Skin deep
Although it isn't really new, portal integration is a great idea that is gaining popularity with vendors. One of the best things about it is that it allows application integration without having to deal with data layer integration issues, which are always painful. In addition, it is possible to create kind of a virtual application that wraps together stovepipe apps to better suit a business case. I've been doing some exploration on the new SharePoint services in Microsoft and it is much improved over the previous version and allows flexible integration. Although it isn't right in every situation, portal integration will probably be of increasing importance over the next few years.