Dwight Wyse, president of Wyse Solutions in Harrisonburg, Virginia has been developing Web sites since 2000. With an extensive portfolio and national work, he believes that having a Web site and Web presence has become almost mandatory for any business. Click on the DOWNLOAD link to read full story.

It is a hub from which users can locate and/or share the content they commonly use within your organization. Think of it as an ‘information clearinghouse’ on the Web for your organization that allows your members to have access to your information and portal tools 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

How is a portal different from an ordinary Web site? A portal is completely database driven, an automated content management system specifically designed to be used in Intranet and Internet deployments. The Administrator has total control of their web portal and user memberships, and has a powerful set of tools to maintain a dynamic and 100% interactive data-driven web site. A portal has administrative functionality that allows the organization to create it’s own Web pages and to manage all content contained on those Web pages. Personalization and customization of the content gives an organization a true sense of Web site ownership.

A portal administrator has the ability to set roles and permissions for member users that determines what information they have access to and if they have rights to add/edit/delete any of that information. Roles and permissions are also an important aspect as it determines what the general public is allowed to view. For instance, you can create pages that only your organization can view.

The administrator has the ability to add the portal’s modules (‘building blocks’) such as announcements, links, calendars, surveys, etc. to any of the Web pages that are created. It is within these modules that content can be added/edited/deleted by users based on their portal roles/permissions.

Some example portals are sites such as Google and Yahoo.