Implementation and Exploitation

The proposed development lifecycle for the portal website is shown in Chart 1. A major aim for implementing the portal is to provide a vehicle for establishing sustainability of the FIDIS project research after its completion. One or more partners may decide to develop the portal so that it can be exploited commercially, after the completion of the FIDIS project. If this is the case a business plan will need to be established.

Developing the Business Plan

An initial business plan should be prepared that focuses on the exploitation of the FIDIS research activities, through the application of the proposed portal, by interested FIDIS partners. The plan should be based on discussions with partners and answers from them to the following questions:

What do partners want to do?
Do partners want to exploit the FIDIS research commercially?
Do partners only want to continue the research and transfer knowledge through the portal on their publications, conferences, courses, etc?
Will partners be willing to support other organisations (either FIDIS partners or third parties) in exploiting the FIDIS results?
How much effort in terms of personnel, equipment, finance and other resources are partners willing to commit and over what period?
What is the “bottom line” for each partner?
What are the issues concerning agreements on intellectual property?
Who in the partner organisations will make the decisions?

Sales and marketing issues to be considered include:

The need for performing a market survey on the implementation and application of an identity management portal
How large is the European market for such a portal?
What is the global market for such a portal?
Financial considerations include:

What are the envisaged potential revenues for operating a portal commercially?
What fees, if any, should be charged for using the portal, possibly on an annual subscription basis?
Will organizations be willing to sponsor the portal?
What are the envisaged costs of developing and maintaining the portal over say a 5 to 10 year timeframe?

Issues relating to setting up and operating the portal include:

Specifying the aims and objectives of operating the portal on a commercial basis
Establishing a commercial organisation. Does any partner(s) wish to take on this role?
Specifying technology requirements and establishing a website
Managing the installation and exploitation strategy
Managing the transition of the results of FIDIS to the portal

Portal Website Development Lifecycle

Phases	Guidelines	Duties	Personnel
Structure	Simplicity and coherency. to allow ease of use to potentially diverse audience groups. Complexity (given range and amount of info) should not be reflected in the structure presented (i.e., at GUI level, homepage /introductory pages) but instead by linking to sub pages (“behind the screen”).	Specify site map Specify page types (templates + update requirements)	Practitioners (WP Leaders) and web designer
Content	Relevance and appropriateness. A selective approach should be applied. Not “everything” should go in. Completeness and non-repeatability. Content-wise, pages should be self-contained. similar info should not appear more then once Standardisation. In terms of headings, language style etc.	Review content Proof read/ Rewrite content pages	Practitioners (WP Leaders)
Design	Optimal user orientation (GUI) Clean, elegant look Standardisation. In terms of navigation mechanism, graphic elements, and overall style Enhancements in the future (“smart” templates)		Web designer
Programming	Avoid limitations resulting from reliance on rigid ready-made templates	Coding designed template Upload site onto server	Programmers
QA	Quality testing and corrections before release		Practitioners (WP Leaders)
Maintenance	Simple structure and selective approach to content should minimize maintenances requirements Robust design of templates and inclusion of built-in editors should allow simple updating ability.

Chart 1: Portal Website Implementation

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