27 May 2008
Pfizer launches enterprise RSS, with "Pfacebook" on its way
"RSS allows people more control over what content they consume" says technology manager.
Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer has unveiled a large-scale enterprise RSS project and plans for a Facebook-style internal social network.
Speaking to Computer World Australia, Pfizer enterprise technology manager Simon Revell said there were many benefits of enterprise RSS, and discussed plans for the temporarily dubbed "Pfacebook", which is in the early stages of its launch.
The benefits of RSS
"RSS has huge potential," says Revell. "Even if you ignore doing any of the other things in this space in the enterprise, RSS has a role to play. We have a whole bunch of content inside of Pfizer that we want to expose. We have a lot of internal websites, internet sites and applications. And anyone in any role has to touch quite a few of them in their work."
Even if you ignore doing any of the other things in this space in the enterprise, RSS has a role to play.
Our suite is a social solution very similar to BlogLines, where you can see what other people are subscribing to and how they react to it," he adds. "That fuels the social aspect of it."
"In addition, unlike email where people can get bogged down by correspondence they don't really want or need to read, RSS allows people more control over what content they consume and how they consume it," he added.
A comms leader
Pfizer's widespread embrace of social media or enterprise 2.0 is by no means unusual for a company that has traditionally been an early adopter of new technology trends and strong advocate of innovative internal communication techniques.
The company launched Pfizerpedia in 2006 and was one of the first major organizations to adopt Microsoft SharePoint 2007.
An example of the company's approach to internal communication can be found in the Melcrum research report, How to communicate with hard-to-reach employees, in which a case study describes a change initiative in 2007 that employed personal video diaries which were then published on the intranet.
The diaries were one of many alternative and informal approaches to internal consultations that included the more regularly used executive roadshows and feedback forums.
Have your say
Lagging behind or steaming ahead – is your organization embracing or dismissing enterprise 2.0 technologies? Are attitudes towards technology similar to other new approaches?
Discuss these issues and more with fellow practitioners in the Internal Comms Hub members group on the Communicators' Network.
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Q&A: Please can you give me short descriptions of wikis, blogs, RSS?
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