Function Integration of repositories

Description Unstructured information is stored in various types of repository such as file servers or document management systems. You can use preconfigured repository managers to integrate repositories and make their content accessible through a central entry point in the portal. Open programming interfaces (APIs) allow customers and partners to develop repository managers for other storage systems. You can also store documents in one of KMs own repositories. Portal users can navigate in the folders of all integrated repositories and access the documents they contain. Access to folders and documents is controlled using permissions. The user interface for navigating in folders can be configured flexibly and modified to suit various roles. Portal users can personalize the presentation of the user interface. Open interfaces allow you to extend the user interface by integrating your own functions into the standard system. The search function finds documents in all integrated repositories. The system displays only documents for which the current user has read permission in the results list. You can also include the content of Web sites in your indexes using Web crawlers. This information is then also available through the search function in your portal. A taxonomy is a hierarchical structure of categories in which you classify documents according to content, organizational, or other criteria. Documents that are stored in different repositories can be included in the same category. Taxonomies portal users to navigate in a uniform structure throughout an organization even if information is stored in heterogeneous storage locations. After the initial configuration has taken place, the system automatically carries out classification of new and changed documents. Knowledge Management services enable functions that you can use on the content of all connected repositories as long as technical conditions are met. These services include subscriptions, ratings, public reviews, feedback, and personal notes. You can also import documents into KM repositories from external sources by using the content exchange service.

Navigation in folders

Search

Taxonomies and classification

Knowledge Management services

Document creation and publishing

Every portal user can create information in the portal, provided he or she has the necessary permissions. You can upload documents that you created using a PC application directly to a KM folder. You can also use forms to create information directly in the Web browser. The publishing process is supported by various functions such as the approval workflow. You can assign metadata to documents and other objects, to make the knowledge available in your company more usable.

Key Capability Technology and architecture

Description The portal is built for the enterprise, providing a secure and scalable environment. Platform-independence: The portal runs on a wide range of operating systems, including Windows and UNIX. Multi-language interface: The portal supports many languages to make a global deployment more efficient and usable. High performance and availability: Clustering and caching mechanisms provide high performance and high availability. Security: The portal allows businesses to expose their resources to partners, suppliers, and customers, while maintaining rigorous confidentiality for restricted business information. The security features of the portal include authentication, single sign-on, authorization, integrated user management, and secure communications. Unification: Unification in the portal enables an enterprise to integrate the resources of its information systems and provide unified access to its structured data. It provides correlation-based technology that allows users to take information from one application and to use it to retrieve information from another application, and trigger an automated response. Navigation: The portal offers a flexible and open navigation layout design that supports virtually every usage scenario. Global portal scenarios: The portal supports global portal scenarios through the use of open standards, wide platform support, multi-language support, global deployment and scalability, and delegated administration. End-user environment The portal runtime environment offers users a single point of access, in a fully customizable portal desktop, to internal and external information, applications, and services that are relevant to their role in the organization. User navigation: The portal offers a comprehensive role-based navigation environment for users to retrieve the business-specific information. Portal pages and iViews also display assorted links to associated information, enabling further investigation. Navigation in the portal is facilitated through top-level and detailed navigation, page navigation, dynamic navigation, object based navigation, Drag& Relate, and navigation by URL. Personalization: Portal users can work in a customized environment; by personalizing the look and feel of their portal desktop, language settings, personal information, single sign-on logon credentials, and content displayed per portal page. Accessibility support: The portal ships with high contrast themes, manages font handling for portal content, enables keyboard access to interactive elements in the user interface, and works with third-party screen readers. SAP is committed to making its products accessible to all users.

Advanced The portal provides a complete set of tools to maintain, manage and administration support monitor the portal within one coherent environment. These administrative tools are designed as modular portal pages or iViews, enabling you to delegate administration tasks according to your business scenario. Content administration: The Portal Content Studio provides a central administrative environment in the portal for code-free development and management of portal content. Role definition: The structure and delivery of content to portal users is determined by role definitions based on the users task within the organization. Through roles, a company can structure its business processes and deliver business content according to the needs of certain user groups of the portal. Delegated administration: Comprehensive delegated administration helps manage large-scale implementations by targeting tools and content specifically related to the functions and tasks of users in the organization. Customization: The portal design can be modified to fit a specific corporate image. It provides design templates for users to choose from. Portal administrators determine the level of personalization available to portal end users, including portal themes, languages, passwords, and page and iView properties. User administration: The portal utilizes a user management service that connects to and manages user and group data stored in the user persistence store. A Web-based interface in the portal enables administrators to administer user data centrally and access multiple user data sources in parallel, such as corporate directories, databases, or SAP systems. Enterprise-centric Portal content delivers information from heterogeneous sources to portal content users in a single desktop. Portal content enables access to links and documents, transactions and data in underlying business applications, internal and external services, and to reports and analytics. Development: Developers can stay with their preferred programming model and within their preferred development environment to create content for the portal. The Portal Development Kit (PDK) provides the tools for programmers to develop their own content from scratch. Business Packages: Predefined role-based portal content, in the form of Business Packages, is ready for immediate use in the portal. Business packages are available from the Portal Content Portfolio . Role-based portal content: Helps various user groups to be more productive more quickly.