The February-March issue of Gartner-Group's ExecutivEdge (www.ee-online.com) newsletter predicts that "By Y2K, 80 percent of Type A enterprises will implement an intranet portal (0.8 probability)." In Gartner parlance, Type A enterprises are the early adopters.
An intranet portal helps employees navigate their organization's intranet and knowledge base. In other words, intranet portals are customizable launchpads. Whether they'll really catch on is unclear. However, look for the traditional query and reporting vendors such as Cognos, Business Objects, Seagate Software, and Humming-bird Software to promote their BI suites as portals.