Risk concerns are clearly one of the prime drivers of this market. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 137 large U.S. multinationals indicates that 65 percent of the respondents believe that Sarbanes-Oxley represents increased risks for CEOs, CFOs, and other key executives who are required to certify financial reports. PwC says that a more-mature system of internal controls is key to risk mitigation.

Sidebar: Setting Sites On Better IR
With so much investor-relations activity moving to the Web, usability becomes a key concern. Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting firm that specializes in Web-site usability, recently studied how dozens of consumers and investment professionals sought IR information on 20 corporate Web sites and found the following:

• The overall success rate (finding answers to specific IR-related questions) was 70%, compared with 55%­65% for other usability studies, indicating that IR is often handled well.
• But 35% of users couldn't locate the most recent quarterly report, and 77% couldn't find high/low share prices for earlier quarters, suggesting that essential investor information is often buried.
• Professionals (institutional investors, financial analysts, and journalists) deplored the marketing and promotional aspects of many IR sites but said they did welcome management comments on where the company is going; that is, they want the story behind the numbers.
• PDF files and interactive stock charts often impede fast access to basic information.

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