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Enterprise
Information Portal Architecture and Requirements
An Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) provides business
users with a single Web interface to corporate information scattered
throughout the enterprise. In this section we discuss the architecture of
an EIP and review EIP product requirements.
Components of an
EIP
The main components of an EIP are the business information directory,
the publishing and subscription facilities, and the information
assistant.
The Main Components of an
EIP
Business Information Directory and Publishing Facility
The business information directory(BID) is a server-based index
of an organization’s business information. This index is maintained via a
Web-based publishing facility, by so-called meta data
crawlers that regularly scan selected servers for new business
information, or by an import interface that enables users and
third-party vendors to maintain directory information via flat files or a
programmic interface. The business information directory not only indexes
business information like data warehouse relational tables, word
processing documents, and Web pages, but also the decision processing
objects (queries or analyses, for example) that are used to produce the
business information. Users can employ the portal to find these objects,
and, if authorized, run them. The business information directory not only
enables an organization to document data (really meta data) about a
wide variety of business information and where it resides in the
enterprise, but also the ability to organize this information by subject
area and topic. The directory in addition allows business users to
annotate directory entries with additional meta data about the meaning and
context of business information, and about the business actions that have
been taken based on the information.
Subscription Facility
The subscription facility is used to control how business
information viewed through the portal is distributed to business users.
Information can be delivered or decision processing objects run –
immediately, at a certain time and date, or at user-defined intervals.
Business rules can be defined so that as information in a data warehouse
database, for example, changes the rules are evaluated and if satisfied (a
client’s total stock portfolio reaches a certain threshold, for example) a
report generated automatically and delivered to the user. The subscription
facility supports not only explicit subscriptions to information,
but also implicit ones. An example of an implicit subscription
would be if the user defines to the portal (most probably in a user
profile) interest in certain types of information, or if the user belongs
to a group of users associated with certain types of information. When a
piece of information is published to the business information directory,
the portal distributes automatically copies of the information to users
whose profiles indicate an interest in the type of information that is
being published. Another form of implicit subscription is
unsolicited information where a user may decide that other people
in the organization need to see a copy of a particular piece of
information, and a request is made to the portal to deliver the
information to those users, either on a one-off basis, or at regular
intervals.
Information Assistant
The information assistant provides a fully customizable Web
interface that works in conjunction with a search engine to enter and
process user requests for business information.
EIP Product
Requirements
Outlined below are seven key requirements that an EIP should
support.
1. A portal should provide a business information directory (BID)
for maintaining meta data about an organization’s business
information. This meta data should not only contain details
about the business information itself, but also about how the business
information is related to other information objects in the business
information supply chain. Users of the directory should be able to
drill-thru from the business information directory to technical
meta data maintained by a meta data interchange hub and its
associated technical directory. More information about a meta data
interchange hub can be found in Managing Distributed Meta Data. The ability
to define meta data relationships within the business information
directory, and between the business information directory and the meta
data interchange hub enables the complete flow of information from
transactional processing systems to decision and collaborative processing
systems to be documented and tracked by an organization.
2. The business information directory should have an administration
capability for defining user and user group profiles. These profiles
should allow the administrator to define and control the types of
information a user may see, and the features of the portal the user may
employ. Users should also be able to modify their personal profiles to
indicate the types of information they are, or are not, interested in
receiving.
3. A publishing facility should be provided that enables both
technical and business users to employ an interactive Web interface to
document the business information that exists in an organization.
This facility should support a wide variety of different information types
including relational database tables, multidimensional databases,
word-processing documents, spreadsheets, images, video, audio, HTML and
XML pages, e-mail messages, and decision processing objects such as
queries, reports, and analyses. When publishing information, the user
should be given the option to move the information being published to a
shared and protected information store. The user should also have the
ability to annotate business information directory entries with additional
information.
4. The publishing facility should provide crawlers that
automatically scan/index the contents of specified file directories for
new business information. The frequency of scanning, the directories
scanned, and the file types processed should be controllable by the
administrator. The results of the scanning/indexing process should be
placed in a staging area for editing and entry into the publishing
facility by support staff. The scanning/indexing process should support
installation-defined exits that can be coded in industry standard
programming languages.
5. The publishing facility should support file import and export
facilities (ideally via XML), and a documented programmatic interface that
allows external products to access and maintain meta data in the
directory.
6. A subscription facility should be provided that allows business
users to have information delivered to them on a regular basis. This
facility should allow the user to control via a Web interface the delivery
schedule, the format the information is to be delivered in, and the
location to which the information is to be delivered. Scheduling options
should include immediate delivery, a specific date and time, a regular
schedule, and event-driven triggers controlled by user-defined business
rules. Delivery formats should include popular Web and office-system file
formats. Destinations supported should include Web addresses, e-mail
user-IDs, pagers, and fax machines. The subscription facility should allow
the user to schedule the running of decision processing objects such as
queries, reports, and analyses created by leading business intelligence
tools. It should also support implicit subscriptions whereby information
is delivered automatically to users based on their profile, or when
requested by another member of their user group.
7. A simple and easy-to-use Web browser information assistant
should be provided for accessing, maintaining, and navigating the business
information directory. The information assistant should have a search
capability that allows the business user to scan directory contents based
on user-entered search criteria. The information assistant should provide
different styles of user interface that can be tailored to suit the needs
of different users and the type of work being performed. Possible
interfaces include the traditional desktop file folder interface, Web
search engine interface, and the hyperbolic tree. The Web search engine
interface is more suitable for inexperienced users, whereas the hyperbolic
tree can display more information and is more suited to experienced users
who wish to navigate and drill-down through
information.
Choosing the Right
Product
When choosing an enterprise information portal, the list of
requirements presented in the brief should be used to assess user needs
and to evaluate products. The main distinguishing factors between products
are likely to be the power and openness of the business information
directory, and the ability of the product to support a large number of
users and a wide range of business information. These factors are
important for organizations that wish to create an enterprise-wide EIP
strategy for organizing and finding business information. Without such a
strategy, it is likely that multiple portals will be deployed, which will
lead to significant information integration problems, and defeats the key
objective of an enterprise information portal – providing business users
with a single interface to business
information.
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