A portal is a web system that has the needed features to identify the users and make sure they are who they say they are. It also gives them an easy, personalized and user friendly way to move along information and services that are of interest to the users. The organization that creates the portal will have a system that gives a variety of functions for said organization to put together many different avenues of information, making them available to the various users according to their specific interests and needs. Therefore, the main reason to set up a portal is bring all the information and resources that are available to these users in a way that is effective.

A portal is needed today so that the multitude of organizations that make use of the web to break down information and give services to their users, for example, customers or staff members, can do it successfully. In order to handle the different needs of various users, the many types of information and services that are available to all types of users were grouped together and presented on the web according to the way they functioned. What this means is that the information and services are organized according to the way service-providing departments are divided. The users need to have a general idea of what sort of information or services can be given by which department so they can get what they need easily. If the users have too little information about what they are looking for, it can be more difficult to find what they need.