For the ones who haven't yet had a chance to look at portal .. here is a look .
At a high level - here is why SAP portal is so compelling for the organizations with SAP footprint.
- High speed web access to back-end ERP transactions - If users are on Windows platform , they probably already have the SAP WinGUI installed. Portal can render WIN GUI in web browser and the speed is as if you are working on thick client. Means best of both worlds.
- For the Mac and Linux lovers , portal can call most transactions using either Java-GUI or html-GUI . Html-GUI is little slower than the thick clients but it serves the purpose for occasional users. You obviously need an ITS for enabling html-GUI in portal.
- In built integration with MS exchange and Webex. Great collaboration features.
- Great document management features eg versioning , subscriptions and manual ordering .. you dont really need other DMS now
- Team rooms are really cool particularly with task management features .
- Universal Work List - Single inbox for all the portal tasks , subscriptions and workflow from backend R3 systems