“Out of the box” portals do not exist. Various communities of practice
and different organizations have multifarious needs making it necessary
to customize and personalize the portals that they utilize. Although the
acquisition of the latest and most reliable information and communication
technologies need to be considered in the development of enterprise portals,
operational issues are even more important. The success of a portal is ensured
through the identification of the practices and answers appropriate to the
issues faced by the knowledge workers who use it. It is anticipated that in the
not-too-distant future, knowledge workers will have access to an electronic
desktop containing intelligent and highly task-oriented tools, rather than
common standardized portals.