How to get investors online.

• Author: Mahoney, William F.

Add investor communications to the list of good reasons to set up a home page. Read why Xerox and other companies put their quarterly and annual reports online and how they reach out to investors electronically.

For the first time ever, technology is giving individuals the same opportunities to instantly access information as professional investors have. This is contributing to faster investment decisions, leading to more trading volume and the potential for greater stock price volatility. A parallel revolution is now taking place in the way companies communicate with investors. Soon, getting a company's quarterly results will be a matter of a few keystrokes on your computer if - it isn't already.

For-hire wire services were the first breakthrough, allowing companies to fulfill their material information disclosure requirements without hand-carrying releases to prime media. Next came fax and online database services and then "blast" fax, enabling companies to reach key investors and analysts simultaneously. Meanwhile, corporate material began showing up in more databases, thanks to the commercial wire services and a host of specialty firms that were formatting the information to fit the models of professional investors - and, eventually, individual investors.

Vendors and companies have also developed software that lets investor relations departments manage their growing data. The software allows companies to create a thorough picture of their shareholder base and those of peers, so they can monitor changes quarterly. You can identify analyst, institutional and even retail broker targets, sort them by cities and send invitations to meetings. You also can log information on analysts' recommendations, stock positions and institutions' buy/sell patterns, and you can obtain institutional profiles, decision-making premises and corporate governance information.

Thus, today's technology-driven investor relations function sends information by newswire and fax, administering much of the daily activity with computer software. It also has a direct electronic link with investors through audio-based conference calls. Next: the company's own direct-access location in cyberspace and videoconference calls.

GET READY FOR THE NEXT WAVE

That next wave of technology is already upon us, promising even higher levels of efficiency, speed and quality in disseminating and receiving information. In fact, it's causing companies to rethink how they send information. The Internet is shaping up as the equalizer in giving individuals the information to make...