Can Web Portal Improve Your Business?

September 20, 2022 Joshua Ramirez

It can be difficult to remember, but in an era prior to the Internet people would actually have to call an establishment to understand what product offerings they had and what was going on with orders. If you had a question about a particular service, you couldn’t just send a quick email or take to Twitter to get instant information. You literally had to pick up the phone, speak to a living, breathing human being and talk through whatever you were trying to accomplish.

In these days, the management of company operations was often done via a combination of paper, spreadsheets, phone calls, and sometimes even rudimentary methods of record tracking like Post-It notes. Thankfully, these days are now long gone. Why, then, are techniques like using spreadsheets to store data like a database still seen as acceptable just because they’re part of “the way things have always been done?”

The answer is clear: they shouldn’t be. And they don’t have to be, thanks to the wide range of different benefits that techniques like web portals bring with them.

Workflow web portals now replace all of these methods and more, all via an opportunity to consolidate information into an easily accessible website that can be accessed anytime, anywhere and from any device on the planet with an active Internet connection.

All told, a web portal can improve your business in a wide range of different ways – all of which are certainly worth a closer look.

Table of Contents

What is a Web Portal?

At its core, a web portal is any type of online website that consolidates information in a way that makes it easier to use than it otherwise would be on its own. This is especially helpful for users who need to interact with that data, along with those who need to be able to make better and more informed decisions based on the insights contained inside it.

The Different Types of Web Portals

All told, there are many different types of web portals that can help improve your business. Just a few examples of these include, but are certainly not limited to, ones like:

Client portals. This is a place where customers would go to not only find out important information about your products and services, but to also check on their availability, to place orders and to even have them delivered. A client portal manages all communication between the client and the company, thus allowing you and your employees to create better consumer experiences all the time.
Community portals. These are a place where segments of your users would go to get information about a group or an association that they belong to. This is a perfect chance to understand schedules, to get information about upcoming events, and to research all sorts of different related activities. Community portals are notable because they often contain private areas where members can chat amongst themselves.
Finance portals. These are places where customers can go to review information about their personal financial assets and financial information that is relevant to them. Examples of these include investments, bank accounts and even loans.
Government portals. These are websites that are designed for a particular branch of the government that lets the population gain information about or generally interact with that agency. Top examples of this would be the website for the Department of Motor Vehicles, or Healthcare.gov.
Knowledge Base. This is a particular type of web portal that offers a consolidation of information about the use and productivity of a product or service. It can also be a perfect way to educate your users, making sure that they have an understanding of your products themselves and what they do. Knowledge Base portals often include videos, tutorials and more.
Patient portals. These are portals that patients and even healthcare providers can use to both access and share information about appointments, prescriptions and someone’s medical history. It’s also a way to communicate in terms of outcomes and more.
Product service portals. This is an example of a portal that allows clients to request service on their products, and to better understand the outcomes and statuses of those service requests.
Student portals. This is something that is undoubtedly familiar to anyone who has attended a modern university in the last decade. Here, students can gain information about their class schedules, about the syllabus for a particular class, and more. They can also get assignments, upload their finished homework, and even communicate with professors through the web portal.
Vendor portals. This is an online place where subcontractors or suppliers would go to interact with a particular company, all in the name of managing their service or products.
Work management portal. Finally, these are a great way to manage the activities of your workforce. This can include not only the management of jobs but also scheduling, invoicing, inventory, materials management and more. Equipment management, employee time tracking, and project workflow would also be examples of the functionality that a work management web portal would offer.