Table of Contents
Updated June 2021
In today’s digital world, enterprises need a myriad of IT-based solutions to stay robust and competitive. One solution in particular helps streamline and personalize communication in B2B and B2C businesses to unimaginable proportions – the web portals.
What is a Web Portal Development?
A web portal is a web based gateway that provides authorized users a single point of access to personalized content. It gathers information from different sources and presents them in a single user interface for content management with the most relevant information based on their preferences and settings. Whether catering to employees of your company (e.g. intranet portal) or to your customers (e.g. customer portal) web portal development services & solutions always comes in handy.
A portal allows individuals to login to a company’s cloud system to access sensitive data or services. For a B2B business, this data could be the company’s financials and for a B2C business, it could be customer data.
Advantages of Online Portal Development
A customer-centric approach is always a winning mantra. The advantages of using a web portal from a user perspective is listed below.
- User Experience (UX)
UX implies all the emotions a user will experience while interacting with your product or service online. This includes everything from design to responsiveness. Web portal design provides great UX as they are interactive and can present data required by users in a single dashboard. As per a report by WebFX in February 2020, “89% of the customers shop with a competitor after a poor user experience with your website.”
- Customization
Web portals offer a personalized user-friendly experience to every customer. As per research published by Forbes in May 2019, “34% of consumers are more likely to make an unplanned purchase if a brand personalizes content.”
- Seamless integration
Enterprises add features and services to their websites on a regular basis to improve UX but it would be a nightmare if there is a glitch while users transition through the site. “Slow-loading websites lead to a $2.6 billion revenue loss each year, ” as per a report by WebFX. Web portals can solve this by using high-end plugins that lead to enhanced functionality, speed, and UX.
The advantages of using a web portal from an organization perspective is listed below.
- Omnichannel presence
Web portals can be accessed through any digital device and provide an immersive experience across platforms. This has distinctive competitive advantages because customers can use multiple devices to access your enterprise details online.
- Robust access control mechanisms
Web portals offer high-end security when it comes to your company’s data repositories. This is ensured through custom access and authentication functions.
As much as it is useful to the user, web portals are beneficial to your enterprise as well.
- Automate marketing campaigns
Since web portals customize and personalize data based on user behavior and preference, customer segment specific marketing plans can be created with ease.
- Cost-effective solution
With online portals, customer service workflows are significantly reduced since the users can obtain information and carry out activities without contacting your company. This can help in right-sizing the back-office administration thereby reducing expenses.
- Internal communication
Employees can communicate using internal web portals. This will reduce the planning related to face-to-face meeting time and increase productivity. Employees working from various locations can use the company’s online portal for collaboration and for effective real-time project management.
- Customer retention
Customizing your online presence will encourage your customers to use your business services more effectively. It also has the capacity to attract new users looking for a more personalized online UX. This will increase your enterprises’ Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and reduce churned MRR.
Types of Web Portal Development
Web portals are of three main types, namely B2B, B2C and internal company portals. Regardless of the type, web portals are cloud based web applications through which company’s repositories can be accessed only restricted by access controls and authentication.
- Vertical Portals (VP)
Also known as vortals, VP is a gateway, which offers information about goods or services for a particular industry. It provides tools, information, articles, research, and statistics on the specific industry.
- Horizontal Portals
This provides a unique access points that are connected to various industries and focus on providing an entry point. Yahoo is a typical example of this. It offers users a gateway and then provides links on various topics.
- Corporate Portals
These portals have an array of utilities within an enterprise. At the HR level, this gateway can be used for workflow management, and to provide access to company information like company news, policies, internal training, and many more. At a project management level, portals can help in collaboration within teams and thus making remote management much easier for the project manager. At a Customer Retention Management (CRM) level, an online portal enables sales and marketing teams to collaborate and create effective marketing strategies using a centralized customer repository.
- B2B Portals
These portals function as a bridge between enterprises that work together. Documents, tools, and data shared between the enterprises can be accessed through an online portal with authorized access.
- B2C Portals
If your enterprise is selling goods or services, then a B2C portal is a must-have. It allows the enterprise and the customers to access personalised data dashboard for services or to make purchases.
Cost of Online Portal Development
Similar to developing any bespoke solution, the cost of developing a web portal varies widely based on the following factors:
- Functionality– as a ground rule, more elements in the portal implies higher pricing.
- Hiring model– freelancers vs web portal development company is a question some SMEs want to decide between when it comes to developing online portals, but an experienced company is always the best choice considering reliability and timely delivery.
- Geographical location–the web developer’s location affects the cost of development to a great extent.
Web portal development harnessing cutting-edge technology to ensure optimum business efficiency enables enterprises to transcend greater heights.
You may be asking yourself, “Do I need web portal development?” If you or your business is looking for web portal development services to help bring your business’ vision to life please take a moment and click the button to get a free consultation.
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Rahul Jain
Chief Solutions Architect
Rahul is a wellspring of wisdom when it comes to driving innovation and improving healthcare services using advanced custom software solutions. He specializes in delivering the technical guidance needed to ensure success across the digital product life cycle. His unique problem-solving approach provides the guidance and strong architectural foundation needed to transform digital health services.