Push Returns With A Punch

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

November 08, 1999 (10:08 AM EST)

Push vendor BackWeb Technologies is nudging its products back into the e-business mainstream, launching an initiative called Proactive Web with a bandwidth-savvy infrastructure called Polite push on Monday.

In the old days of push -- three years ago -- problems with bandwidth management, namely networks choked with pushed data, initially plagued the major push vendors BackWeb, Marimba, and Pointcast.

But Eli Barkat, CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based BackWeb, said his company has largely resolved that with Polite push, which sends out information when networks are idle, thus avoiding a drain on performance.

Compaq, Cisco, SAP, U S West, and Hewlett-Packard are customers discovering new business applications for push technologies, Barkat said.

"We believe it is an absolute proven trend in the e-business world that push is gaining a tremendous momentum in infrastructure for critical, time-sensitive, and complex information delivery," Barkat said. "Push used in the context of information that people have to get and deals with networks effectively is becoming a de facto component of e-business."

An example is Compaq, which operates an eService system to push fixes and software patches to customers who opt for the program. Compaq has pushed over 13 million performance updates to Presario owners over the past 15 months, said Geraldine Rossiter, Compaq manager of eService delivery.

"Compaq realizes a substantial cost savings by proactively minimizing technical support issues," Rossiter said. "However, the greatest benefit is our ability to increase customer satisfaction."

Another case is Cisco, which uses BackWeb push technology to send alerts to 11,000 sales people, advising them about new products and promotions. The alerts pop up on desktops and notify the sales force of time-sensitive information.

A recent GartnerGroup study found push technology is on the rise again. The Stamford, Conn.-based industry analyst said the push technology is most effective in companies that require the ability to deliver custom content to employees in the enterprise.

"Examples are financial services or sales force automation organizations where specific individuals need closed-loop notifications of important information that require immediate, high-priority action," the GartnerGroup study said. "This example is the province of BackWeb, whereas scenarios having to do with customer relationship management may be best supported by Diffusion/Vignette or software distribution, and application management may be better handled by Marimba."

In the financial services arena, BackWeb products have provided services for speeding market information, communications, and customer service at Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles-based institutional brokerage. Jefferies joins other financial services customers of BackWeb's, including Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and Norwest Bank.

"We deliver politely, we capture your attention, and we close the loop and report back about who got what," Barkat said. "Push is back to where it could have been three years ago. The problem was never the concept, only the way it was used."