A system and method for securely controlling (e.g., “starting” and “stopping”) a WebSphere Portal (WP) in a production environment without the requirement of having knowledge of (and using) the administrator credentials (ID and password). The system and method, as implemented in a Java application, receives from requesting users and determines whether the requesting users are authorized to control (start/stop) the portal by comparing each requesting user's ID and PW against a list of authorized user IDs and PWs and, if there is a match, passing on the authorized user ID and PW to the portal for controlling (starting/stopping) the WebSphere Portal. The system and method further conveys portal control request authorized user acceptances or portal control request unauthorized user rejections—depending upon whether the requesting user's ID and PW matches any of the list of authorized user IDs and PWs.