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You might be inclined to think the first company to test RSS for internal communications would be a high-tech company, Microsoft, say, or Sun.

According to an article (PDF file) in Investors Business Daily, though, a business services company-Amsterdam-based ING Groep-got the early lead when it launched a pilot test with 200 employees early this year.

I know that Siemens is also using RSS, but who am I to argue with IBD about who came first?

According to the article, the employees are receiving a broad range of information, from benefits updates to new-hire announcements. If the experiment goes well-and why shouldn't it?-RSS will roll out to 20,000 employees by the end of the year.

The key benefit to employing RSS-at least from ING's perspective-is consistent delivery. The article recalls an instance when new CEO Michael Tilmant sent an e-mail message to all employees, but because some e-mail filters delayed delivery, not everyone saw it at the same time. Using RSS also ensures delivery across different information systems installed at different business groups.

Thanks to my friend Bill Boyd, ABC, for pointing me to the article, which resides on the site of KnowNow, the company that is providing RSS feed services to ING.

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.