Challenges and Pitfalls in Portal Information Management

Abstract

One major objective for information portals is to provide relevant and timely information to their intended target groups. The main challenge from an information management perspective, however, is that the portal itself does not have full information ownership, and therefore cannot guarantee information quality. Poor information quality severely decreases the actual business value of a portal, but the quality of the portal information is inherited from the underlying sources. The case study we present illustrates the evolution of the Swedish Travel and Tourism Council’s (STTC) national Internet portal through three phases, thereby unmasking some of the core problems in portal information management: information ownership, stakeholder incentives, and clear business roles in the content provision process.