Best way to send instant business related info over the web

[Koxinga]

This feels a little like a "help me with my homework" question, so I apologize in advance. I'd really like to know you all's opinions, though:

I'm thinking to start a business sending financial data and simple analysis to a specific type of self-employed finance professional--a professional who is probably working at home on a computer. What kind of service should I use? Should I try some instant messenger service like ICQ or Yahoo Messenger, or use some more fancy schmancy method? If we go with fancy schmancy, what would that be?

The financial data wouldn't be anything requiring a constant stream of updates, but I probably would be sending out alerts five or six times during the business day.

Danke schoen,

DHR

[micco]

You might try RSS, which is a method of syndicating content so a user can subscribe to a certain channel and get updates when you publish them. You might need to build in some subscription controls to insure that only authorized people could subscribe, but it might suit your purpose and make it easy to publish new alerts.
http://email.about.com/cs/rss/