Client portal for software projects: what it is, and what belongs in it

A client portal for software projects is a web area with a personal login where a software agency's client sees the state of their own project: tasks, hours, the monthly report and what is stuck. The difference from a monthly report is that the client does not wait for something to be sent, and the data in the portal is the same data the team works with.

What a client portal replaces

Without a portal, information reaches the client through one person: the project manager writes a summary, sends a file, answers the phone. That works when there is time, and breaks exactly when something goes wrong and that person is busy.

A portal does not cancel the conversation. It removes the "what is the status" part from it, so the conversation can be about decisions.

There is another side to it: when clients see for themselves what is waiting for their answer, they answer faster. A good share of delays in software projects is waiting for approval or content from the client, and both sides usually find out too late.

What belongs in a client portal

• The monthly report: hours and amounts, attached to tasks;
• Task status: what is open, what is closed, what is waiting for the client;
• The numbers the client knows: their own ticket number, not only the contractor's internal one;
• Export: a file that can go to management without editing;
• A record: what was done with their data, and when.

Common mistakes

• A portal updated by hand. If someone has to copy data into it, it gets updated when there is time, which is not when it is needed.
• An internal screen with a "hide" button. What the client sees should be defined explicitly, not be whatever nobody remembered to block. Internal notes and the internal split of hours should not leak.
• Too many screens. A client who logs in once a month needs to see the month, not a menu of twenty items.
• A portal branded with the tool. The client works with their contractor, and the portal should carry the contractor's mark.

How to tell a portal works

The simplest sign: how many "what is the status" questions still arrive by phone and email. If they dropped, the client finds the answers on their own.

A second sign is that the monthly report no longer surprises anyone: the client saw the numbers during the month, and at month end there is only approval left.

And a third sign, the opposite one: if the client never logs in, it is worth asking why. Sometimes the portal is too complicated, and sometimes what the client looks for simply is not there. The answer to that question is worth more than any extra screen.

The portal in SLAtech Vantage

In SLAtech Vantage the client logs into a portal of their own, in Hebrew, English or Russian, whichever they choose. What it contains:

• the month's activity report by department, with hours and an amount for each department and the client's own ticket number;
• a monthly summary written automatically from the report data, and a chat that answers only from the knowledge base of the client's own project;
• export to Excel and PDF, which is recorded in a log;
• an access log page showing what the contractor created, changed, deleted or exported from the client's data;
• at the top of the portal, the mark of the business working with the client.

The contractor's internal split of hours between its own team and subcontractors does not reach the portal, the exports or the chat: the client sees exactly the same billed hours, without the split.

Frequently asked questions