One
of the new challenges facing corporations is how to
communicate with a world that's increasingly going paper-less?
For example, traditional printed annual reports are
fast becoming a thing of the past with the proliferation
of electronic media, especially with the high use of
computers. In addition, printing costs and distribution
costs are increasing while audio, video and animated
graphics are fast overtaking print in popularity. Even
some universities and colleges have gotten rid of books
entirely and only offer their textbooks on-line.
As
we migrate to newer forms of electronics communications
(especially on the web) there are a couple of things
to keep in mind to be successful. For one thing, you
need to be sure that the communications is compatible.
For the web that means your electronic communication
must be compatible across all browsers on the web. Currently
there are two types of programs that best do this. One
is made by Macromedia
and is a program called Flash. The other is by Microsoft
and is called Powerpoint. For the most professional
looking applications, Flash is the premiere choice for
most designers. Powerpoint on the other hand is more
familiar with people who make do-it-yourself presentations.
Size
of the file created is another consideration that can
affect your success. If the files are too big then it
could take a long time for the user to actually download
it and see it! You don't want it to take forever to
download.
Finally,
the programs needs to be visually interesting to make
it compelling to the viewer. You want to be able to
do movements on graphics and fade and dissolves from
word graphics.
EPRI,
the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research
and development company is pushing these electronics
communication boundaries. They have just published their
Annual
Report on their website using the Flash multimedia
format. WMS client Jeannine Howatt of EPRI explains:
WMS: Why use the web?
Howatt:
Print was the primary delivery. The web was secondary,
but offered a more concise and appealing way to tell
our story.
WMS: How hard was it
to convince management?
Howatt:
I
didn't have to convince management to go with a web
version. The suggestion for a web version came from
high up.
