We study 21 separate points of each online report, in two distinct categories; Best Practice and Engagement. Best Practice rating points are awarded for adherence to the best practice guidelines published by the Investor Relations Society, W3C (the group leading equal access standards on the internet) and similar representative bodies.

Engagement rating points are awarded for a report’s construction, navigation and communication. Our system recognises those features that make the report a more valuable tool from the user’s point of view and get the company’s story across most effectively.

Taken together our ratings provide the most sensitive, complete and unbiased system we know of, for charting the progress of online reporting over time.

This year for the first time, we have scored those companies providing only a pdf, indexed or not, or a so-called ’dynamic‘ image-based report, with an automatic zero.

Harsh but fair we think. Yes they are cheap, yes they are safe, being a straight copy of the printed report, and yes the Chairman probably does not care one way or the other.

However, every objective authority on this subject has been saying for years now that these are not accessible under any definition, they demonstrate no interest in the user or the way reports are used online and they do no justice to the company’s own brand or other communication efforts. So zero it is.