Problem/Objective: Currently, many information management systems act as silos in collecting and distributing information. Individuals have become burdened with the task of accessing multiple and disparate systems on a daily basis to contribute or gather pertinent data. A portal provides a user-centered unified system thus creating increased efficiency and productivity.

Methods: The California Tobacco Control Program, in partnership with Florida State University, developed the California Online Tobacco Control System (OTIS) v2 a portal that integrates its business management systems (Tobacco plan application, reporting, etc) with its information-communication systems (announcements, directories, calendar, tasks) to provide real-time user-centered data

Results: The portal provides hundreds of users a single interface for accessing what were previously 12 disparate systems into several related silos thus eliminating redundancy in information collection and management. The portal also provides the user personal tools i.e., calendar, tasks. Most importantly the portal provides a shared system that provides its users with real-time access to their own information as well as to other stakeholder's contacts, objectives, activities, materials, evaluators, and events.

Conclusions: Creating a portal gives users an efficient and easy way to access personal and shared information that can then be used to support program success. How the portal facilitates the user's ability to harness distributed knowledge and put that knowledge to work in coordinated, systematic ways will be discussed.