NewsGator Ships On-Demand RSS Reader For SMBsNewsGator Ships On-Demand RSS Reader For SMBs

NewsGator Technologies on Monday launched a hosted newsreader for small- and medium-sized businesses looking to distribute information from the Web to employees without the cost of deploying and maintaining in-house software.

NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand includes most of the features in the company's server product that companies can deploy internally. The hosted product, for example, cannot distribute behind-the-firewall RSS feeds.

RSS, or really simple syndication, is a standard format for distributing content updates from Web sites and blogs. Newsreaders enable people to subscribe to multiple news feeds and manage the content flow. The technology is helpful in business to automate the process of distributing information from the Web or from an internal network. For example, information on competitors could be distributed to sales staff.

Enterprise On-Demand offers centralized administration for managing users and subscriptions. In addition, companies can set up a custom catalog of feeds, users can share content and the Web interface can be modified to have the same look and feel as a corporate intranet. Reports can be generated on users and subscriptions.

The new product targets companies with less than 250 information workers or departments of large corporations. Unlike the internally deployed NewsGator Enterprise Server, the on-demand offering cannot be linked to corporate directories, a company spokesman said.

The on-demand service has been used in beta by 20 organizations, including software companies, venture capitalist firms, publishers and professional services companies, according to NewsGator. Customers include search company X1 Technologies and the National Geographic Society.

Companies that compete with NewsGator for corporate customers include Attensa and KnowNow.

NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand costs $100 per user per year, and companies can sign up online for a 30-day free trial.