Posted on October 3, 2006
Room 214 Puts RSS Feed Authentication into Enterprise Podcasting Strategy
BY JAMES CLARK
As interest in corporate podcast increases, there's a need for a unified delivery strategy between those seeking to podcast and the IT departments responsible for protection of corporate data.
First as referenced by Stan Gibson, of CIO Insight in his article Podcasting: An Enterprise Hit: "The issue: Podcasting presents a conundrum for technology executives, many of whom told eWeek they don't have a podcasting strategy or much to do with the practice. For now, business units--say, the marketing department or sales--are leading podcasting efforts. These units may create their own systems or acquire them without consulting the technology department."
Very true to our own experiences. The sales and marketing departments see tremendous value in the currency of being able to quickly and efficiently communicate within the organization and with customers through podcasting.
Imagine a regional sales VP being able to easily upload a podcast on pricing strategy and having all the traveling sales rep instantly get the update on their mobile phone.
The natural advantages of podcasting has many sales and marketing groups end-running the IT department, because as Stan mentioned, IT has no strategy and little to do with the practice.
The danger in not including the IT department in this process is from a content privacy standpoint. Sales and marketing understands the benefits of podcasting, but often overlook the basic technology behind it.
By definition a podcast is audio delivered through an RSS feed, and if a competitor gets a hold of your sales team RSS feed, they'll also happily listen to you're selling strategy. This is huge double take for enterprise podcasting and often shuts down the effort all together.
A true RSS feed authentication platform is where IT departments need to start crafting its corporate podcasting strategy. Sure for a podcast like FitPod.com the more listeners the better, so protecting the feed is of no concern. But from an enterprise perspective, where corporate strategy and inside discussions take place, the highest level of RSS feed authentication and security is required.
Room 214 has a RSS feed authentication podcast platform that we've been using for such programs, one in particular is for the Alltel Audibles podcasts featuring NFL star receivers Steve Smith, Joe Horn, Larry Fitzgerald and Joe Jurevicius. The podcast feed is exclusive for Alltel customers for two days, prior to the public release on Fridays.
