The ValueNotes survey report, in its introduction, observes that the current landscape of business, especially in the US and Europe, is indicative of the absolute necessity of a significant Web presence.

"A common thread amongst most successful organisations and business entities has been their willingness and commitment to use the Internet for information dissemination as well as a medium to do business. Web sites have now become windows to the company and therefore, can communicate a lot about the company.

"Shifting the scene to India however paints a totally different picture - whilst our technology professionals and companies are consistently proving they are indeed the backbone of information networks of the world, our domestic industry by and large has been somewhat myopic and even ignorant about the benefits and the need to incorporate the Internet as a part of companies' marketing and business strategy.

"Among other things, the point not being driven home is that the fundamental power of the Internet as a low-cost and highly effective tool for disseminating information is being undervalued."

According to statistics quoted in a report published by Peter Wolcott & Seymour Gordon, in Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 11, 2003), over 90 per cent of Indian corporates use the Internet for e-mail. Between 30-70 per cent use it for downloading information, FTP and Web site monitoring and less than 20 per cent use the Internet for e-commerce.

According to another survey quoted by the same authors, 20 per cent of the brick-and-mortar companies use e-commerce to some extent, while only 16 per cent have the top executives' involved in the process.

Given this background, ValueNotes has, in its survey, tried to evaluate companies and their Web sites in terms of certain parameters such as the raison d'être of Web sites, their visibility and their management.

While experts say that determining the purpose and the intended results are among the most important tasks for Web site managers, about 72 per cent of the respondents who participated in the ValueNotes survey, when asked about the main purpose/objective of their Web site, said that it was to build Web presence and approximately 78 per cent said that the Web site was meant to promote their products. Only 39 per cent of the survey respondents said that it was meant to attract prospective clients and employees. The Web site was more for image enhancement for their company than anything else. Interestingly, when asked whether these basic objectives had been met, about 83 per cent of the corporate respondents said that they had been — to some extent.

Further, 90 per cent of the respondents said that the intended target audience for their Web site was customers. Less than 50 per cent said that the Web site was also targeted at investors, while only 28 per cent said that they expected to attract the media. However, only half of the respondents said that they currently had different messages for different target groups. But they did indicate that they would be considering segregating the content for different types of target audience.

As for visibility, Valuenotes points out that search engines deliver the highest volume of traffic at a cost lower than any other form of online advertising. Numerous research studies have proved that more than 80 per cent of Internet users find out about new Web sites through search engines. "It is not enough to be merely listed on search engines - for every frequently searched phrase, there could be millions of results thrown up. The ranking of the Web site on major search engines is all-important." However, according to the survey, only 50 per cent of the respondents felt that their Web site had adequate visibility. Over 75 said that they did not track nor had any idea about the number of visitors they had to their site. ValueNotes found that most of the corporates are not fully aware about search engine registration and optimisation, or do not pay too much attention to these factors.

On Web site management, the annual budget ranges between Rs 5,000 and a few lakhs, depending on the size of the company and the efforts taken to maintain it. About 44 per cent of the companies outsource the maintenance of their Web sites. Also, the frequency of maintaining and upgrading the Web sites varies drastically across the companies.

While some of the companies update every few days, others say updating is done on a monthly or a quarterly basis. Only 11 per cent of the respondents said that their company Web sites were updated on a daily basis. Significantly, none of the respondents interviewed had a clear idea as to how many pages were added to their Web site every month. Generally, decisions as to what went on the site appeared to be a team decision with the final say with the CEO or MD.

More Stories on : Information Technology | Internet

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page