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Technology Stocks : Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas DeGagne who wrote (58)	1/31/2001 1:25:17 AM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 183

VIAD has a problem in that it is one of the few companies in that list that are almost exclusively focused on portals. Most of the others have substantial offerings outside the portal area, mostly in BI, DM or reporting of some sort. Their portal offerings can capitalize on the existing IP, and very often reflect the company's focus prior to becoming a "portal vendor." Realistically, I expect that most of the standalones will disappear. The portal that you are most likely to use is the one that is most tightly integrated with the applications that are already most important to you. If your business is SAP-centric, you're going to focus on an SAP solution (mySAP.com), perhaps purchasing extensions to allow it to work with other software as well. If you're an Oracle shop you're likely to buy whatever ORCL comes up with in the portal area, etc. In other words, I doubt that there will ever be a "dominant EIP vendor." There will be dominant enterprise software vendors, which will package an EIP. And there will be lots of niche plays, selling to limited numbers of users with unique needs, just as there are lots and lots of BI and reporting solutions today. To be sure, consolidation is going to happen, but I doubt we will see a distinct EIP market in five years. It'll be a feature you expect with whatever enterprise software you buy. mg