PHOENIX -- InfoImage this week will unveil the latest version of its portal software that company executives say lets users more efficiently find, categorize and update the massive amount of information they deal with every day.

Enterprise portals organize information that employees need, providing a single interface into a variety of applications and internal and external data. But most portals don't let users manipulate that data within the portal framework. For example, a user looking for information about a client would have to do a search within each portal object and navigate multiple pages. A portal object creates a window on the portal interface that gives users access to a specific application or data or content source.

What InfoImage hopes to do with Decision Portal 4 is make companies more efficient by letting users search all resources -- from customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems, to structured data such as accounts payable, to unstructured data such as e-mail -- directly from the portal, says company CEO Randy Eckell. Once a search is completed, the portal automatically refreshes to show only information that is relevant to the search.

InfoImage uses Semio's concept-analysis search engine technology to collect metadata from applications and data resources. The metadata, which can include customer names and products, is used to create a list of categories that appears on the left side of the portal. For example, if a user selects a category, InfoImage's proprietary Pivot Portal technology refreshes the portal to present only information and processes relevant to that customer.

"So instead of having to search and drill and dig for information, I just tell the portal what I'm interested in and it comes to me," Eckell says.

While most portal software vendors, such as Plumtree and Epicentric, focus on managing information and figuring out ways for companies to make better, more efficient use of their resources, analysts say InfoImage is the first to give users the ability to actually manipulate the portal.

"With most portals, you build your data view and it's live and data is updated, but you can't go in and say, 'I want to see it this way,'" says Rob Perry, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "For most of them, you have to go back and essentially change the object that brings the data in, so sometimes it's development-oriented, sometimes it's just going back in the administration [of the portal] and doing some manipulations."

"That's where I think the InfoImage piece is unique," he says. "Users can manipulate data from within the portal framework."

Steve Garten, manager of the finance and administration group at Poten & Partners, an energy brokerage and consulting firm, says InfoImage's new technology will be critical to his company. Poten has used the InfoImage Freedom Portal since last August, but Garten has looked for a way to analyze disparate information sources more quickly.

"In this business there is a lot of cross information, where information is coming from different areas that have importance for a single project," Garten says. "To have a taxonomy that allows you to pull it all together and quickly access that information is critical."

The final beta version of Decision Portal 4 will be available later this month. Intranet licensing ranges from $60 per user for more than 10,000 seats to $300 per user for fewer than 500 seats, and maintenance is included. For extranet use, a license costs $50,000 per processor for unlimited users, and also includes maintenance.

» posted by ITworld staff

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