TABLE OF CONTENTS The simplest but most telling answer is that a corporate portal will help you, incontrovertibly, to reduce operational costs. This is not mere hyperbole or conjecture. The typical ROI for a medium-sized corporate portal (e.g., a corporation in the Fortune 1500 to 2000 range) is two years. This, moreover, is without even taking into account the increased business, the wider customer reach, improved user satisfaction, and enhanced competitiveness that also invariably come with having a good corporate portal. The major direct cost-saving opportunities afforded by a corporate portal are by now well established, proven, and beyond debate. The top ten of these, in no particular order, include the following:
Realizing significant reduction in call-center operation costs through staffing cuts, reduction in operational hours, and call-center consolidation in the case of multiple call-center operations
Minimizing transaction-processing and data-entry costs (e.g., accounts payable, order processing, or material ordering) by permitting direct online interactions
Generating huge savings in remote-access costs by enabling mobile and remote employees to securely access all necessary corporate resources, across the Internet, via the portal which, in some cases, can result in as much as a 95 percent lowering of costs
Tangibly decreasing all costs associated with mail, mail handling, mailrooms, and express delivery services (e.g., FedEx) by reducing the need for both incoming and outgoing correspondence
Diminishing the spending associated with advertising, public relations, and investor relations, with the portal now serving as the primary means of disseminating corporate information and...
