Presuming you do cover these topics somewhere, will our intrepid investor find what you are providing? How hard will this task be for him? Is your website effective in informing, or does it make it a challenge? If it is a challenge, well… why are you allowing it to be a challenge?

It seems IRO’s usually strive for communication effectiveness in ways suitable to the form they are delivering meesages in:

-    for required filings and releases effectiveness is in accurate reporting, a transparent writing style, and balanced treatment of opportunities and challenges;

-    in presentations they shoot for nicely designed PowerPoint slides, hopefully with legibly-sized type and some consistency in visual style;

-    in speech delivery or one-on-ones they practice-up the executives for an engaging and credible delivery.

Yet investor sections of corporate websites are not getting the idea of “effectiveness”. They may be getting the idea of ‘completeness’, but they are just not getting the ‘Internet’ part.

Not many of your favorite websites would consider their efforts to engage their audience complete with the addition of a PDF. Frankly, I can’t think of any good (non-investor related) website that would trust key messages to only PDFs. Well, maybe government websites, but they’re not really in any sort of competition based on effectiveness. Oh, and they’re not trying to achieve a fully and fairly valued stockprice based on informed investors. Oh, and they’re not worried about their cost of capital.

So, back to the idea of considering whether you are communicating foundation material on your website effectively. Ask: “Why should someone who doesn’t know my company invest in it?” “Can my website answer basic questions that will engage them in our story?” “How difficult does my website make it to find these answers?”

Get your visitors, especially potential investors, off to a strong start when they visit your website. (Please Note: I didn’t say “When they visit your Filing Cabinet”).

Don’t make the task of evaluating your company more work then it has to be. Don’t make them convince themselves of your worthiness. Don’t make them play BattleDecks with your sans-remarks Investor Slideshow.

Get your content strategy together. If you’re interested in doing better talk to us at zu.

This screen capture from the I-Metrix brochure displays the concurrent presentation of financials for Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, and Dell generated from the XBRL feeds from Edgar Online. This type of tool will greatly accelerate the data gathering process for potential investors from hours to minutes.

Soon the ‘go-to’ description of your enterprise will become the equivalent of a food label nutrition chart in a ‘just the facts’ approach to providing information.

Here we can compare two brands of chocolate chip cookies.

But is this how we buy food? By only looking at these measurables? We all know that, despite the similar make-up of these products, they don’t taste the same and one will be more successful than the other.

The reasons for success may be better explained in the story that goes with the product then in the nutritional performance data.

When XBRL allows your company to be compared side-by-side with its peers in a generic GAAP-compliant view, such as those provided conveniently by I-Metrix, then what is the next step in the analysis? What’s missing?

What will increasingly matter on the Internet and on your website will be the ‘other stuff’, not the financial reporting. It will be the story the CEO tells investors in person. When he’s running the conversation he isn’t reading XBRL to the audience, he’s adding the context, the long-term strategy, and the positioning explaining markets, outlook, competitive advantage and so forth.

When the quantitative XBRL filtering and screening is over with, and the analyst or retail investor visits your website, are they going to get what’s missing? Or is it just out-of-date, coffee table book statements about the company with links to PDF financial reports that are rather superfluous to the slicing and dicing already done by XBRL readers?

Will they find current high-value materials provided in an engaging way? Will they see the clarity in the plan that fosters a corporate culture that will win in their chosen field and create shareholder value? Will it bring to life the recipe that makes a company a success?

When widely disemminated XBRL viewers focus attention on your last quarter’s earnings blips, are you ready to show an engaging version of why your company is a worthy investment?

Even as we integrate new communication forms and technologies, let’s keep our eye on the website.

Cameco and PotashCorp were listed as the Best Ranked IR Websites in North America. They were in good company alongside Intel, General Electric Company, Microsoft, Bank of Montreal, Del Monte Foods Company, and Overseas Shipholding Group.

After a complete site redesign and reengineering in 2008, Cameco has worked to enhance their environmental assessment content, regularly update the CEO messaging, add webcast and audio recordings, and consistently keep the site’s content fresh and relevant. In the past Cameco achieved an overall Top 5 ranking for best ranked IR website in North America (2009) and best online annual report in North America (2008), along with best IR website as ranked by technical criteria in North America (2008), and best IR website in Canada by technical criteria (2008).

“We strive to be a leader in our ongoing communication with investors,” says Lyle Krahn, Cameco’s director of external communications. “We rely on zu’s knowledge, advice and expertise to achieve that goal with our website. The awards reflect our combined efforts.”

PotashCorp reloaded and relaunched this year with a complete redesign and reengineering of their website. The new site features a  DataTool that allows users to easily find historical market and company information, and a library to access a range of documents in one convenient location. The focus on ease of navigation and simplified usability was spurred by feedback collected from investors. In past years PotashCorp has taken home IR Global Rankings awards including Best Online Annual Report in North America (2009), Best IR Website in the Basic Materials industry (2006), and Top 4 for Best Earnings Releases and Disclosure Procedures in North America (2006).

“At PotashCorp we focus on clear, transparent and timely disclosure,” says Denita Stann, senior director of investor relations with PotashCorp. “Our website is an important part of our communication strategy, and zu’s expertise and vision has been a key part of our success.”

“It is extremely rewarding for our team at zu to see the accolades our clients receive from everyone’s hard work,” commented Lejbak. “We are very proud of the work Cameco and PotashCorp have done and believe they will remain leaders in online Investor Relations for many years to come.”

About the IR Gobal Rankings
The annual IR Global Rankings and Awards survey is the most comprehensive auditing and ranking system for IR websites, corporate governance practices and financial disclosure procedures – a great opportunity to benchmark IR efforts vis-à-vis peers and industry leaders. Based on extensive proprietary research of publicly held companies and investors, and supported by input from independent audit, corporate governance and legal experts, MZ’s methodology is highly detailed, transparent and fully accessible to all participants.

In addition to the Overall Award of Excellence, PotashCorp walked away with the awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting, Excellence in Electronic Disclosure and an Award of Excellence for the mining sector. In addition, they collected the Honourable Mention for Excellence in Sustainable Development Reporting.

We’re proud to be an interactive provider for PotashCorp, working closely with local communications firm, Creative Fire. Go team!

Also, big shout out to TransCanada for taking home the Award of Excellence in the real estate/utilities and pipelines industry category.

The CICAs
The Chartered Accountants of Canada Corporate Reporting Awards  is the only national awards program that recognizes excellence and best practices in corporate reporting. Now in its 58th year, the CRA presents awards for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting.

Register for the webcast replay

Read our Q&A transcript summary from this live webcast event to learn how to get more from your IR budget and transform your online annual report into an effective communication piece.

1. Is there a role for web 2.0 or social media in online annual reports and are there some examples you can share?

Dominic: I don’t have any examples that spring to mind but there are a handful of companies that are trying to engage their shareholders in discussion with a feedback form. There’s a lot of opportunity for social media in OAR. Think about using a video that might accompany a CEO Letter. You can use social bookmarking  for your OAR publicly and you can widgetize your reports and make them shareable. The reality is, there is going to be discussion about your annual report, whether you like it or not. It will happen on your site or off your site.

2. How long do you see annual reports and sustainability reports existing separately?

Tim: This is a good question and one we consider all the time. Every company has a different view, but from our perspective they are different reports, different users, and different time frames. Sustainability information is not available at the same time our annual report is released. Although we produce a summary manual we separate them. The user experience is different, too. If we did it all in print it would be trashed—no one wants to read a 200-page book anymore.

3. What is the use of videos in OAR and is there an opportunity for an OAR to be exclusively in video only?

Kate: Absolutely not. You want to provide your reporting information in as many different ways—that’s the point of the web—you need to give users options. The user might want to watch a video or download a pdf—let them do that. Barclays Annual Report provides a very good example of custom video just for their OAR; there is a section that includes six to seven speakers.

4. Regarding concepts of engagement in a sustainability report. Do you think companies always need to produce a complete printed report?

Tim: We look at who our primary users are. We have about 90% institutional shareholders. Our European base is far more concerned about sustainability than our North American shareholder base. As a trend, sustainability reports are becoming increasingly important for investors. Our perception studies show that investors think we are doing a good job in sustainability; we do focus on our user but we cannot plan our IR program around a very small portion of potential users. We still print a summary report but there is cost benefit for us to publish online.

5. What is your opinion on putting videos on YouTube? Are there any issues of disclosure?

Dominic: I don’t see any issues. As long as you enable people to share and interact. YouTube is also cheap.

6. As far as someone getting started with producing on OAR, what are the basics for functionality?

Dominic: As per my presentation, these are the minimum requirements:  HTML, searchable and print-friendly.

7. How big is the IR team at PotashCorp and how do you manage the process of producing so many online reports?

Tim: We have a small team and draw on additional support. One of the best things about PotashCorp is that everyone gets involved in disclosure. We have great support from the legal and financial side. We only produce one OAR a year so it isn’t that many to manage. As far as our overall focus is concerned we rely heavily on our investor relations team. It takes a lot of responsibility and we rely heavily on Creative Fire, zu and one or two other key players.

8. How about doing OAR for your mobile devices?

Kate: I think this is a forward-thinking question given the majority of people aren’t quite on the web properly. I think it’s important to get online first in the appropriate way we’ve discussed today. I would look at having an IR mobile site which has your stock price and news feeds for easy access. A mobile device has it’s own rules and limitations and it needs to read from a special browser script to display properly. Get your corporate site on your mobile device first then worry about your AR for mobile. I would challenge everybody to check out their own website on a mobile device.

At first the IR lingo whizzed past my head like speeding bullets: 10K, the Wrapper, Annual Review, SEC regulations, XBRL, and stock quotes. More and more details from legal, Investor Relations and corporate branding would come pouring in. These documents are not to be taken lightly, nor the team involved. Every collaborator deals with extreme pressure to perform and deliver a report better than the last.

The annual report is a magnificent piece, articulately composed like a symphony. Every number, every note, every photo, every letter, every sentence, every punctuation mark is reviewed over and over until it is perfect. Only to be witnessed for the first time at opening night.

But time again the grand performance ends for me, abruptly. I want the show to continue the symphony on my player, the Internet. When I am presented with only one fomat—a PDF print format—I don’t want to download anything. I want both. I want to witness it now, not later. I want to search and bookmark float from Financials to MD&A in any order I wish. Does this seem like a wild request for navigating an annual report—online?

Annual reports converted into online masterpiece are sometimes perceived as a luxury item. But based on best practices online annual reports are no longer a luxury, they are a standard. You might be surprised how affordable an entry-level model can be.

At our upcoming webinar on September 24th, I’m going to present online options every Investor can consider by breaking it down into small, medium and large budget categories. In the meantime, I would like to get your feedback about your experiences with online annual reports. Please post your comments in this blog or you can reach me on twitter @katregnier.

Register for our webcast.

twitpitch: Convert your #annualreport into an online symphony. @zutweets @katregnier shares IR insights http://bit.ly/1eaBZW

TransCanada rose above more than 2,100 entries from 28 countries to establish Bronze excellence. The TransCanada 2008 Online Annual Report was judged on cover design, Chairman’s Letter, writing, interior design, financial presentation and overall corporate spirit represented in the report.

zu is proud to be representing TransCanada and their efforts in producing Online Annual Reports for the past four years. Recent enhancements include improved site navigation including a site search, strategic information architecture, and best practices for cross-browser compatibility and accessibility. We congratulate TransCanada on this most highly respected and prestigious competition in the field of corporate communications.

Ryan Lejbak will engage in a brief discussion on utilizing social media to augment your current communications plan without costs and with limited time investment.

Register for the  webcast replay.

Over the past few years, we have watched (and assisted) PotashCorp switch from a “Print First” to “Web First” strategy for their often award-winning materials. And the 2008 report titled, “More per acre… the sustainable solution“, was conceived and designed first as an online document. A PDF summary is also offered for those with money to burn on inkjet cartridges, or Kindles.

The sustainability report, including historical data was built around Global Reporting Initiative recommendations. It uses the same programming standards found in their online annual report and so opens in its own microsite—just how website users like it and how this premium web content oughta be.

Of course, not many companies tell the company story, or describe their plans for the future, or describe their sustainability efforts, better. And that makes the web presentation so much stronger.

Congrats to all involved on this one!

During the #NIRI09 Conference, I attended a panel discussion that focused on XBRL strategies and the changing role of IROs. The panel included XBRL experts Michael Becker and Mike Willis.

Why is XBRL Relevant?

I learned from our panelists that XBRL is a business language that facilitates communication standardization. The current conditions often involve third party intermediaries that take your information, modify it, parse it, and/or reorganize it that is then distributed in a different form from the original. It can end up being inaccurate or presented in a way that can be misinterpreted.

XBRL prevents the modification of information by standardizing the way it is labelled regardless of naming conventions or nomenclature a company may use to describe things on the front-end in their financial reports. In addition, it mitigates effort to compile and review information since it’s already in a standardized format from the get-go.

What is Required? The SEC XBRL Mandate requires submission of XBRL formatted statements via an “XBRL exhibit” for annual, quarterly, and registration statements and is required to remain on the website for at least 12 months.

RSS feeds can be used to lower distribution costs and burden (SEC site and IR site). Allows users to pull the data and use it for their own analysis.

What is it? “Bar Code” for business information. Computer code that can be rendered and displayed to include a label, presentation, definitions, calculations, contexts, formulas, references, and taxonomy.

What is in it for an IRO? A Streamlined Review Process. The laborious assembly and review process is mitigated. Ultimately, this reduces costs and time to produce financial reports. If the XBRL is implemented as close to the origin of information then more savings can be realized.

XBRL will allow IRO’s to communicate more relevant information to their constituents in a timely fashion. Summarized reviews can be accomplished using rendering tools and used by investors to configure and automate information to display the most important data to them.

Standardized formulas and rules in business rules will allow collaboration among investors/analysts so that models can be created to work across multiple periods across different companies. Such tools already exist like I-Metrix; this allows for comparisons and correlations in a simple way.

SUMMARY
> More effective communications
> Streamlined compliance processes
> Lower cost & more efficient documentation preparation
> Better insights via social analytics
> Explicit relationships between materials across sources

But on the writing of our webcast presentation: “Design for the Bottom Line: 5 Ways to Reuse Existing Materials for your IR Website”, I experienced that worthwhile feeling of having great clarity of thought after being compelled to make a clear case for the suggestions we supplied. When completing a formal audit of a client site we compare their website to their other IR materials, I also come to these a-ha moments where good ideas seem so clear. I guess that’s why folks like to blog, to fully understand their own thoughts and experiences.

Here’s a brief overview of the key points discussed:

• HTML online annual reports are the best approach as they take full advantage of the power of the Internet.

• The goals of best practices are to be investor friendly, meet the needs of investors, enhance communication, promote comprehension and transparency and make key areas prominent, understandable and pleasant for the stakeholder.

According to IR Web Report, these are the bare minimum standards of online annual reports:

· The entire report, including all pages, reports and data tables must be in HTML — not images — for rapid viewing and reference;
· A detailed, clearly labeled navigation menu;
· All HTML pages in printer-friendly versions;
· An easy to use downloads area;
· A link to an order form for the print version;
· Full and segmented PDF files for printing and offline use.

We may hold a webinar every quarterly with more examples and a panel of experts. We also promise to talk slower next time!

Contact us if you missed the webinar and are interested in learning more about online annual report best practices.

Thanks again to everyone in attendance!

We’ve been exploring the ‘living’ annual report format and are dying to create one. In our minds a living OAR captures a ‘snapshot in time’ of the official filing but is then updated over the next several quarters to provide current key financials and current links to related information and updates.

A living online annual report takes advantage of the fact that many investors use the annual report as one of the first steps in their due diligence as a way to get up to speed on what your company is about. With this in mind, why not address the visitor’s obvious next question: “What happened next?”

Providing information in this convenient location dovetails with our mission to create Investor Friendly materials. For us this means simply anticipating the next question and the next piece of related information that a potential investor might want. This may include providing other website materials: press releases, links to product announcements, mining site profiles or whatever else is on the site that expands knowledge about this important topic.

Of course with financial results, the main question is: “What are the latest results?”

While the Annual Report is intended to be a snapshot in time, for 12 months it becomes an important introductory piece on your company. This effect is emphasized in companies with sub-par IR areas. If your IR site is a lame filing cabinet, then consider this idea more strongly. While printed annuals do have a certain shelf life (probably a month or two before being tossed in the bin) their lack of up-to-date information is no sin. Online Annual Reports (OARs) on the other hand, are important resources until they are replaced with the new version. “While OARs function as guides to your company they can’t answer any current questions — even obvious ones. They can’t even direct you to information about “what happened next”. We don’t think this is acceptable given that they could”.

Consider that the printed AR only reaches current shareholders. So the online version’s main target is potential shareholders. With this in mind, and understanding that this is a key source of information in their due diligence, an IRO’s question should be: “how can I help this potential shareholder more quickly reach their comfort zone of knowledge so they can invest?” Well, think about making the site Investor Friendly. Think about anticipating what you’d look for next. It’s not “Rocket Surgery” as Ricky says on Trailer Park Boys.

We are not suggesting that every element be updated. Apply it to key financial tables, key program descriptions in progress, key deals playing out at time of writing, etc. To preserve the ‘snapshot in time’ version we suggest the additional information be accessible via an “Update” button, for visitors to trigger the effect. What will their reaction be? I expect things like: “That’s handy!”, “What a smart company!”, “This makes it easier!”,“These folks understand technology”;“Hey this sucks way less than that other company’s materials!”

• Decreases printing costs
• Trains shareholders on the value of the website as a source of information
• Green (environmentally much friendlier than a print version)
• Respects Internet users
• Shows strong desire to serve the investor
• Communicates better (if embracing the best usability practices)
• Can make use of rich media (animation, interactivity, etc.) to demonstrate or explain complex information
• Can leverage the leadership power of a key executive
• Offers the potential for emotional impact via rich media
• Recognizes that the Annual Report is a reference material not just a required filing
• Provides printable options, such as PDF
• Provides analytic aids like interactive graphing of financial information, downloading of EXL files
• Decreases mailing costs (financially friendly)
• Goes beyond the 10-K with attractive presentation, summaries, emphasis on management’s key points
• Investor Friendly
• Provides another reason to come to the site for voting
• Can use decreased print budget as source of funds
• The generation with non-grey hair expects it (their hair will soon be grey too)
• May be the best part of your IR website
• May be the only part of your IR website that pulls together all of your goals and messages, so it should not be locked in a non-Internet format.

Others? Please suggest if you have any!

This may be one of the reasons many companies acquiesce to using jpg picture books and other sad imitations of Internet content.

It seems that when evaluating a company for this service (Annual Report conversion to HTML) the client should research the supplier’s process, track record, proofreading capabilities and so forth. While many companies are judged on end results, I’d start by tossing out ones that weren’t ready on time. I’d also seriously question suppliers that don’t have the services done in-house as they will always have less leverage over their suppliers when it comes time to finish things off.

A proper conversion should go through most of the same steps as the website development process, including: scheduling key meetings, decision points, sign off on information architecture, design, clarification of hosting, etc. If the job solely involves conversion of a print piece analysis of target audiences and other message influencing steps are less of a consideration then for a website project as the message cannot be changed.

Messaging and audiences will be more of a consideration in an OAR that is designed as an online piece, as this type of thinking can shape the message, opening page design and links to features of interest to different investor audiences.

For those companies using the 10-K wrapper approach, with the wrapper not actually being part of the official filing, we suggest a summary version be mailed and a more involved version provided online. As long as the materials presented in the wrapper do not go beyond what is contained in the 10-K, this will follow guidelines. The idea is to make key areas prominent, understandable and pleasant to go through in the same manner of old-style annual reports that seemed to care about presentation.

These enhancements need not exacerbate the already tight schedule as they can be planned and prepared in advance, following a well-rehearsed process if you are dealing with an experienced firm.

Everything can be completed by the mailing date or the Notice and Access deadline if you select suppliers who keep the project on track and know what they’re doing and what to watch out for.