Ayala to build portal for employees, partners

Ayala Corp. is deploying portal technology to provide its corporate users and eventually partners and suppliers a single point of access for information and applications.

Users will gain access using a Web browser, and each user’s opening screen will be customized to the employee’s job and interests, according to company managing director and CIO Mark Anthony Javier.

"Applications will be broken down into independent Web-enabled modules (IWMs). An IWM will be based on the user’s role," Javier said. "For example, an accountant’s portal page may include a link to a specific general ledger or account receivable functions. In addition, all users will have access to inbox, calendar and certain human resource-related information such as leaves, loans and salary information."

"We’ve always wanted to integrate this information," Javier said, "but client-server architecture isn’t malleable enough to provide the functionality and personalization we want."

Portal technology, Javier said, makes the difference. "It’s only recently that the power of Internet portals has been made available for corporate portals. In fact, when we first implemented SAP’s enterprise software, this technology wasn’t available from SAP."

SAP Phils. managing director Ian Black agreed, saying that significant demand for the mySAP Portal helped catalyzed its development.

Black said: "Clients like Ayala were asking for this technology and SAP responded with the delivery of a complete portal solution. And Mark is right, Web-based portals deliver great value to an organization, integrating processes across disparate back-end applications and simplifying access to all kinds of business information. The result is enhanced productivity. Part of the reason for this is that so many people are comfortable using browsers, and understand how they work."

Ayala began looking for a portal supplier over a year ago, but had trouble identifying a good fit, mostly due to difficulty integrating front-end portal technology with backend enterprise applications.

Although SAP was a latecomer to portal technology, Javier said it was a stroke of luck that the mySAP Portal solutions became available when it did.

"SAP’s built-in integration was very attractive, as was the ease of implementation because we were already running SAP’s enterprise technology backend," Javier said.

Javier said the huge volume of information that Ayala and its companies have on hand is only as valuable as ease of access permits.

"It’s been very difficult for us to make this information available in a timely and efficient way before. Just searching for the necessary information an executive may need was a huge task. An Internet-type search engine deployed in the portal dramatically simplifies this task," he said.

When asked why Ayala chose to introduce the portal in a tough economic environment, Javier said, "We always look at the longer term, but effective communication becomes even more important in tough times. It helps avoid costly mistakes."