Enterprise RSS as a Management Tool
When many people think of RSS in the enterprise today, they often think of the benefit that this technology brings to the information worker. There is no question that someone who relies heavily on information sources to do his or her job will benefit greatly from RSS. Use cases for this type of work include competitive intelligence, PR coverage tracking, market analysis, corporate research and brand monitoring. Every corporate worker relies on information to some degree or another, whether that information comes from external or internal sources. The oft-lamented “information overload” problem plagues us all.
Information Under-Load
But it occurred to me that I also frequently suffer from “information under-load.” Why? In a senior management or executive role, one has to pay attention to a vast array of information, but at the appropriate level of detail. Not every piece of information requires attention all the time. If I work in sales, there is a good chance that I keep a Sales Force Automation (SFA) solution such as SalesForce open and active all day. If I am a project or development manager, I might use a tool such as Rally daily.
But in a job such as mine, I don’t necessarily need to or have the bandwidth necessary to use these tools daily. Which means that I may be missing out on valuable information, either because it is too time-consuming or tedious to check multiple information sources regularly.
Information Management Nirvana
How does RSS help? Vendors of enterprise systems such as the ones mentioned above are starting to recognize that consumption of information via RSS will be a ubiquitous usage pattern in a few years. When that ubiquity occurs, I will be able to subscribe to the targeted information source I need when I need it and ONLY when I need it. Here’s how I envision my own information management nirvana.
I fire up my computer in the morning, knowing that I have 10 meetings scheduled throughout the day and 30 minutes to get my head wrapped around 20 high-priority issues. I go straight to my preferred NewsGator Enterprise RSS reader, which is the web interface. If I happened to be taking public transportation that morning, I am already ahead of the game because NewsGator offers several mobile readers. But I digress. In that 30 minute-period from a single interface, I would be able to:
1) Check on the support status of a high-profile enterprise customer. Earlier in the week, I would have subscribed to open cases for that specific account because it is top of mind. At the end of the day, I may be satisfied that we are on track with the customer and I can move on to another account or decide I don’t need any additional insight into SalesForce for the remainder of the week.
2) Check on upcoming marketing events. I like to attend a trade show or two each year, and I can check on updates to the events calendar maintained in SalesForce. If I see a conference I like, I can make a note to actually log in to SalesForce later in the day to get more detail.
3) Check on the status of a development iteration. I don’t have time to check on all projects, but I could have chosen to subscribe to a feed for a project that is nearing a product release. Next week, I may subscribe to feeds for other projects.
4) Take a look at articles and blog posts indicated as interesting or important by my peers on the management team or, especially, my boss. This is a great example of managing the information under-load problem. My colleagues are helping me hone in on what is most relevant by using a valuable feature in the NewsGator Enterprise Server known as group clippings.
5) OK, I have five minutes left. Might as well check weather updates, the events calendar for my health club and the latest celebrity gossip. Hey, I need a little fun in my day!
As a user of enterprise RSS for more than a year, I can’t imagine returning to the days when
I needed to check 10 disparate information sources to decide what was important. The syndication model offered by RSS is elegant in its simplicity – really!
-- Karyn German
VP Product Development and Support
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