"Due to poor connectivity and multiple standards around the world, many workers are frequently disconnected from their networks, and from their portals. The need for offline support is apparent."
-Gene Phifer, Vice President and Research Director, Gartner, Inc.

"To maximize the portal ROI, next generation portals must add proactive delivery capabilities that enable offline access."
-Gene Phifer, Vice President and Research Director, Gartner, Inc.

"Portals are one of the fundamental technologies in the smart enterprise suite, and for many users, offline, interactive portal access should become a non-negotiable requirement. We view the introduction of two-way synchronization capabilities as a major leap forward in evolution of the offline market, and recommend for any company that views intermittently connected users, such as customer-facing and revenue generating field employees, as a critical portal audience, to seriously consider such capabilities."
-Gene Phifer, Vice President and Research Director, Gartner, Inc.
 

"As large enterprises migrate to enterprise portals to consolidate critical content and business applications, many companies experience lower than expected success rates and return on investment. This is particularly true when the initiative targets critical mobile sales and field service employees that are key to the success of the business. In this scenario, it's our opinion that providing offline portal capabilities is not merely an added feature or a nice-to-have, it's core to the success of the portal initiative itself."
- David Marshak, Patricia Seybold Group

"Of the solutions we've seen, BackWeb's ProactivePortal Server is very impressive in its advanced synchronization techniques and its ability to maintain the online and offline user experience. BackWeb is addressing a key problem in portal adoption and leveraging the aggregation and customization work that has already been done in portal deployments. Overall, we would recommend looking at BackWeb ProactivePortal Server today to anyone implementing a strategic portal-particularly workspace portals that need to be used by mobile users."
- David Marshak, Patricia Seybold Group
 

Portals: When Disconnected Is Better

"Despite the `checkbox´ status of wireless within most enterprise portal RFPs, we believe users will demand consistent disconnected portal facilities within the next 12 months. In these situations, it will be better to deliver a robust set of aggregated information and services within an offline, proactive portal framework than to wait for wireless infrastructure (and revamped devices) to abound. Moreover, the ability to disseminate critical content in both attached and disconnected environments - consider e-learning, sales updates, and critical customer information available during plane flights et al. - will eventually become a staple for implementations."
-David Yockelson, Meta Group
 

"Features such as offline access and proactive delivery will become must-have Portal requirements."
-David Yockelson, Meta Group
 

"More and more of today's workforce is mobile, information needs to be mobile as well, seeking out the user to deliver critical content."
-Sheryl Kingstone, Yankee Group
 

"Companies will demand a next-generation portal that ensures the right people at the right time interact with critical information both online & offline."
-Nancy Tubb, Delphi Group
 

"In order to garner real portal ROI, enterprises need more than search and taxonomy features, which place the burden of finding information on the user. Enterprises need technologies that deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time and break through the information overload confronting workers in today's Internet economy. Enterprises will begin to see the real value of their portals when not only access, but portal USAGE is maximized. This can be achieved when critical portal content proactively finds users and when the portal is accessible in offline and disconnected environments."
-Tony Hart, business analyst, Datamonitor