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I am an IT Manager responsible for knowledge management initiatives. I have found "Enterprise Knowledge Portals" to be an invaluable and one-of-a-kind reference. The book is a comprehensive reference for developing a portal initiative and the prerequisite elements of a knowledge management program. Two infrastructure layers of particular interest to me are content-based retrieval and related taxonomy-categorization systems, and this book makes these subjects understandable to technician and business user alike. I was also pleased to find Collins' emphasis of a subject that is often ignored in KM initiatives: Usability. Her chapter on support and competency centers provides guidance about usability, the magic ingredient helping assure success in KM projects and one that is often overlooked on technical requirements short lists. I found Collins' description of all these subjects succinct, readable and comprehensive. The book is a must-read for both IT staff and businesspeople assigned to portal and KM projects.

Heidi Collins takes a thorough review of designing and building portals. This includes process and change management necessary to get people to buy-into what your doing.An importantant how to book for any corporate effort. Chapters have illustrations, checklists, and an "ingredient" approach to make sure your doing the right thing.

Concisely written and thoroughly illustrated, Enterprise Knowledge Portals is required readingfor anyone interested in understanding and enhancing business information flow and interactions.Heidi Collins has provided a powerful education tool and an invaluable reference.

Pragmatic and articulate! Collins embodies a rich understanding of organizational visioning, business architecture and intellectual capital management within her portal framework. Today's gap between knowledge management theory and practical implementation is huge. Collins bridges that gap with Enterprise Knowledge Portals, providing synergy between people, process, technology and content.

Collins has come a long way since the initial release of her "Corporate Portals" book in 2001. While the first book was helpful in introducing the concept of enterprise portals to the reader, this is an excellent work which brings step by step methodologies to organizations that wish to take advantage of their ability to leverage information assets and mold them into a working knowledge system. Not for the faint-hearted... Extensive use of spreadsheets and matrix table presentations throughout the book, but Collins nails this and provides an incredibly valuable methodology with real world scenarios as examples. This one is not sitting on the shelf; it's being used over & over again as a base foundation for creating our organization's "go-to" strategy in constructing our own knowledge management system. Definitely a keeper.