Applied RSS in the Enterprise

Client KnowNow's Ron Rasmussen, and customers Phoenix Technologies and Rentals.com are on the Syndicate stage talking about applied RSS in the Enterprise and what the values are versus any other method.

If you can syndicate information out of your CRM internal system, then you can route and deliver that information to various devices, such as IM and mobile systems. Inside the enterprise, you need to be able to add security to the feed, which is a very different paradigm. An enterprise syndication system needs to be able to do that.

There are three main case scenarios KnowNow has been seeing in the market:

--market and competitive intelligence, i.e., what people are saying on the Internet and using our notification system to bring that information in immediately.

--corporate communications: internet communications, internal and external content. How do I communicate and publish a message that 50,000 people subscribe to? And how to I take that same information to my customers externally as well?

-material event notifications, i.e., a lead in a CRM system

A main benefit is that applied RSS can now deliver a competitive advantage and makes your communication with your customers more effective.

Delatte talks about their dilemma at Rentals.com. The ability to push data out there through a traditional computer telephony interface application is impossible because of technical and user limitations. The cost of implementation would go through the roof, but we can do it easily through RSS. Their customers are seeing notification of information that is important to them through KnowNow eLerts.

Says Delatte, "There’s a huge business impact on our business, in being to offer real leads to our rental properties. The notification kicks off the business process; it gives the owner the ability to monitor staff performance and take advantage of targeted advertising. Now that we have a consistent way to consolidate all of this information, RSS gives us the ability to deploy widescale and the ongoing costs are minimal. It’s an effective way of developing better relationships with customers.”

On building versus buying, why build when you have no in-house experience? We would also have to change our IT infrastructure, and it would havhe delayed our time to market. Through buying, we have more development flexibility and its always available.

Adds Delatte, "We believe that RSS gives us a strategic advantage." Deployment of KnowNow’s RSS solution was easier than they thought it was going to be, there was minimal download time, it works well within hardware limitations, and its stable.

Phoenix Technologies' CIO Cliff Bell talks about how RSS is being used in his business.

Emerging technologies such as Wi-Max, meshed networks, wireless access and the network can be assumed to be there 24 x 7. On devices, the PDA can operate like a notebook does today and all devices are becoming more communication aware.

Says Cliff, "the availability to get information to my users is nearly 24/7. Now, the challenge is how do I make it easy to deliver that information in a way that my customers want. How do I draw people from email to receiving that data in an immediate way through instant communication, like IM and other services.

RSS Dilemmas:
--some users see RSS and email as similar
--email application must be loaded to get the message

The Challenges:
--finding the real time need
--connecting the use of RSS to corporate applications

The Opportunity:
--finding a way to deliver users information whenever they are on the Internet
--No user intervention is required
--Secure access back to corporate applications

Now, leads go to sales people immediately. Here's how it works: RSS feed goes out to an end-user, the user then clicks on the pop-up, the script determines whether they're inside or outside the firewall, and the application is launched. If outside the firewall, it will launch SSL VPN, and then it loads the application.

The value proposition is that they are now able to take the technology out of the way, and reach customers wherever they are, without the need to learn VPN technology. It’s essentially one click from message to story.

Tag: Syndicate
Tag: Syndicate 2006
Tag: Enterprise RSS
Tag: Syndication