Soon most businesses will use portals — gateways to information both within and outside a company — to simplify users’ access to all sorts of software and data. Learn how to build your own finance portal to ensure that your department doesn’t get left behind.

Application vendors seem sure that your future will include one or more portals. Portals are gateways that deliver access to software and information on corporate intranets and the Internet via a simple user interface. (See 10 Capabilities a Business Portal Provides) Vendors like portals because they differentiate one company’s products from its competitors’ offerings. Users like portals because they offer a single point of access to a personalized domain of information. Managers like portals because they reduce the time employees spend looking for the applications and information they need.

Few accounting departments currently use a portal as their primary information-access gateway. But in the future, most businesses will likely have many portals that provide user interfaces for software applications, link the companies to Web services and help them collaborate with business partners.