Content in Context: Emerging Portal Standards Facilitate Content Integration

摘要

This quote greets MDS Capital employees when they log in to their Eliot enterprise portal. Jacki Jenuth, director of business intelligence at MDS Capital, describes the Eliot portal, which is used by directors and analysts at the venture capital firm, as "a hub of information." One of the ways that Jenuth's team helps users of the portal make the leap from information to knowledge is to carefully combine internal information with external news and financial data. "Content in context is the major business driver," Jenuth explains. The importance of external content to the MDS corporate portal is not unique. Since their early days, enterprise or corporate portals have incorporated data that comes from internal systems along with news feeds, stock quotes, weather information, and other types of content that is "syndicated" or licensed from outside of the enterprise. Too often, however, this external content becomes little more than a checked box on a to-do list with little relevance to a user's role or portal tasks. Laura Ramos, VP at Forrester Research, explains, "The integration of external content is often meant to be something to intrigue users to come to the portal, not something that is part of how they do their job."