POAI by Example

An example of POAI is an automobile parts supplier that would like to begin selling parts to retail stores (B2B) using a portal. This portal would allow the retail stores to access catalog information, place orders, and track orders over the Web. Currently, the parts supplier leverages SAP as its preferred inventory control system, and a custom-built mainframe application written in COBOL/DB2 serves as its sales order system. Information from each system is required for the B2B portal, and the portal users need to update those back-end systems as well.

In order to create a portal, the parts supplier must first design the portal application, including the user interface and application behavior, as well as determine which information contained within the back-end systems (SAP and the mainframe) needs to be shared with the portal application. The portal application requires a traditional analysis-and-design life cycle and a local database. This portal application must be able to control user interaction, capturing and processing errors and controlling the transaction from the user interface all the way to the back-end systems.

Although you can employ many types of enabling technologies when creating portals, most portals are built using application servers (discussed in detail later in this book). Application servers provide the interface development environments (IDEs) for designing the user interface, a programming environment to define application behavior, and back-end connectors to move information in and out of back-end systems, including SAP and mainframe systems. Although not integrating the application directly, the portal externalizes the information to the trading partner in this case, the owner of a retail auto parts store and also updates the back-end systems in this case, with orders placed by the store owner or perhaps with the status of existing orders.

Other examples of portals include entire enterprises that are integrated with a single portal application. As many as a dozen companies may provide real-time information for a portal, and hundreds of companies may use that portal, B2B, to purchase goods and services from many companies at the same time. The same type of architecture and enabling technology applies in this case; however, the number of systems integrated with the portal application greatly increases.