In this BRS News Letter
1. THE BEST, AND THE REST – Financial Mail Below is an article published recently in the Financial Mail: Online Communications Index (a study of the effectiveness of Corporate Investor Relations) which may be of interest to you.
2. Company specific reports – Building an Online IR Strategy - are now available from BRS; details of these and other BRS reports are given at the end of the article (Clients of BRS are entitled to a 20% rebate on these reports).
**********************************************************
Online Communications Index
THE BEST, AND THE REST
By Duncan McLeod
Financial Mail (25 June 2004)
Steinhoff takes top honours in this year's survey; but generally SA firms lag their US peers
There are big changes in the results of this year's on-line communications index, a yearly survey commissioned by the FM to determine which publicly traded SA companies use electronic communication channels to best effect.
Last year's top five companies - Gold Fields, Comparex, Sasol, Investment Solutions and Naspers - have all been knocked from their perches. Furniture group Steinhoff International takes top honours this year, with African Bank a close second. SABMiller, BHP Billiton and Barloworld round off the top five.
Research firm BlueRiverStone was again contracted to test the ability of SA's top companies to meet the communications needs of a small but important stakeholder: an investor looking for information.
This year's research methodology has changed somewhat to make comparisons with similar research conducted into the top 150 public US companies. That research, also conducted by BlueRiverStone, was published in the Financial Times in December.
The biggest change involved making the website-usability component of the research more comprehensive and adding a technical-quality category. Companies were scored according to the technical quality (40% weighting) and usability (also 40%) of their websites. They were then scored for replying to a set of e-mailed questions (20%). Those which responded quickly and fully, with relevant information which was well presented, were scored higher.
"The emphasis in this year's survey was on self-service," says BlueRiverStone MD Ian Kruger.
"E-mail means you are relying on the company to respond, but if the right information is on the website, you wouldn't need to send the company an e-mail in the first place."
"Getting through corporate websites is relatively easy, finding the right information is a bit more difficult, but if investors are hoping to get better responses by e-mail, they are bound to be disappointed," Kruger says.
"Technical proficiency clearly exceeds human factors."
The full story and executive summary are available www.blueriverstone.com
*****************************************************************
BRS Reports
******************************************************************
2004 Online Communications Index Report
The following reports are available in relation to this research:
Executive Summary: this goes in to a little more detail than the article published in financial mail, it gives an overview of the methodology and the trends to emerge.
Free on request
Company Specific Report: detailing our methodology and the overall results. It includes an analysis of your company’s results and makes company specific recommendations for improvement in the light of 3 years of best practice for Online Investor Relations. The report will contain all the data pertaining to your company to help you track the communications we made with your company, as well as the use made of the website during the study.
- Institutional Investor Requirements of Corporate Websites: We surveyed 71 investors most of which are responsible for research in Financial Services Companies. This report provides insight into the information requirements that SA institutional and private investors as well as financial journalists have of corporates especially in light of the online channel.
- Information Resources
- Website Search Strategies
- Content Requirements and Priorities
- Report Format Requirements
- Suggestions and Comments from Investors
- Implications for Website Design
- Overall Results and Trends
- Technical Quality Score Card A benchmarked technical quality report using eValid (a browser based website analysis and testing software tool for which BRS is the SA agent).
- A website quality Score Card
- Email Responsiveness Score Card
- Best Practice
Price: R4000. This includes a re-assessment of the website and email after changes have been made and a comparative report.
Top US Companies Online Investor Practice: offers comparative insight into what US based companies are offering online for Investors. This report is designed to assist companies design websites that will have an international standing.
Price: R2000
All reports bought together R5000.
In addition we are building the ideal Investor Relations Website based on our and other research. This is intended to serve as a resource and guide for companies in designing their online communications strategies. Buyers of the reports will have the cost of the reports automatically included in the subscription rate.
NOTE: BRS has formed a strategic alliance with Systemic Logic an Applied Research Company to overcome an inherent weakness in reports by themselves, their translation into a plan of action, forth coming joint reports are:
1. Corporate Governance Index: an evaluation of the progress South African Corporates are making in King 2 compliance
2. Online Banking in Context: based on research of 1500 respondents’ views on their quality of service experience with their online banks.
