By Dominic Jones | Published: November 6, 2006 | 
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IE7 Launches, Dump Big Vendors Now
By Dominic Jones
ON THE face of it, this article might seem to be about the launch of Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 browser — but it really is about much more.
It is a story about unheeded warnings and missed opportunities that cut to the heart of what ails investor relations departments in an era where competence in Web-based communications is a mission-critical capability.
It is a story you won’t read anywhere else in the investor relations industry because no one has the knowledge or guts to tell you, or because they’re beholden to big players who benefit from your ignorance.
Unheeded warnings catch companies off side
So let’s start at the beginning. Last week, Microsoft Corp. released its new Internet Explorer 7 browser via an automatic update to a large section of its customers. Though it was done with little fanfare, the event marks the dawning of a new era for the Web.
This is simply because IE7 gives the vast majority of Internet users around the world the opportunity to experience powerful new technologies that were not previously available without them switching to other software. These include technologies like RSS feeds, AJAX and some features of Cascading Style Sheets.
However, a fundamental upgrade to a browser like that done to IE7 also brings with it challenges for companies and website owners. For months, Microsoft, web developers and people like us have been warning companies to test their sites for compatibility with the new browser.
Unfortunately, those cautions fell on deaf ears at far too many companies. Amid last week’s release, reports continued of companies with public websites and services that are not compatible with IE7.
Usability and accessibility consultants, Etre surveyed the homepages of over 100 big UK companies and found a number with serious rendering problems in the new browser. However, the survey understates the problems because they only reviewed the companies’ homepages.
Our own reviews, which probe into the nooks and crannies of investor relations websites, have found a variety of design and usability issues.
Take Reuters Group plc, for example. Although its homepage cleared the Etre survey, its investor relations pages are almost unnavigable in IE7 due to garbled and misaligned menus. See screenshot below.
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| Reuters’ IR site navigation is garbled and menus are out of position in IE7. |
Oil giant BP plc is another company with particularly noticeable issues throughout its IR site (see screenshots below). What’s remarkable about this is that BP typically is no laggard when it comes to Web-based communications. That it should be caught offside demonstrates the pervasiveness of poor website management today.
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| IE6 shows the page as it is meant to display |
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| In IE7, the same page is messed up. |
Opportunities missed or botched by big vendors
However, incompatibility of IR websites with new browsers like IE7 and Firefox tells only half the story. The other half of the story is all about a lack of innovation by companies and their vendors.
New browsers introduce capabilities that can help IR departments offer richer user experiences and build closer ties with their users. However, most companies and vendors have failed to take advantage of these. In some cases where vendors have made improvements, their implementations leave a lot to be desired.
Viewed objectively, the way companies have handled – or not handled — the introduction of IE7 demonstrates that IR departments are either not getting good advice or are not paying attention to the advice that’s available to them.
Companies, particularly those who rely on big IR website vendors — Thomson Financial and Shareholder.com, I’m looking at you — should be spitting mad about the poor quality product that’s currently being offered to them.
To put it mildly, these vendors need a solid kick in the pants or a kick to the sidewalk. They have dropped the ball on getting their clients ready for the IE7 era and the new participatory model of Web-based communication.
And where they have tried to add new things, they’ve mostly bungled them.
Indeed, if the past 18 months have proven anything, it’s that companies are not well-served by having their sites hosted by big vendors. They are either unable or unwilling to move quickly or stay on top of fast-changing practices and expectations.
Hundreds of competent web development firms ready to help
Companies would be much better off bringing their sites in-house or building close relationships with smaller, more dynamic and competent web developers who can bring a higher level of focus, customization and competence to their clients’ sites.
We are at the beginning of a new era in web-based investor relations communications, brought on by a confluence of new technology, new regulations and changing audience expectations.
Mastering the Web and being flexible and adaptable are the new imperatives. Those who can adapt and move quickly will reap significant rewards. Laggards will be mocked and ruled irrelevant.
What is now required is both a change in thinking and a fundamental overhaul of practices and processes, such as the creation of inter-disciplinary web communications departments inside big companies.
If you need help, look around. There are hundreds of capable web development firms who would love to win and earn your business. They can help you communicate and connect with your audience in new and highly effective ways.
Will it cost you more? Yes, it probably will, but the cost will be more than offset by the savings you will get from reduced print and mailing costs.
If companies fail to address the challenges and opportunities of today’s electronic communications environment, the real cost is likely to be lost credibility and stature in the market. Because in this case, doing nothing has already proven to be the biggest risk of all.
Related: A New Model for Corporate Website Management
About IR Web Report
Since 2001, we have provided top investor relations departments with leading-edge independent advice based on global research of IR website best practices. IRWebReport.com is 100% independent of the website building, content and hosting industry. (Yes, that includes free lunches and swag!) More about us
November 10th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
A developer friend of mine has written a good article that details how Microsoft, with the launch of IE7, have actually taken a step backwards, and managed to increase the workflow of every website designer and developer:
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/6
It concludes that we should not adopt IE7 but reject it in favour of truly standards compliant browsers like Firefox. Realistically though, we can guarantee this will become the default browser within a year or so. If you haven’t tested yet, time to get cracking!
November 11th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Jonathan, thanks for link. It’s a forthright viewpoint and more users of other browsers would be nice.
It is indeed ironic that the move hurts good developers more than others, but you can argue that good developers are more likely to be able to cope with the fallout.
Of course, it’s an IE world and we have to work with that reality, and look for the opportunities the improved dominant browser gives website owners.
We serve a separate stylesheet to IE6 users on IR Daily. It is a bit more bother, but it’s a quick solution for us.
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:11 am
[...] IE7 Launches, Dump Big Vendors Now [...]
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:25 am
Working for a large vendor, I was amused by your article. Funny too, this was forwarded to me by a panicked client.
I found it to be sensationalist and sophmoric. Things like “because no one has the knowledge or guts to tell you” that we “won’t read anywhere else” are just laughable.
Your article holds some truth, in that there are companies who were complicit in Microsoft’s screwing up of the web with their half-baked implementations of browsers. You are correct too, that it is their own fault for designing to a broken platform. I’m willing to bet these same companies sites look terrible in far better browsers like Firefox or Opera.
Anyway, please refrain from hand-waving, braod-stroking articles in the future. You do a disservice to those of us who’ve suffered long under Internet Explorer’s crapulous reign, who’ve had to waste countless dollars of a client’s money by writing parallel code in script and/or CSS to support the litany of broken browsers Microsoft has produced. Blaming everyone for the fact that Microsoft would rather spend time introducing incompatible, Windows-only features instead of rewriting the nearly 10 year-old Trident engine( to be fair, a marvel in its day ) for something modern.
Finally, you also seem to lack an understanding of how business really works. Often times, there is no budget allowed to properly code, test, tweak, and polish a site for the 10 or so browsers in popular use and developers are pressured to shove it out the door as fast and as cheap as possible. That usually means making it work in IE 6( remember, it’s been the “standard” for almost 6 years ) and damn the rest.
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Websites and applications that don’t render out in IE7 cannot be blamed solely on the developers. Your proposed solution how developers should be testing their sites and apps in beta releases is a significant waste of time and resources. Beta releases are development builds, and by no means a production or stable release. Beta releases typically change drastically between beta release, and would require developers to rebuild their site every time a new release is sent out.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:56 pm
> Developer
This article is about investor relations website vendors. That’s clearly not your business, because then you wouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions about whether I am being sensationalist or just plain honest. If you can find a single investor relations source that has written anything vaguely similar to what I wrote before I wrote it, I’ll retract the entire story. Unfortunately, I’m a lone voice here. I understand the problem perfectly, and I understand that Microsoft still owns the browser market and companies have budgets. That doesn’t excuse investor relations departments, or their vendors, from neglecting their most important communication channel with investors, something that directly impacts their credibility with the market and their cost of capital.
> Chris. Agreed. I didn’t say what you’re suggesting I said.
As a general point, I wonder why both of you are so defensive about this topic. Good developers don’t worry about this stuff.
November 27th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Dominic,
By way of curiosity, I’d like to ask you if you’ve ever done any kind of software development. The arguments against your opinion have nothing to do with developer skills or knowledge. The reason why this can potentially cause controversy is because you’re making a blind statement about developers not doing their jobs when beta releases are released. In fact, this is more than just a software developer problem, it’s a risk management problem and business analysis problem. Developers often times do not make critical decisions that impact the business.
Your article implies that developers are the single focal point to place blame on. If my deduction about your article is incorrect, please clarify what your point really is.
November 27th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Chris,
This has nothing to do with software development and nothing to do with testing with beta software. It has to do with software that has already shipped. IE 7 shipped and people didn’t test their websites in the browser. Some still haven’t. That’s plain negligence.
Why do you want to excuse this? It’s unacceptable, period.
This is not about whether IE7 is a good or bad browser. It’s about website developers, managers etc. being asleep at the switch. And it’s not just about making sure their site’s don’t break in IE7, but also about taking advantage of new features in IE7 that can help organizations make more of the Web.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
[...] IE7 Launches, Dump Big Vendors Now [...]
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
[...] IE7 launches, dump Big Vendors now [...]