Keys: stability, content, usability, functionality and some secret sauce.
I've been involved with the portal initiative at Plymouth State from the inception. It had, and continues to have several operational objectives: provide a secure, single sign-on, role based, environment that aggregates institutional web based services that is self-customizable by the users. The strategic objective was and is to build a more engaged community through "birth to bequest" services aligned with strategic initiatives ranging from developing roles for prospective students through alumni and for good measure, a role for parents. To date, we have been very successful by some measures in the execution of that vision.
That said, the portal is not perfect. The highly integrated environment has been, at times, a challenge to support; when any sub-system breaks it is quite possible that the entire portal performance suffers.
Recently, I had the opportunity to hear some feeback from some of my colleagues regarding areas for improvement.
We are planning to upgrade the underlying technology at the conclusion of this semester. And will be attempting to address many of these issues.