An intranet portal is the gateway that unifies access to enterprise information and applications on an intranet. It is a tool that helps a company manage its data, applications, and information more easily through personalized views. Some portal solutions are able to integrate legacy applications, objects from other portals, and handle thousands of user requests. In a corporate enterprise environment, it is also known as an enterprise portal.

Intranet and Internet share many elements and use the same technologies, but they fundamentally differ in their purposes. Unlike the Internet, an intranet operates within a private network. Connectivity transpires within the process called address mapping. Here, Intranet addresses are converted to Internet addresses to provide the required transparency and vice versa.

Through an intranet portal, a private network is able to impose its own local rules of behavior because of the installation and maintenance of a mechanism such as a firewall and intranet portal solutions. Web browsers cannot connect to the server behind it and must contact the gateway machine and abide by the restrictions mandated by the gateway. Only users within an organization can access the network. Users can also access the Internet by abiding by a set of local rules. The scope of the network allows the intranet portal to perform faster with higher throughput than the Internet.

Corporate intranets began gaining popularity during the 1990s. As intranets quickly grew more complex, the concept of an intranet portal was born. Today, intranet portals provide value-added capabilities such as managing workflows, increasing collaboration between work groups, and allowing content creators to self publish their information.

A typical example of a web platform used to build and host an intranet is Microsoft SharePoint, which is used by 46% of organizations. SharePoint provides features necessary for collaboration, integration, and customization. as an example in North Korea, instead of using the traditional network setup, there is a state-wide intranet.

Intranet portal helps employees make better and more informed decisions, which result from increased knowledge. It also helps reduce costs, saves time, increases collaboration, increases productivity and effectiveness.

Intranet portal can help employees find information more easily and perform their jobs better, though few portal designs are optimal just out-of-the-box. In fact, especially in smaller companies, designers can realize some features found in off-the-shelf portal software through simpler (do-it-yourself) means. Most intranets have become completely unwieldy and present a highly fragmented and confusing user experience, with no consistency and little navigational support. Portals aim to correct this problem by presenting a single gateway to all corporate information and services. One benefit of creating this consistent look and feel is users need less time to learn how to use the environment. They also more easily recognize where they are in the portal and where they can go—no small feat when navigating a large information space. By integrating services and presenting personalized snippets on the initial screen, intranet portals also reduce the need for users to browse far and wide to obtain needed information, thus making it easier for them to perform their jobs.

Intranet portal is a Web-based tool that allows users to create a customized site that dynamically pulls in Internet activities and desired content into a single page. By providing a contextual framework for information, portals can bring S&T (Science and Technology) and organizational "knowledge" to the desktop.