Last year investor relations consultancy Makinson Cowell asked 60 equity fund managers what they thought of the corporate websites of companies making up the FTSE 100, and new media agency pres.co audited the sites in the light of their answers. The results were published earlier this year and the clear winner was BP-Amoco, with a website score of 91 out of 100, virtually twice the average mark of 46.

Jane Renton asked Teresa Clifford, BP's e-communications manager, how the energy group had managed to develop its website so successfully.

-------------

BP, Clifford says, has developed a new way of presenting the company's annual report about its activities, embracing social and environmental issues. "This 'living report' contains much more than appears in the printed annual report," says Clifford. "Its content is influenced by meetings with non-governmental organisation like Greenpeace, as well as institutional investors and other interest groups, to find out what they want to know, how much and how quickly.

"We looked at our range of audiences; investors, stakeholders, customers, non governmental organisations and environmentalists. We also talked with our public relations and current affairs departments about the topics that they were being asked about."

BP's main website is based on different levels of information. The home page is addressed to anyone looking for products, services or jobs. This links them to enough detail to provide a reasonable understanding of what the group is doing or has on offer. Then there are more discriminating paths to greater levels of information, either through key entry points, perhaps with password-protected access, or through email addresses dealing with specific subjects.

The group has also just launched a new website, named BP Alive, aimed specifically at investors and the media. This features a financial calendar, a statement on BP's strategy and performance, news about recent events such as the progress of the group's bid for Arco, today's share price in pounds and dollars, a downloadable library, a register for people who want news emailed to them, a reminder of the AGM and how to vote online, and even an invitation to email queries to chief executive Sir John Browne - this is a bit of a gimmick, as he only promises to answer one question a day, but it's a neat bit of PR.

There are other websites, too, for individual parts of the group, such as BP Oman. covering the Middle Eastern subsidiary's business and markets, complete with a potted history and a pious statement about environmental responsibility.

Clifford says all significant new content on the web pages is seen at least twice by all the group's managing directors, including Sir John, before release. It has previously been approved by department heads, other key people, and internal auditors and lawyers. Preparing the content is the responsibility of a number of business teams, such as investor relations, brands and information technology. So far BP's government and public affairs department has initiated most of what goes live and when.

"We began by putting up an essentially paper-based product, using press releases and other printed material, which we made as net-friendly as possible," says Clifford. "That was stage one. Now we are updating much more frequently. Users want up-to-date information. This has considerable resource implications and requires much faster approval systems. This is a service industry. We are finding that the work really begins after a site is launched, rather than before."

Providing the information gathers momentum in the weeks after the launch. Part of the reason for this is that the web provides a two-way flow. We invite feedback and we have to react when we get it. It requires a new attitude of mind. The Internet and email provide a closer relationship with our audience; we can't brush off enquiries with a bland letter and a promise to provide details when we get round to it. It is much more of a dialogue, and we have to respond very fast or lose credibility.

Clifford admits that the whole operation absorbs substantial resources, but she says BP is getting used to the commitment and can already see the benefits. She adds that being on the Internet is changing thinking. "Once upon a time only insiders would have known about BP's plans to merge with Amoco before the official announcement reached the media. We put it straight on our website and the traffic surged 50-fold. If we had waited ten minutes we would have lost this.

"We are still gearing up for the future. So far we have handled most of the change within our existing resources. But the new medium is changing a lot of jobs. Speed is essential. For example, the people who used to write the copy for our brochures are now putting it straight online. However, the pressure is building and we shall probably need more staff soon, both internal and external, " says Clifford.

BP's first website was launched five years ago, which is aeons ago in IT terms. Clifford says earlier technical barriers have been surmounted, but that merely means the group faces new iterations. "Websites may not be the main form of access. Hand-helds and other mobile devices will access bite-sized pieces of information. We need to look at intelligent agents to personalise information, and who knows what else. We are going to have to be much cleverer. And ever quicker."

With its website a window onto BP's entire universe of knowledge, the volume of information that could be available on demand is huge. Theoretically, this is not a problem. What companies put on their websites is up to them to decide. But in practice it is not proving so simple, as the Makinson Cowell survey reveals.

The secret of BP's success is the skill with which it is using its websites to provide a great deal of fast, useful information without compromising its corporate position. "Make no mistake," Clifford says. "You will find nothing on BP's website that the group is not happy for you to know. Why do you think its executive directors take so close an interest in what is added to its pages?"

They also clearly realise that the Internet has brought a quantum leap in attitudes towards the availability of business information. BP's efforts to provide intelligent as well as up-to-date answers explain why it heads pres.co's scoreboard.

What is surprising is that BP's score is so much higher than the FTSE 100's average mark. Cost is only part of the reason. A website is, in essence, a publication. It needs competent writers and editors, on tap if not in-house, as much as technological resources. Setting up a corporate website, indeed, is neither expensive nor difficult. Fuelling it with information which promotes the company's business and protects its reputation takes a much more continuous commitment. But not every company needs to match BP's efforts. And in any case most of the information that could go on the corporate website is already being generated. All that is needed is a modicum of journalistic skills and disciplines.

So the real answer lies in the boardroom. The leaders of most of the UK's largest companies, it appears, have still to grasp that the Internet has given an entirely new meaning to the expression: publish or be damned.

Jane Renton is contributing editor at Professional Writers© web content authors. Visit: www.professionalwriters.co.uk

Do you have comments or suggestions or other ideas in this field? Give us your feedback.