By Dominic Jones | Published: February 7, 2008 | 
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Free online annual reports — in 5 minutes!
LET’S start this with a big caveat: I do not recommend that you convert your online annual report to Flash or images, but if you are going to do so — as many companies are — then free is the only way to go.
The reason I am bringing this to your attention is to underscore the point that big vendors are ripping off their clients by charging upwards of $5,000 - $10,000 to convert annual reports to so-called “interactive reports” in Flash or images.
It’s also important to recognize that these report formats have such poor usability that they are practically useless to investors — which should go a long way to explaining why you can now get them for free in just five minutes.
To see what you can get gratis and for nothing click on this link, or continue reading to learn how to create your own “interactive annual report” using nothing more than a PDF of your company’s annual report.
Create your own interactive annual report in 5 minutes
It’s easy! Go to www.issuu.com. (Note: You could also go to Docstoc.com and Scribd to do the same thing.) Once there, click on either of the links that say “try out now” or “upload document.” Below is a screenshot of issuu’s homepage with the relevant links circled in red.
Browse to find the PDF file of your company’s annual report on your computer. If you don’t have a copy on your computer, go to your IR website and save a copy of the PDF to your desktop. In the screenshot below, I’ve selected Nordson’s 112-page 2007 annual report. I downloaded this earlier to my computer from their IR homepage.
Next, enter a title and description of your annual report or proxy statement, as I’ve done in the screenshot below. This is the most time-consuming part of the process!
Now enter your email address to be notified when the document is ready.
Click “next” and your annual report will be uploaded to Issuu’s servers. On most corporate networks or a residential DSL connection, this should take less than 30 seconds for the average annual report or proxy statement.
Now wait for the email. Don’t leave your computer because it will only be a couple of minutes and will look something like this:
Click on the button in the email that says “open document.” This will take you to a screen where you must enter a username, password and CAPTCHA code. I recommend that you use your company’s name as your user name. You only have to set up an account once.
Once you’ve done that, you will have immediate access to your new interactive annual report. Free. And all in less than 5 minutes! If you feel like it, you can convert all of your company’s PDF documents to Flash, and there will be no charge. Investor presentations, proxy statements, corporate brochures, you name it, you could do them all.
To provide investors with access to your new online docs, you can link to them from your website or embed them in any web page. Here is a link to the interactive annual report I created of Nordson’s 2007 annual report. Nordson only provides a PDF on its own website.
I’ve embedded the same report in a preview player that issuu provides for you to place in any web page. Click on the front cover or the arrows to turn the pages. You can click on the blue “open publication” button to view a full-size version.
Let me repeat that I’m only writing about this to make the point that the “interactive” or “dynamic” documents that big service providers are selling are not worth a penny and never have been. If you pay for them, you are allowing your company to be ripped off and are not providing any added benefit to your shareholders.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to providing your shareholders with usable online documents. They take time and great skill. And you will most definitely not be able to get them for free.
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February 8th, 2008 at 10:20 am
That is pretty cool.
The image based reports I used to provide had a few extra functions - download of financials directly into Excel, feedback functionality etc - but for the price (free!) this is a real alternative for those companies looking to offer more than a PDF.
Good find.
Pete
February 8th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Hi Peter,
If a company is only going to provide PDFs, then this is a no-brainer as an add-on.
But there is still nothing better than a good HTML report (except perhaps paper!). Any company that moves to default electronic delivery without providing an HTML report is being extremely negligent, and is skating dangerously close to breaching the regs.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:08 am
[...] that the conversion process is largely automated. The fact is, similar or better conversions are available free of charge in as little as 5 minutes to anyone who knows how to open a file on a computer and copy and paste a [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
I disagree with you it’s not that cut and dry. Your relying on ISSUU to host the materials they create or convert and handle the traffic. One of the SEC requirements is allow the document to be searchable your example is not. Companies that chose a third party to host their proxy materials have the option of the language they want to display on the site. While ISSUU is certainly a good tool what happens when you document doesn’t convert correctly because of the images, then I would venture to guess you’d have to call them for help and at that point they are going to charge you. I’m sure they don’t operate for free.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Eva,
I’ll reiterate what I said in the article. I don’t advise companies to use any of these quick document conversion services. This article was about demonstrating how ridiculous it is that vendors are charging thousands of dollars to gullible companies for a service that is essentially free.
You are correct that the SEC requires a searchable document. Image-based documents, such as those sold by unscrupulous vendors, are not fully searchable because you cannot use the “find in page” feature in the browser. Also note that companies *can* get a searchable version of the above type of document, for *free.*
The SEC also requires a document that is “convenient” for online reading, which image-based documents are not. Look up the definition of “convenient,” it’s a very high standard in terms of web usability.
But the key thing is that for the same cost as a crappy image-based document from Broadridge, Computershare, Thomson Reuters or mobular, companies could get a fully searchable, standards compliant HTML report.
Finally, please disclose that you are affiliated with a vendor that sells image-based documents so people can take that into account. It doesn’t negate anything you have to say, but it is valuable context. Just say something like “I work for a vendor that sells image-based documents” or something like that if you can’t identify the firm.