Abstract

Knowledge-intensive organizations are increasingly transferring their business processes to web-based platforms. It often requires utilization of resources that are distributed over localized information infrastructures. The distributed nature inherently presents numerous challenges. The spectrum of issues ranges from locating and aggregating the relevant resources to interfacing the processes with users. To confront the challenges organizations have been implementing service-oriented technologies, and constructing web portals that provide a single point access to often large number of services and business processes. Deployment and management of portals and services may significantly affect organizational operating effectiveness. We have studied a large-scale organizational portal with extensive number of services and resources. Several imperative use and interaction characteristics of knowledge workers have been revealed. The findings provide actionable knowledge for information technology managers for improving portal services, and executing re-engineering and innovation efforts.