An enterprise resource planning (ERP) portal is a personalized interface into corporate information. ERP portals push and pull information from disparate software programs to give the individual user a personalized view of this information. Many different ERP service and software companies have developed online ERP portals for their client base. Other companies might internally develop an ERP portal for their employees.
ERP software vendors created online ERP portals so that their customers might access services provided by third parties as a larger collective purchasing group. These types of portals present advertisements for services that may be purchased across a variety of industries. One such service might be travel services. For example, an energy company has a need to purchase travel services for its employees in a similar manner as a fertilizer company. If both the energy company and the fertilizer company are customers of a specific ERP software vendor, the software vendor can pair the purchasing power of the two companies for a third-party vendor.
Some companies have chosen to use an ERP outsourcing company rather than to license software. ERP outsourcing companies provide all ERP software services online rather than as a system housed within each organization. These companies integrate the software and information databases across multiple organizations that might reduce the initial cost of implementing an ERP system. Since the information is truly integrated across multiple organizations, the service provider can add on additional services for its customer base quickly.
Each customer of an ERP outsourcing company has its own portal into the ERP services. These services allow the customer to input all ERP data specific to its own organization. Each customer may in turn have a personalized view of such data. A portal allows the customer to access its information as well as any other products or services provided by the ERP outsourcing company.
The ERP outsourcing company is able to negotiate discounts and other preferential contracts to provide to its customer base using the integrated information in its systems. The customer benefits from the purchase of additional products via an ERP portal through reduced purchase price or by having such products delivered directly to the customer’s location. The ERP outsourcing provider opens up additional lines of business for itself by adding complimentary services that it may sell to its customer base through the ERP portal.
Internally developed ERP portals integrate information across a large corporation’s systems so that each individual user may access the right information at the right time. Many large corporations have licensed software for each of their business areas. An ERP portal allows the corporation to integrate the data housed in each of these systems into one window.