We are not going to tell you about the importance of a website in today’s digitally-dominated marketplace. Instead, we are going to dig a little under the surface and tell you about the web portals. Now you might be wondering what exactly a web portal is? Is it anything different from a website? What relevance does it have regarding your business? These are some of the questions we will be rattling in this section along with a few other agendas around web portals.
What exactly is a web portal?
A web portal is a collection of information from different resources. These resources may be websites, search engines, online forums, etc. the data from these resources is mashed up and presented in a uniform and symmetrical manner on a web portal. Most web portals give web surfers with information that is specific to their needs. This leads to another definition of the web portal. A web portal is an online site where individuals or communities find information relevant to their queries. It sounds quite familiar to a website, doesn’t it? Yes, a web portal and a website are similar to each other in a few ways, but they do have some distinctive pointers that differentiate between them.
Web Portal VS Website
Let us first understand what a website is and then we will be able to differentiate between a web portal and a website easily. A website is a collection of web pages placed on the internet and can be accessed by anyone. A web portal, on the other hand, is a collection of information gathered through various sources. Users generally need to login to a web portal.
An individual or company generally owns a website. They use the site to expand their market reach and increase their brand recognition. A portal is user-centric and is used for knowledge distribution. Users on a website can not communicate with the owners, but the portal users have direct access to communication with each other.
The information displayed on a website is seldom changed, but the portals need a constant update regarding the information. Web portals can help you in website development through their knowledge vessel.
Also, web portals and websites are of different categories. Sites can be personal, government-owned, blogging websites or social websites, whereas web portals are broadly classified as vertical and horizontal.
Now that you have understood what a web portal is here are some of the popular web portals for you to explore in 2024
- AvMed, payer portal
AvMed is a consolidated online payer portal. It created unique user portals with a single sign-in feature for their users. This helped its users to find the information smoothly, thus increasing monthly visitors and efficiently reduced the payout.
- West Bend, agent and customer portal
The best example of integrating web portals to work efficiently is West Bend. West Bend is an insurance company. The company created a portal where customers and agents can log in and exchange information. This saved a lot of time. Also, the customers’ feedback improved as they do not have to wait for someone to answer their queries. Agents also benefited from this portal as they were able to provide information regarding policies to the customers in a few minutes. This helped them to save time and money.
- Capella University iGuide, student & faculty portal
Capella University created a portal where teachers and students can interact with each other and also find other relevant tools regarding their college. As Capella hosts online classes, it integrated features such as real-time blackboard, drag and drop degree completion plan and others in its online portal iGuide. The portal helped the students to check their attendance, academic syllabus and the university calendar. This portal caters to both the needs of the students and professors. The students found this portal to be quite useful, and the professors liked it as well.
- Volkswagen Group France, intranet and extranet
Volkswagen revamped both its intranet and extranet portals to find new ways to connect with its customers and employees. This was done to ensure give great satisfaction to its employees and customers. The extranet portal consists of information about dealers, repair centers, documents regarding the business and information for day-to-day activities. The intranet portal, on the other hand, contains information about the company’s five websites, vehicle repository, internal news and access to documents.
- Council of Europe, government program portal
The council of Europe oversees the protection of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe. The council runs different types of programs to support this cause. The organization set up a portal that contains data of its 200 websites. The portal allows users to get information about these programs. This led to better management of these projects and coordination between them also improved.
Conclusion
So businesses around the world set up a web portal for better customer feedback and increase savings. Also, web portals allow your business to operate from different locations. You do not need to set up a dedicated backend office at each location to boost your business. Web portals can also be customized according to your business needs. So you can develop them according to your business and tools as per your necessity. A web portal can also be used to maintain transparency and scalability. And in today’s age where data is considered more valuable than gold, web portals are an easy option to gather user data.
Web portals also serve as a unified platform for your data and users. This leads to a personalized yet collaborative experience and increases productivity for the end-user. You can also integrate external applications and services into your web portal. Portlets do this.
Other benefits include real-time communications, a clear hierarchy of information and documents, instant access to information and access to relevant content. Also, web portals are the type of investment that benefits organizations in the long run.