Online Reporting Mini Guide

A mini guide to online reporting

Emperor DesignCreating targeted, effective communications for today’sonline reporting world

As a design agency witha 14 year track record infinancial reporting, we’veworked with companiesacross a wide variety ofsectors and listings on theirprinted and online annualreports – building up a hugebank of experience on howto deliver effective, creativedesign solutions.

Introduction

The introduction of the default to electronic communications with shareholders has generated opportunities and challenges. An online annual report can provide a lively and informative way to bring your annual report to life, reducing print runs and presenting the expanding volume of information required in a more accessible format. However, we are still in a period of transition and many shareholders still want to receive a hard copy annual report leaving companies with potentially two projects to complete – in the same tight timescales with the same limited resources. So, for many smaller companies, a well structured and designed printed annual report supported by a PDF on the investor website is a sensible option. We have a genuine passion for interpreting our clients’ business stories through clear, engaging design and messaging, and we believe that this is the most important aspect of financial reporting – whatever the medium.

That said – it’s a fast changing world and a strong online presence is essential to effective shareholder communications, so this booklet is a collection of some initial thoughts which aim to help you with your online reporting. We’d be delighted to discuss these further with you.

Steve KempDirector

Top Tips

Our top ten tips Plan on making the report as clear and

intuitive as possible to navigate by adding in quick links to other relevant sections. Also add a search facility on each page to help visitors move around

the site quickly to find a specific piece of information or follow

a particular theme.

Break down long blocks of text

into shorter sections with sub-headings to make them easier to

read on screen.

Adopt a multi-channel strategy for your reporting to make sure the content for your online and printed

versions is consistent. Layout, however, does not have to

be identical.

Take full advantage of the medium - present data in multiple formats, consider video for commentary on the results by the CEO or Chairman, allow access to a glossary from within the text and include a download centre for each section. Do not provide over-complex functionality that has no use to your target audience.

Consider including PDF stitcher functionality to allow users to customise their own annual report.

To build an engaging online annual

report that meets best practice

standards, start planning for this at

the beginning of your annual report

process. You need to allow around

eight weeks for a full HTML

online annual report to guarantee

enough time for content loading

and testing before it goes live.

Don’t forget that the

online annual report

needs to follow the same

accessibility standards

as your main website.

For a more cost effective, functional option, consider producing an HTML

front section, with the financials in PDF form.

Make sure there is a ‘printer friendly pages’ feature including the

option to print sections.

Make sure every section and page can be read out of order – website visitors will browse information rather than read through sequentially, so cross referencing, use of breadcrumb trails to highlight location and a well-thought-out structure are all important ways of facilitating this.

Understanding the language of online reporting

Anchor linksHyperlinks that go to a specific area in a web page, making it easy for the user to navigate information quickly.

Audio / video webcasts‘Broadcasting’ over the internet allows you to provide a wider audience with access to presentations and shareholder meetings. It’s also a useful way to communicate with investors outside the standard financial calendar.

Breadcrumb trailIncluding a breadcrumb trail at the top of each page (e.g. Home > Annual Report > Corporate Governance> Remuneration Report) helps visitors to navigate your online report more easily.

BrowserEnsure that your website works for different internet browsers (especially Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome).

Intuitive information architecture / UsabilityThe way the content in your online annual report is ordered and therefore searched is imperative to a good online annual report. It is advisable to include multiple ways of navigation, such as the search function, quick links, ‘email to a friend’, print and download.

Landing pageThe main menu page or introductory page of a new section. Tracking shows that landing pages experience heavy traffic, with users spending the most amount of time on these pages, so make sure that they are particularly impactful.

PDF stitcherA PDF stitcher allows the user to build or ‘stitch’ together the sections of the online annual report that they would like as a single PDF. Customising the annual report in this way offers flexibility and increased usability.

RSS content feedsReally Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are web feed formats that make it easy for users to keep in touch with you by alerting them when information is updated.

Search engine optimisationEnsure maximum exposure to your online report by optimising the content for search engines so that it appears at top of page rankings. Choose a straightforward URL name, such as http://www.annualreport2009.company, which uses a sub-domain of the main website; or http://company.com/ar_2009/, where it is simply another section of the website.

Website accessibilityTo comply with UK legislation, all websites must be fully accessible for equal access to information and services to all users, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. An example is providing the transcript to a webcast presentation to ensure that deaf people can access the content.

Web analyticsAn advantage of having an online HTML annual report is that you can track which web pages are looked at most by using web analytics software.

XBRLXBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. Rather than treating financial information as e.g. an internet page or a printed document, it provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data, which is computer readable. This makes the preparation, analysis and communication of business information far more efficient, accurate and reliable.

Glossary

Excellent ‘best practice’ guides

www.ir-soc.org.uk/

Guidelines on web accessibility

www.w3.org/standardswebdesign/accessibility Web auditing, benchmarking and certification

www.sitemorse.com

Measuring website effectiveness

www.bowencraggs.com

Information resources

We’ve included someuseful sources of additionalinformation.

Low & Bonar Extensive internal links make navigating the online annual report comparable to browsing through a printed version. Remember you won’t have page numbers, so replace these with appropriate words and hyperlinks to aid navigation within the site.

http://annualreport2009.lowandbonar.com/

Projects

SpectrisGraphs are a highly effective and engaging way of communicating key facts and figures, as well as complex information.

http://ar2009.spectris.com

CompuGROUPIt is recommended that you sign off the site map as early as possible when creating dual language online annual reports to ensure that enough space is available to accommodate different word lengths, e.g. English versus German.

http://report.compugroup.com/german/http://report.compugroup.com/english/

Projects

VedantaImagery is a powerful tool to help communicate the company’s values.

http://ar2009.vedantaresources.com/

Moneysupermarket.com Simple navigation makes the online annual report as user-friendly as possible.

http://corporate.moneysupermarket.com/ar_2008/

Projects

MecomA full download centre makes it easy for users to take away the sections they need.

http://www.mecom.co.uk/annualreport2009

Projects

Northumbrian Water Group Anchor links make complex information easily accessible.

http://www.annualreport2009.nwg.co.uk

Cairn Energy Selective functionality, such as interactive maps, can really bring the online annual report to life.

http://ar2009.cairnenergy.com

Emperor Design

LondonSteve [email protected]

Zetland House5-25 Scrutton StreetLondon EC2A 4HJ

T: +44 (0)20 7729 9090F: +44 (0)20 7729 9091

BirminghamClaire Forrest [email protected]

Studio 11 The Cogent Works50/54 St Paul’s SquareBirminghamB3 1QS

T: +44 (0)121 262 3830F: +44 (0)121 262 3839

EdinburghNeil [email protected]

32 Castle StreetEdinburghEH2 3HT

T: +44 (0)131 220 7990F: +44 (0)131 220 7999

www.emperordesign.co.uk