Users Tap RSS Tools to Ease Info Overload

Computerworld - Like other employers that are installing RSS tools for their workers, Union Bank of California NA hopes the technology can help tame an internal communications overload.

About 80 departments and groups within the San Francisco-based bank are hitting employees with a steady stream of mass e-mails and voice mails as well as intranet postings, said James Penn, Union Banks vice president of interactive marketing and communications.

And the deluge of often-irrelevant information has been taking its toll on workforce productivity, Penn said. For example, some salespeople have fallen behind in learning about the banks latest offers and promotions, and that is affecting their ability to pitch the deals to customers, according to Penn. We definitely needed to do something, he said.

Union Bank, a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corp., has 248 branch offices in California, Oregon and Washington. It is now in the pilot phase of deploying an enterprise RSS system from KnowNow Inc. and expects to eventually roll out the technology to all of its 10,000 or so employees.

As part of the project, Union Banks IT staff is creating targeted RSS feeds, so that workers will receive fewer but more-relevant messages, Penn said.

Other companies are also turning to RSS technology to try to help workers keep up with an ever-increasing amount of information. Users and analysts say that in particular, RSS servers and readers can provide a more precise and efficient delivery mechanism than e-mail does.

The first problem we see addressed regularly with enterprise RSS systems is e-mail overload, said Oliver Young, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

An enterprise RSS system can be ideal for delivering the type of information that employees need to know but dont necessarily have to act on right away, Young said. He added that e-mails containing such information  a corporate benefits update or an internal newsletter, for example  often end up being deleted or ignored.

A company with an RSS system, on the other hand, could post the information on its intranet and send out alerts with built-in links.

Vendors such as Know­Now, Attensa Inc. and News­Gator Technologies Inc. have developed enterprise RSS software that can be integrated with corporate directories and security tools, giving IT departments control over the technology.

In addition, Microsoft Corp. and IBMs Lotus Software division have started to add RSS capabilities to their messaging and collaboration products.

At the division of the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) that provides medical services to residents of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, the IT department has significantly reduced the volume of e-mails by installing a NewsGator RSS system, said David Rendall, a computer programmer who is involved in the project.

But Rendall added that he has had to hold frequent training sessions to promote the use of the RSS system by the 600 or so end users at NHS Orkney. The biggest challenge is helping people make the switch from relying on e-mail, he said.

User indifference and ignorance, along with the familiarity of e-mail, are common barriers to RSS adoption in workplaces, according to Young. He recommends starting deployments within specific workgroups, with the stated goal of fixing known communication issues.

Perez writes for the IDG News Service.