Foundations for Effective Portal Service Management

Organizational portals are vital parts of knowledge-intensive organizations. They play several critical roles: a) provide a platform for deployment of web-based services; b) envelop distributed internal resources; and c) present a centralized access to resources and services. Portal services often incorporate digitalized organizational business processes. Digitalization enables automation of business processes and facilitates improved management and operating efficiency of organizations. Despite advancements in technology and significant investments, it is commonly observed that web services implementing business processes have low usability. Generally, low usability results from misalignment between natural characteristics of human interactions with services in digital environments and their design and implementation. Human-service interaction analytics expose hidden difficulties and enable effective innovation and management of portal services. We present pertinent managerial implications of analytic findings from a case study of a large-scale organizational portal with a significant number of services. The findings provide actionable knowledge for effective evidence-based management, reengineering and innovation of portal services