Microsoft portal gains tools

Corechange's Coreport 3g portal framework has been comprehensively integrated with Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server, Active Directory and Web Parts, to give Microsoft users access to Corechange's portal product.

The SharePoint version of Coreport 3g will begin shipping at the end of September.

Phil Garvey, Corechange's acting UK managing director, said: "Microsoft has invested millions of dollars in SharePoint Portal Server, but its focus is content and document management. Coreport 3g adds the things that are missing."

He explained that it builds on Active Directory to provide role-based access and management of mobile devices through the portal, as well as secure single sign-on for enterprise applications.

Garvey also emphasised the scalability offered by Corechange portals. The companies have published a joint benchmark to demonstrate scalability, with test figures for over 10 million users indicating near linear scaling.

The news is a blow to portal leader Plumtree, which has had an agreement with Microsoft for over a year. Mike Davies, of analyst firm Butler Group, said: "For Corechange [this development] levels the playing field with Plumtree.

"Plumtree could use its gadgets to drop Web Parts into the portal straight away. Now Corechange can do the same with its connectors that interface to the underlying system." Davies added that Corechange's portal is particularly suited to wireless device access.

Corechange's move caught many observers by surprise. "Microsoft will have its own enterprise portal in perhaps 18 months to two years. The question in the industry is when Microsoft is going to buy out Plumtree. People don't think Microsoft is prepared to pay the price at the moment," said Davies.

The use of Coreport 3g could indicate that Corechange might now be a more tempting acquisition for Microsoft. Garvey agreed that the two firms were becoming closer.

"Microsoft believes the portal market has now come of age. Our relationship with Microsoft is getting stronger. We are putting full-time resources into managing the relationship in practice, day by day," he said.

Davies noted that Corechange's use of Microsoft technology could also benefit firms using Unix.

"The top three pure-play portal vendors are Plumtree, Corechange and Epicentric in that order. Plumtree backs Microsoft [although it has just announced a Unix version] and Epicentric is totally Unix, so Corechange has an advantage for enterprises wanting to deploy on both," he said.

However, that might cease to be an advantage if Coreport 3g were owned outright by Microsoft. Davies added that he expected that release 1.0 of Windows XP would look much like a traditional desktop, but the following version could be a portal.