Portal Development using Sitecore
Web Portal is a web-based platform that facilitates the creation of useful, secured, and personalised access content as per the need. The web portal of any organisation is its identity in the public domain. It contains information about what it does. Having a portal can be seen as a strong presence over the internet’s customers.
Business Strategy
Financial Planing
Marketing Startegy
Relationship Buildup
Types of Web-portal
Web portals can be of multiple types as per the need. Some of the examples are :
- E-commerce portal
- E-learning portal
- Self-service portals for customers.
- Supply-chain portal
- Business partner portal
- Membership group portals
Stages while creating Web Portal?
There are various stages that need to be completed in order to develop a good web portal. These stages are listed below.
Planning stage: This is the initial stage in which the developer needs to identify for what purpose the web portal is going to serve its user, why it should be created, what type of function will this web portal perform, who can access this portal, and when who is going to update the portal and many more.
Design: The second stage is designing the architecture for a web portal. This should be prepared in such a way that it provides the best user experience to the user.
Development: The third stage will be development. For this, some prerequisite decisions are required. For eg, choosing the right database( such as MySQL, Oracle, etc); using real-time data processing service (such as Azure stream analytics, Amazon Kinesis, etc); front end knowledge (HTML, CSS, Javascript); backend knowledge (Python, Node JS); CMS, etc.
All the above technology services will depend upon your requirements for the web portal.
Integration of Data: In this stage Data from Front-end, Back-end, Real-time analytic service, and database are integrated.
Testing Stage: In this stage, several technical tests are being performed before providing it to the user for service.
Deploying web portal and monitoring: In this stage, the web portal is deployed by the developer and it is being monitored for its functioning. Sitecore, one of the leaders among CMS (Content Management System) is used to create content, edit or modify it according to the requirements and then publish it. All these look quite easy and simple, but the wide range of tools available under Sitecore made it simpler and easier to do all these without having technical knowledge. Its drag and drop feature made it different from others where users with almost no knowledge of HTML and CSS can create a website just like a website developer will produce with expertise in Node JS, React, etc.
Business without Web portal: Handling business without a web portal can be a bit challenging. Here’s a list of all those challenges that you will face or you are facing if you are not using the web portal.
Switching between applications: The main aim behind Web portal development is to provide all those necessary stuff in a single platform that is required for smooth conduction of business. Doing different tasks may require different applications or platforms. Using the portal, where all the necessary tools are integrated, can save you from switching between different applications and will save your precious time.
Too many usernames and passwords: Signing in for many accounts for different platforms may require a different username and a different password. The web portal can eliminate this. Without a web portal, remembering the list of usernames and passwords can be a headache.
Complex and expensive maintenance: If you are not using a web portal for your business, you might be aware of the complexity of using different platforms. Also, for maintain different platforms, it requires more effort, dedication, and money. Using a Web portal can be a solution for this, as maintaining a single platform is cheaper than maintaining various platforms.
From the above, it is safe to conclude that, if you are still not using a Web portal, then, try it once, it will solve most of your problems.
What are the perks of using a portal?
Enhanced awareness:
If you created a web portal for your business, then it will help you to spread awareness about your product or services. People will get a platform, through which they will know about you, your organisation, what you do and how they will benefit from you. Hence using a web portal can be another way of advertising your business.
Single platform for a variety of applications: As clearly mentioned above, using a web portal will eliminate your efforts for switching between different applications for different tasks. This will save time.
Improved customization: If you are using the web portal, then you can invite all the innovations to come true. Its easy customization will help you to get better results in terms of visitor numbers, ROI, and many more.
User friendly: As mentioned just above, the web portal offers improved customization. If designed and created in an efficient way then it can be made more user-friendly. By adding various features, it can be made more convenient for the user.
No of Visitor increase: If the web portal is made an eye-catcher and easy to use, then it will automatically allow visitors to explore the web portal more and more every time they need any service from you. This will increase the number of visitors at your platform.
How will you (The business owner) benefit?
Saves time:
A single piece of platform needs to be created and for this, there is the need for less maintenance, the web portal will reduce all your technical burdens and will save your time so that you can focus on different things.
Security: The web portal offers security. Its data are password-oriented and can’t be hacked within a level, hence it is preferably used by many business owners.
Promote product to customers: By using Web Portal, you can promote your product or service to the customer and it will help you to become another way of advertising your products.
Sharing of documents among staff: Sharing data is the need of the hour in today’s digital world. This web portal offers easy sharing of data, documents, and other file types among the users of the organisations as well as the partners.
