If you are purely a Microsoft shop (which it appears you are not on the server side), then Sharepoint, eRoom, or Groove would be fine. Lotus Notes would be overkill. BTW I've used all the above products and think they are good in the right circumstance.

A portal would be valuable beyond just project updates and I'd suggest you download the free trial of Mulgrew from eSelf. Mulgrew is Java based and provides a much more feature rich, and IMO, easier to use and configure/customize solution that Sharepoint. It can use Mysql or other database system.