12 KPMG and PointCast Team Up to "Push" Critical Information to

Beginning in January 1998, information-overloaded senior and mid- level financial services execs can turn to BankingInsider for industry news and analysis over the Internet. "There's no lack of information, but a lack of relevant information. Sifted by KPMG Peat Marwick professionals, BankingInsider will bring pertinent and timely articles to decision makers," asserts KPMG's Eugene D. O'Kelly, national director, banking and finance. This past September, KPMG announced the service launch with PointCast Inc., a self-styled Internet news network.

BankingInsider will cover everything from human resources issues to compliance over three channels: consumer banking, investment management and capital markets. Of the 10 to 15 general news issues affecting bankers on a daily basis, KPMG will narrow those down to one or two and provide commentary on each. On the same site, viewers will be able to read business publications (The Wall Street Journal and American Banker, for example). "Rather than a pile of trade magazines, costly monthly newsletters or expensive on-line newsfeeds, all the information a banker needs will be provided and updated daily, and it's free," explains Phil Carpenter, partner and marketing manager for PointCast Corp.

The service offers attractive options: By downloading the PointCast system, a bank, for example, can distribute Insider to all of its employees, preventing them from going through the company firewall to download it on their own. PointCast provides an additional five information channels, any one of which can be used as an internal corporate broadcast system, informing employees of, for example, the final day to sign up for a 401K plan.

The service will face challenges typical of those many startups confront, says IDC's Ian Campbell. Among them: generating enough interest in the banking community and providing key managers enough information without overburdening them. The biggest disadvantage to the service will be the advertisements that bankers will have to sit through. They will be as numerous as two per page, including those run by competitors. W.Royal

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