Whether it's meant to be social, collaborative or just resource sharing - they all need some sort of portal that facilitates one or more of those 3 main problems.

If you're 1 or 2 people, you could be sitting right next to each other, but you still need a way to manage all your knowledge and conversations with customers or business. I don't think it would be advantageous to use email and your local computer to share resources - that seems highly inefficient.

If you're 20 people, all remotely located, you definitely need a portal! Communication will be a really big issue.

I personally find it crazy to hear of an organization that doesn't have a portal to solve any of those 3 problems. So... you're telling me you're a 50 person company, you're using e-mail... and a file server... whaatttt?

I have my own side project (outside of work), where I'm building a new product. I'm using Igloo Software (by myself) to store all my procedures, ideas, deadlines, tasks, library of terms, gallery of images for idea generation, etc.  Can you imagine trying to save that in docs? I'd go mad. It's terribly inefficient - especially when there are fantastic solutions like Igloo Software.

I also use TradeSNS at work, to share files/case studies with colleagues,  find an update with what's happening with product releases, ask questions in a forum to find a solution, request time off, find my benefits, share status updates with sales, etc... the list goes on!!

We've worked with companies of all sizes looking for a portal, of some sort. Doesn't matter if you're big or small - you need one, if productivity and efficiency is important to you.

How that portal looks like is really defined by the core needs (communication, collaboration, or resource/knowledge sharing). The bigger your company, the more complex the info architecture tends to be (to cater to so many different stakeholders). The smaller the company, the more simplistic your site is.