Push technologies are starting to live up to their hype and are finding a home in corporate America.

The usefulness of the loose group of technologies that enables data to be published via Internet "channels" goes beyond the mass-audience appeal of the popular PointCast Inc. application, say corporate users.

Rather, IT managers are adopting push to automate and streamline jobs that can be time-consuming and costly, such as triggering database processes, distributing and maintaining software, and publishing sales and inventory information to business partners. The benefits are clear: savings in time and money.

In some cases, especially in the financial services industry, successful implementations of push are based on IT managers waking up to a solution that's already available but goes beyond the scrolling stock ticker. <

"Push is not new; it's old. We've been broadcasting financial data for years," said Rich Gaiti, first vice president of advanced office systems and technology at Merrill Lynch Inc., in Princeton, N.J. "But the way we're using the technology today is enabling our consultants to be better informed, make better decisions, and as a result better service our customers and clients."

Merrill's new push application is part of a new TGA (Trusted Global Advisor) system set to be deployed this year to more than 25,000 users, or more than 50 percent of its work force, in 700 locations. Competitors Fidelity Investments Inc. and Lehman Brothers also are on the cutting edge of push technology, as are other large sites including hospitals and technology companies.

Merrill's broad TGA system provides financial consultants with client information, portfolio management, investment tools, stock market information, news reports and historical data.

Integrated into TGA is a customized version of Desktop Data Inc.'s NewsEdge online news service that provides consultants with customized news feeds about clients and companies that they track. Intermingled with the news feeds is historical analysis that is pushed out of Merrill's database on a scheduled basis.

"Our users are saying they're more productive and better able to meet the needs of their customers as a result of having unlimited access to information at their fingertips," said Gaiti.

For a related project, Merrill is examining how Marimba Inc.'s Castanet delivery framework, among other technologies, could also be used to deploy applications, as well as data, to users.

Fidelity Investments sees push as an alternative to E-mail for notifying key employees of internal information that heretofore had been scattered throughout numerous corporate databases, said Steve Rubinow, vice president of information services at Fidelity, in Boston.

With BackWeb Technologies Inc.'s namesake system, Fidelity is pushing financial, operational and investment data from an Oracle Corp. database to analysts. Currently the weekly updates are going to 15 Fidelity analysts; by this summer, the company plans to expand to a daily information feed to more than 100 analysts. The system also can embed live links to intranet pages if users need additional information.

E-mail could deliver the information as efficiently, but it doesn't guarantee the user will read it on time. "E-mail requires users to interact with the message, and some of these items analysts need to see," Rubinow said.

Since financial services companies traditionally reside on the cutting edge of technology adoption, a clearer indication of IT's warming up to push technology is that systems are popping up in organizations whose main mission is not as reliant on computer technology.

St. Luke Episcopal Hospital, part of the Houston Medical Center, recently deployed an intranet and an information push system based on Wayfarer Inc.'s Incisa server technology. Its goal is to reduce the amount of paper that crosses the desks of employees.

Deployed to more than 1,500 users, the system sends out updates and news flashes about goings-on at the hospital, said Gary Scullin, information systems data analyst at the hospital.

"There is going to be a lot of evolving with this system," said Scullin. "Right now, it is the front end for our intranet, but we see plans for breaking up the information being sent out to groups so we can target their interests."

Lessening the reliance on paper-based information systems is the reasoning behind Ascend Communications Inc.'s deployment of Diffusion Inc.'s IntraExpress push system.

Ascend, a remote access networking vendor, is using IntraExpress to communicate with its VARs and ultimately with its field sales force.

Each product launch costs Ascend up to $35,000 to inform its channel partners, said Les Sparrey, director of channel marketing at Ascend, in Alameda, Calif. The company plans to have all 100 VARs, and as many as 1,300 individuals, hooked into IntraExpress this summer.

In addition, Ascend is turning its newsletter into a weekly pushed edition rather than sending out a paper newsletter every six weeks. "By that time the news was old," said Sparrey.

Going forward, the company also is looking to deploy the system to its field sales force to keep them up-to-date on products and news when they are out of the office.

While each company's goal for deploying push systems is different, one common theme runs through all of the rollouts: Push systems are not the focus; rather, they are just a tool for providing the right information to the right user. And that objective appears to be working.

"Push is a technology and not a product or finished application," said Harry Kenik, a vice president for Zona Research, based in Redwood City, Calif. "Companies need to do a lot of work to build something that meets their needs."

Push technology caught your eye? Implementing the technology may be a lot more involved than you think. For an in-depth look at how major IT shops are deploying, integrating and cost-justifying push technology, look for an article by Lawrence Aragon in the June 2 issue of PC Week Executive. He'll show how others are making push work.

Copyright(c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.