Lee Rust, Owner, Florida Corporate Finance
You would have to be dead or living in one of the world’s most remote locations not to have noticed that the Internet has changed the way the world does business. Retail sales on the web increase at a rate we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Instant news is replacing the daily newspaper for all but local events. Music downloads have changed the way teens buy the latest songs. Corporate communications have migrated to instant e-mail. And the great majority of companies now have websites.
The great majority of these corporate websites, however, are little more than online brochures. Although that might be a good advertisement for your company’s goods or services, it does not use most of the functions available on the Internet. Your company’s website can be one of its competitive advantages, but it can also show a lack of ingenuity, thought or simple attention to how you might use the Internet. You have a powerful tool at your disposal; you must now learn how to use it. In addition, the Internet is interactive; it works in both directions, and you should take advantage of that.
Start by considering each of your company’s constituents and how they might use your website. These constituents are your customers, employees, suppliers, company owners and, if yours is a publicly owned company, the investment community.
In regard to your customers, what important information might your website give them? One of my clients in the home building business takes digital photos weekly of every house under construction that has been sold. The company then posts those on its
website with password access for each homeowner who can watch the progress of their house. That has turned out to be a major marketing tool.
Another of my clients with a large steel fabrication operation posts password accessed progress reports for each of its customers, including project milestones, projected completion dates, shipping schedules and, once shipped, tracking information.
I also have a client providing financing and administrative back office support to temporary staffing companies throughout the US. Virtually all of their customer communications are Internet based. Their customers enter work hours over the Internet daily, directly into my client’s proprietary software. That software converts the information into both invoicing for the client’s customers and salary payments to the client’s temporary workers. Each worker can then be paid by check printed in the client’s office, by direct deposit or by additions to a debit card, all handled over the Internet. That client of mine is now expanding into a more complete application model, which will provide all accounting service for each of its clients over the Internet from a single central server.
Ask yourself what information your customers might need that you could provide through the Internet in real time and then determine how to do it. You can sell that service as another advantage in dealing with your company.
In regard to your employees, an entire section of your corporate website should be devoted to their needs, including both current and prospective employees. Your website can be a particularly effective platform for a monthly employee newsletter. It can also be the location for the old fashion suggestion box allowing your employees to send confidential comments directly to an appropriate manager. And, of course, the Internet can be a particularly effective recruiting tool. In addition to simple contact information
and available job postings, your corporate website should have application forms for various positions which can be completed online and sent directly from the site.
I also have several clients who use their corporate websites as training tools. Employees can access pertinent courses, complete course work and receive course grades and certifications. Requirements for periodic safety training can be Internet based and track not only each employee’s access to that section of the site but also provide safety certifications at various levels.
For your suppliers, you should also determine what information could and should be exchanged through your corporate website. One of my clients in the construction field has a complete subcontractor bidding module on their website. A potential subcontractor
can download project drawings from the site together with specifications and bills of materials and submit the project bid from the site. The site also has a change order submittal and approval function for subcontractors.
For material suppliers, your shipping schedules, freight tracking and related communications can be effectively handled over the Internet. There can also include the posting of receiving forms, supplier invoicing and exception reports. Of course, in the other
direction, you can also use your website, or perhaps the website of your supplier, as a material ordering platform.
For the owners of your company, if they are not all officers or employees, you can also have a password protected section of your corporate website for monthly or quarterly reports including the posting of financial statements. In the case of a publicly owned
company, any investor, current or prospective, should be able to access all SEC filings, news releases and other such information directly from your site.
All of these functions, however, are useless unless the appropriate person can find your site easily. For people without an existing relationship with your company, that effort often starts with an Internet search using one or more key words. For those potential
constituents, you need to be sure that your company is close to the top of the resulting list. In that regard, there are a large number of consultants who specialize in search engine optimization (SEO). Talk to several of these and determine if you can make changes to your corporate site that will move your search placement up.
I recently had a client who manufactures scuba gear. A search for buoyancy compensators showed their company website but only on the second page of the Internet listings. With minor adjustments to their site, they moved to the third posting on the first page.
Sales increased.
I have often heard that manufacturers of consumer products don’t want to compete with their retailers by selling the same goods from their own website. I have a client who solved that problem by having a complete product sales function on their website. Each sale, however, was automatically routed to the retailer closest to the buyer. That product ordering function not only increased sales to consumers but was also a strong selling point for recruiting new retail outlets.
If you are not taking full advantage of the Internet and all of its capabilities, some of your competitors are. Look at their websites to see what functions you should copy. Use the various functions of your own website on a periodic basis to measure its ease of use and its application for each of your company’s constituents. The Internet and your corporate website should be among your most important corporate communication tools.
Lee Rust, Owner of Florida Corporate Finance, specializes in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Sales, Strategic Planning, Financing and Operations Audits. He can be reached by phone at 407-841-5676 or by email at hleerust@att.net.