Technological developments such as groupware and World Wide Web technology have opened up new opportunities for the delivery of information directly to the end-user's desktop. These advances have meant that suppliers are now producing a new breed of current awareness services (CAS), termed alerting services, which automatically filter newswires and download "profiled" stories to the user's desktop each day. This paper reviews the changes that are occurring in current awareness provision through a consideration of findings from a pilot taking place in KPMG, an international firm of accountants and management consultants serving local and global clients. A review was conducted which consisted of three stages: review questionnaire results to determine how end-users felt about CAS; the selection of individuals and services for the implementation of the pilot; and the distribution of a questionnaire to obtain feedback on the pilot. Results of the pilot study demonstrated that three organizational factors need to be given serious consideration before an alerting service is established: (1) information technology infrastructure harmonization; (2) the likelihood of users incorporating information retrieval into their working practices; and (3) the delivery platform. (Contains 12 references.) (AEF)