Portals, such as Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard, are capable of showing
data from heterogeneous sources side by side and simplifying navigation by
consolidating views of data. By using integrated search tools, it is possible
to reach across application boundaries to find information. For example, it
is possible to integrate human resources, finance, and time and accounting
applications by cataloging their data into a single repository. This system
can then allow searches against database, file system, and web data in a single query. As a result, a search page can be configured to query multiple repositories at the same time.