"This is a first-of-its-kind Web 2.0 portal because it helps users interact with the information and people they need around the clock, from the Web and from within an organization," said Larry Bowden, IBM Portals and Web Interactive Services vice president, "A portal is important because it's the first step in implementing any SOA strategy." Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an approach that helps a company reuse existing technology to more closely align it with business goals resulting in greater efficiencies, cost savings, agility, and productivity.
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WebSphere Portal 6.1 supports IBM AIX, HP-UX, IBM I5/OS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Sun Solaris, and Microsoft Windows Server.

Accelerators and forms

In other portal news, there are also three "accelerators" and the beta version of a new entry-level forms product. An accelerator is software you can snap on to IBM WebSphere Portal to perform a specific function.

• The first two accelerators are designed to help users respond more quickly to new business opportunities. IBM Dashboard Accelerator 6.1 for WebSphere Portal integrates business intelligence software from IBM-Cognos and several other companies. IBM Dashboard Accelerator is a tool for building a dashboard, an intuitive visualization of information customized to a specific job role or point of view.
• IBM Content Accelerator 6.1 for WebSphere Portal includes simplified authoring templates for creating quick content such as blogs. In-line editing lets users create folders, sites, or site areas.
• IBM Business Process Accelerator uses the role-based, personalized user interface of WebSphere Portal to improve implementation and user response time for a range of processes.