Web Portal Development Process and How Much Does It Cost?

Businesses are adopting web solutions that personalize the experience of their customers. And web portals are such solutions that help companies provide personalization in a diverse setting as per the requirements for authorized users only. Not only that, but web portals allow you to organize and automate many processes. Moreover, they help you boost customer, employee, and partner engagement for your business.

Businesses that haven’t incorporated this software trend with their business are surely lagging behind compared to their competitors. While many are adopting and integrating it with their business workflow, few are concerned about how much will it cost to develop a web portal for their business?

But don’t worry, as the marketing & software consultants from M-Connect Solutions have come up with an extensive guide for you. This article answers not only how much will it cost but also goes on to explain the development process. But first, let’s quickly recap what’s Web Portal?

What is Web Portal?

Web Portals are a single point of access for various kinds of information a company has to offer. Companies can categorize such information to allow only authorized users to access it with specific links. For instance, users can access the article, press releases, products & services information, or even the vendor & supplier list that you allow access to.

You might think that websites have similar functions that of a web portal. Yes, to some point both have similar functionalities but there are significant differences between websites & web portals as well.

Websites & information on them is accessed by anyone on the planet with the use of the internet. But the web portals & the information on them are accessed only by those who have credentials of the portal like username & password.

Not all people can have access to your company portal. But people who have access to it can easily access the information pulled together from various sources & are conveniently located in one place. This makes web portals user-friendly, easy to use, & an essential tool for your business structure.

Benefits of Web Portal Development

Here’re are some of the benefits that really matter, and you should consider them for your web portal development project.

• You can allow users to have safe & secure access to all the critical information.
• Only authorized users will have access to the information you want to share.
• Enhanced visibility for the services and products your company offers.
• Users will be able to learn and self-service themselves around your portal.
• Communication will become streamlined for both parties involved.
• Allows you to scale your enterprise further.
• Information you have shared with your portal users will be protected by special kinds of tools.

Web Portal Development Process

Web Portal development deals with designing and developing using a specific set of tools. The portal development process may vary from developer to developer but there are few generic steps that all must follow. And the experts at M-Connect Solutions have prepared a web portal development process that helps you understand the portal development lifecycle better. So, without any delay, let’s get going.

1. Preparing for the Development

Before starting with the actual development, one must always put efforts into the preparation or discovery phase. Most people don’t spend much time in this phase as they want to start the development work as soon as possible. But here’s what you should include in your preparation:

• Knowing Your Target Audience: Knowing who is going to use your web portal will straighten the kind of portal you need to develop. Also, it’ll help you come up with a set of features your users may need.
• Competitor Analysis: In your niche, you most likely will have competitors with web portals. What you should do is analyze their strength, weaknesses, business approach, & other useful things. Based on that you can develop a portal product having a competitive edge.
• Defining Your End Goals & Key Tasks: Since your organization does not have a web portal till now, it’s crucial to understand what expectations should you have from the web portal. Also, how should it optimize your business, what tasks you want to perform using that portal & what result should a portal bring?

2. Planning

To start with the planning phase of the development, you’ll need information like the technology stack needed for the project to carry out, risks associated with it, time & cost for the development, etc. Your development partner will provide you such information based on the information accumulated in the discovery or preparation phase.

You can start the planning of your web portal development work by setting up the scope of the work. Divide big tasks into small ones & start defining the deadlines for those tasks to complete with a more or less accurate schedule for the same.

Furthermore, as you start working on the requirements, specifications, designs, authentication type others, your tech requirements will broaden. So, you should consider those requirements for your development project.

3. Design

Design is the most crucial step where you need to prepare architecture for your development team to start working on it. You must consider the target audience when you are designing your web portal. Because it helps you in color selection, icons, and elements for your website.

Once that’s done, you can start building a prototype for your portal. Doing so will help you have a preview of how your future web portal will look like. Also, it will allow you to make necessary modifications if required. Remember that design is no less important for your web portal than any other functionality.

4. Development

The first thing you need is a prototype using which your development team will start the coding & bringing your portal idea to life. In this stage, your product will look, function & do exactly what you have expected it to do.

The first thing to be developed is the home page of your web portal, & then focus on all the other necessary sections of your website. This is because your homepage is the most important out of all that helps you boost the engagement rate for your business.

5. Testing & Release

Once you have designed and developed every element of the web portal, the last step is of the process is to test and make it live. Testing will help developers find the bottlenecks & issues and find solutions for the same. It is the responsibility of the developer to thoroughly check every feature and function is working as expected before it is released.

Also, testing ensures that the portal offers the highest level of user experience & is compatible with all the browsers. Once the testing completes satisfactorily ensuring everything is fine, you can open the doors of the portal for the world.

Costs of Developing Web Portal

The costs associated with web portal development may vary based on the design, features, and functions required out of it. The level of customization in a web portal governs the cost of developing a web portal for your company.

Also, the location you outsource your development project determines the cost. For instance, a development team from India could charge between $20,000 to $50,000 or more depending on what kind of portal you want to develop.

Here’s a break of the total cost of portal development:

Factors that Influence the Cost of Portal Development

Just like building a website, many factors affect the cost of developing a web portal for your company. No web portal has identical prices when it comes to development. And here’re the aspects affecting the cost of portal development.

1. Functionality Required

How many functionalities and how complex those functionalities are could impact the money you spend on the web portal development. The simpler the design the lower the cost of development and complex designs with too many elements could increase the overall cost.

2. Development Partner Charges

If you don’t have the resources and technical expertise to carry out the development yourself, then you would have to find and hire a development partner adding up the cost of development.

3. Location of Development Partner

The location of the development partner you hire also impacts the total cost of web portal development. The rates of developers change from region to region. For instance, developers from the USA or the UK would charge you around $100 to $200 per hour. Whereas the same developer from India would charge you around $25 to $50 per hour.

Wrapping Up

Today, businesses are driven by technology, and web portals are one such technology businesses should integrate to stay competitive in the market. Organizations can utilize the portal in many areas of their business like customer support, internal collaboration, partnerships, etc.

Knowing how & what kind of portal to develop for your business model is as important as knowing the cost of developing the portal. And this article perfectly delves deep into providing necessary information about the web portal development process and how much does it cost.

Want to develop a web portal for your business? M-Connect Solutions offers to build the most engaging and interactive web portals with sleek UI/UX designs. Contact us now to discuss things further and kickstart your project now with us.

About Hemant Parmar

Hemant Parmar is an eCommerce expert and a keen Magento consultant who specializes in meeting the needs of businesses in the e-commerce space. Years in the eCommerce market make him a perfect choice for sharing his expertise on eCommerce and Magento 2 development. He believes that customers need to be met no matter how challenging it might be.

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