: leverage the functionality of the portal on a daily basis to perform their jobs

– Common users: access the portal for information and services

Communications and change management activities are vital for user adoption– Try not to underestimate the importance of these activities

– Most organizations get the technology right, but fail on the other aspects

– In the end, it does not matter if the solution is great, if no one uses it, you have failed

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Portal Implementation: Technology Lessons Learned from Federal Clients

Prioritize requirements and deploy functionality in phases– Too much functionality is often lost on the average user (is this tool making my life better?)

– Target low-hanging fruit and high pay-off requirements first, if possible

– Portal development should not take 6 months for each release

Integration with existing tools may fulfill requirements– You may not have to build everything

– Use what you have before you buy something new

– Many products have adapters and APIs for other software packages

Open source can be dangerous– You may get what you pay for

– You may have to build everything, instead of using “out of the box” functionality

Think about infrastructure before you deploy the portal solution

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Why Deploy a Portal



Questions