London-based investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is to use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) as a mechanism to distribute research notes to clients.
The investment bank, which has championed the use of new social media technologies such as blogs and wikis internally, says it will use RSS to provide its 50,000 clients with timely and relevant access to research. DrKW currently produces approximately 400 documents per week ranging from two to 200 pages.
A bank spokesman says: "Obviously in an industry like investment banking where the markets can move on information extremely quickly, timely access to relevant research and information is essential so the use of RSS to distribute the research could be both extremely valuable to clients and an important differentiator for DrKW in a highly competitive market."
The move follows the recent announcement by Bear Stearns that it will begin using podcasting technology to deliver equity and fixed income research and other content to clients. The 'BearCast' captures the bank's conference calls, proprietary research and special events in downloadable audio files for investors to listen to anywhere.
Developments in Web media technologies such as blogs and other online collaborative tools are challenging the research departments of investment banks to find new ways of distributing their output.
DrKW has been a leading exponent of the Web 2.0 revolution. The bank's blog-friendly CIO JP Rangaswami believes that DrKW has created the largest internal corporate wiki in existence, comprising more than 3000 pages and accessed by more than 1800 users – some 30 per cent of the bank’s workforce.
The bank currently uses RSS feeds internally to inform employees when the contents of the wiki or staff blogs are updated.