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ENTERPRISE-WIDE TECHNOLOGIES
Enterprises use several technologies to increase organizational
flexibility and to quickly and effectively respond to rapidly changing
business environment. Some of the commonly used technologies in
enterprise are portals, data warehouses, data centers, electronic data
interchange (EDI), extranets, web services, document management
systems, workflow, and virtual private Networks.
PORTALS
A portal is an “infomediary”. The word “infomediary” is a
combination of two words: information and intermediary. A portal or an
“infomediary” is a website that stores and organizes large amounts of data
from various sources inside and outside of the enterprise and acts as an
intermediary between those looking for information and those who
provide information. Portals can provide services such as news, online
directories, and personalized advertisements. Portals can also provide web
space to other companies to host their websites. The web space is provided
on the main portal site. This way, a portal site can act as a major E-
commerce facilitator. A portal often includes search capability or a link to
a search engine (e.g. Google). In many portals, this search technology
allows users to perform searches across many enterprise–wide
information system and database. Some examples of popular portals
include Google, MSN, Lycos, Alta Vista, Excite, Yahoo!, and AOL. A
wireless portal is a portal for Internet-enabled mobile devices.
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