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8 October 2009

Majority of FTSE 100 companies now choose HTML Annual and CR reports

Frank Harkin Content Strategist | Read all Frank's posts

Over the last while we've been looking at how FTSE 100 companies provide users with access to their Annual and Corporate responsibility (CR) reports online. What we found is that HTML reports are now the overwhelmingly popular choice.

Online reporting directory

The research is based on our new online reporting directory, which provides links to the Annual and CR reports of the largest companies in the UK, Europe and the US for the last three years – all in one place.

The directory also indicates which format companies have used so you can see who offers flexible, functional web-based reports and who simply provides a PDF version for download. 

The directory is a great resource for anyone interested in online reporting – who's doing it, how they're doing it and where it's going.

Visit the reporting directory

Reporting formats

As the directory indicates, there are four main formats in which companies offer reports to users:

• HTML: The most complete online format. The report is presented in the form of a web site with the functionality, integration and flexibility that web sites offer
• Image-based: This format sits uneasily somewhere between a HTML report and a PDF download. The pages of the printed report are made available as images and users can browse the report in a limited fashion
• PDF: This is simply a version of the print report made available for download as a PDF. Most HTML reports will offer a PDF download as standard
• Nothing: Every FTSE 100 company provides at least a PDF download of its Annual report but a significant, if dwindling, number do not report on CR activities at all

Annual report research

What our research tells us, and the graph below shows, is that Annual reports are now overwhelmingly presented in HTML format online.

There are a few key points here:

• In the last three years the number of HTML reports offered by (current) FTSE 100 companies increased by almost 100% – from 31 to 60
• Image-based reports have remained at 10% between 2006 and 2008 with a slight increase in 2007. They still trail well behind HTML and PDF formats
• As HTML reports have increased PDFs have fallen correspondingly, from 57 in 2006 to 30 in 2008 – a reduction of 90%

The increasing use of HTML reports has been noted elsewhere and these figures echo similar research over a six-year period conducted by German Austrian consultancy Nexxar.

Visit the Nexxar web site to compare the results

Corporate responsibility report research

CR reporting has seen an even larger increase in the uptake of HTML reports by FTSE 100 companies.

• HTML reporting has increased by 124% over the last three years
  In 2006 only 17 FTSE 100 companies provided CR reports in HTML. There was a negligible increase to 19 the following year. In 2008, however the figure leaped by 105% to 42
• CR reporting of any kind has increased significantly
  In 2006 most companies provided nothing to users looking for a CR report online. By 2008 42% more companies were providing some kind of CR report online, with the majority of first-time reporters choosing the HTML format. Indeed, between 2007 and 2008 each of the nine FTSE 100 companies that started to offer a CR report online chose the HTML format
• Image-based reports are unlikely to last
  With only four out of the 100 companies choosing to offer image-based CR reports last year it is unlikely that the format has much of a future as a tool for CR reporting. This is further supported by the fact, noted above, that none of the first-time reporters in 2008 chose to use the format

What are the reasons behind the trends?

There are four main reasons behind the considerable increase in HTML Annual and CR reports over the past three years:

• Regulation: Since the Companies Act 2006 companies are no longer obliged to send a printed Annual report to shareholders. This has paved the way for companies to look online as a means to save money and provide stakeholders with a more integrated reporting experience
• Environment: All companies have an environmental imperative to keep paper use to a minimum when producing reports but this is particularly true for CR reports. Providing a web-based CR report and encouraging users to use the web to access the report should be  basic practice for companies who want their CR efforts to be taken seriously
• Technology: It is now relatively inexpensive to provide stakeholders with a HTML report with a range of tools such as personalisation features, note-taking facilities and print baskets
  Read our Outlook blog post on the internet reporting revolution
• Stakeholder pressure: People are becoming more and more used to accessing information online and to the flexibility and functionality that comes with it. Simply providing an electronic copy of the print Annual or CR report will not do anymore
  Read our Outlook blog on communicating CR effectively 

Conclusion

A combination of regulatory circumstances, environmental imperatives, the considerable benefits offered by online reporting and pressures from investors and other stakeholders has seen HTML overtake print as the most popular reporting format. And about time too.

This increase in HTML reporting means that companies will no longer stand out simply by having a web-based report and will need to be increasingly creative about how they report online. The question then is how to do this. What will the reports of the future look like? What will set the good ones apart? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Any statements made in these blog posts are the views of the blogger and do not necessarily represent the views of The Group.