nxr.lab. - current issues from the world of digital reporting

07/2010
nexxar

German Online Annual Reports 2010.

Germany is historically one of the most important countries in our benchmark analysis. So we were a bit disappointed to see that the slight reversal trend back to PDF and JPG continued. Comparing this year´s data with the one of 2007 shows that especially companies which used to provide PDF only changed their way of reporting and offer their report as a JPG show now. In 2007 25% of all DAX reports were PDF only, this year there are 18,8% left whereas the stake of JPG shows rose from 15% back up to 26,3%. Another very interesting fact is that the count of companies offering an HTML version is nearly steady [43 in 2009, 42 in 2010], whereas the stake of Hybrid-reports [included in HTML in the graph below] fell from 6,3 % to 2,5%. This means that JPG shows win especially at the cost of PDF and Hybrid reports.

07/2010
Thomas Rosenmayr

UK online reporting 2010 at the crossroads.

The trend towards HTML reporting is still strong within UK’s FTSE-100 companies. Since the UK Companies Act paved the way the share of companies choosing this form of presentation had increased significantly from 37% in 2007 to now a dominant 67% in 2010. With this level the United Kingdom clearly stands out on an international level.

07/2010
Thomas Rosenmayr

Canadian Online Annual Reports 2010.

Another country we decided to include in this years Nexxar Benchmark Analysis is Canada. So far the only companies from North America we more closely looked at have been the 30 Dow components. Starting coverage of Canadian TSX-60 companies not only widens once again our geografic focus, it also brings in the big global players of the ressources industry, which we consider – in current economic circumstances – as an important long-term move.

06/2010
Thomas Rosenmayr

Reporting and Technology.

Summary of my early morning panel on “How is technology shaping the future of shareholder communications?” hosted by Further. As second panelist I had the chance to bring in some international perspectives on online corporate reporting. Beyond doubt the UK is one of the leading countries in terms of fully-fledged HTML reports. More than 66% of all FTSE 100 companies offer a conversion of their Annual Reports and Accounts into HTML. Main difference to their European counterparts is the marketing focus of UK online reports. Many companies spend a lot of money on integration of Video or Flash/Multimedia but do not meet basic reporting needs like a powerful search tool or XLS-downloads of tables. This is summarised by an atypical strong appearance of hybrid reports in the UK, where the narrative part is high end HTML and the financial statements are just for download as PDF.

06/2010
Thomas Rosenmayr

Scandinavian Online Annual Reports 2010.

For this years Benchmark Analysis on Online Annual Reportíng we decided to again widen our geographical focus. In order to get a better understanding for the current state of affairs in this core area of corporate communication we now included Companies listed within OMX Nordic 40. Full HTML conversion of Annual Reports is increasingly becoming the first choice for Scandinavian big cap companies!

03/2010
Thomas Rosenmayr

Online Interim Reporting still underdeveloped.

Following our benchmark-analysis, where we, among other indices, explored the conversion of online annual reports of DAX 80 companies, we looked at the situation in interim reporting. The findings are simply disappointing. Whereas 56 % of all DAX 80 companies present their annual report as a full HTML-solution, the percentage shrinks to 24 % in interim reporting. Only 19 out of 80 companies make use of the potential of the internet in interim reporting issues. The stake of (user-unfriendly) JPG-shows (11 %) is lower than in annual reporting (26 %) either. This means that 65 % of all interim reports are provided as PDF, what adds absolutely no value to the report.

02/2010
nexxar

DAX Companies And Web-Optimized PDFs.

Use of the mobile internet is growing faster on a daily basis. More and more users access the internet from their mobile devices – think of smartphones, netbooks, iPhones and in the near future: iPads. In the mobile world, bandwidth is still an issue (unlike in the world of desktop-internet). It’s even more important therefore to keep down the filesize of PDFs that you want users to download from your website. It’s not too complicated to reduce file sizes without any quality loss e.g in images. You just have to do it.

11/2009
Thomas Rosenmayr

Turn, zoom, flash! French big caps going their own online reporting way?

Today surveys in UK (SmithsRatings, The Group) and Germany (Kirchhoff (PDF)) underline the dominant role of HTML in online corporate reporting. Our yearly Nexxar Benchmark analysis shows this long-term trend since 2003 with now 40-60% of companies in British FTSE-100, German DAX-80, Dutch AEX-50 and US-american Dow-30 provide their annual report in a format that meets the basic usability needs of investors.