Analyses of the Website Gutteridge Haskins and Davey - Essay Example

?This essay is going to analyse the website of GHD, which is available at www.ghd.com/australia/. GHD, formerly known as Gutteridge Haskins & Davey is an international network of engineers, architects and environmental scientists (GHD online, 2011). The purpose of the essay is to analyse the website according to PAIBOC and some other business communication principles. It will discuss how effectively GHD communicates to its audience. According to PAIBOC principle, it will discuss the purpose of the website and the audience it caters to. Furthermore, we will see whether the information provided on the website fulfils its purpose and satisfy the audiences’ need. We will look into the different techniques used to deliver the information. Also, we will evaluate the benefits and the objections users can have. In the last will also discuss the context of the website. GHD is an international leading consultancy firm in the area of engineering, architecture and environment serving clients in the markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. The company is operating in 15 countries. A business website needs to have some goals defined; a purpose that is in line with the purpose of the business itself. Before building a website, web developers naturally ask the company their purpose to launch the website (Website standards Association Online, 2009). Some websites’ sole purpose is to sell. Some websites gather information from visitors to analyse it and then bring something in market later on to sell in future. But most of the websites are there to share information with their present and prospective clients. (Start Florida Business Online, 2009) GHD website serves multiple purposes. It shares information to its present and prospective clients. It gives a complete detail to anyone who will open the website, about its history, its values, and the various projects it has undertaken. It also attracts Human Resource from its website where job-seekers can find job opportunities. The website also invites users to give their feedback and is a medium to contact them. One thing written on the homepage of website is “At GHD, we think beyond tomorrow to anticipate future challenges” which shows their concern for taking business seriously and representing the company’s values. Dechernatony and Mc Donald (2003) say that a corporate brand must give a clear picture and should personify the value of the organization (Dechernatony & Mcdonald 2003). Hence another purpose is to build its corporate brand on an international level. So that when anyone wants to know about GHD, they would get a clear picture of organization and its strong brand from its website. The purpose of the website is clearly in-line with the kind of business they are in. GHD is a consultancy firm and for such firms, it is best to provide information about the business to clients or any users of the website. While developing a website, one of the first things that a business needs to ask itself is the target audience. The organization needs to develop personas for the different target audience and then analyse how this audience is going to reach out its website (Jacobson 2007). The target audience for GHD’s website are the present and prospective clients, and the prospective employees. The first target audience refers to businesses and organizations who are working in the areas of water, transportation, environment, energy and resources, property and building. Therefore clients in the area of water refer to organizations dealing with water utilities and other water related services. In the area of environment, the business serves and the website attracts private organizations, government organizations and authorities. Furthermore government organizations and authorities look forward to consultancy from GHD in the area of transportations. Similarly the website also attracts audiences from different government and private organizations in the area of energy & resources, and building & property. This audience needs information about the company more than anything. GHD’s clients are working on huge and expensive projects. Therefore they need to know the reputation, previous projects and the excellence in work by the consultancy firm. These clients cannot risk taking help from an unprofessional organization. The website tells it all to the audience. They can also compare it with other consultancy firms available. (Comeau 2005) Another target audience as mentioned are the employment-seekers. The website has dedicated an entire section to careers. In this section the website targets students, graduates, and other job seekers. The demographics of GHD’s audience is 20-60 year old, both male & female, and residing in any part of the world since it’s an international organization working in many countries. However this specific website is for Australia so it is targeting Australian audience only. Many international organizations still stick to one international website for all over the world, only translating the language into English (Lindstorm 2001). Whereas there are many organizations that have localized their websites to serve local users according to their local needs. These websites give information relevant to the country, in a language understandable by the users, and overall content which is relevant to the market (Tixier 2005, Singh Furrer and Ostenelli 2004). GHD’s website is localized for 16 countries which is a very excellent approach towards running the website. It is obvious that a client from Australia would be more interested in looking at projects completed in its own country than in India. Similarly job-seekers would prefer to look for opportunities in their home country than filtering from opportunities all over the world. The information that an organization gives on its website is what helps the users to determine what the organization is about, how it works and what is the quality of their work. The information provided on the websites enable the users to perform certain actions. At times they look for more information through website, at times they approach the organization through emails and gather more information. If they are quiet impressed, they reach out for meeting the organization. But if the content does not impress them much, they leave the website and do not wish to even reach the organization. The information on GHD’s website is very much detailed and is provided in a way that attracts users. It not only gives the detail about different services it provides, and the projects undertaken by the company, it gives a great detail about company’s history, recent news, board of directors, their values, their concern for health and safety, their annual reports, the community services they provide, and a brief insight into the financial position of the company. It is very important for stakeholders to be aware of such information before striking a business deal. GHD also has a complete library online on which it has various corporate reports and videos. These videos and reports give concise yet clear information of GHD’s projects and business. They are also user driven because clients would like to see pictorial or organized form of information. The search capability helps the users to find any news, report, information they want to see at the website which is available. The information on the website clearly shows that it is credible for the overall picture of the website gives an image of a very professional organization. The information given is very accurate and there are no miscalculations or errors in it. Such things give a lasting impression to your audience and every website content developer first asks these questions while developing the website. (Allina Health System 1999) Any business initiative taken to communicate with a certain audience has its own set of benefits and disadvantages. There are various benefits that effective communication through website provides to any business. It’s cheap, adds more values, builds credibility, provides growth opportunity, and offers convenience (Simms 2005). But most of all it is what the customer now requires from any business-its online presence! (Web Transitions Online). The benefits enjoyed by GHD are also numerous. First of all the clients can first check their website before reaching out to them personally, and can get basic information online. This saves time for both the parties and improves credibility for the organization as well. Secondly it builds a strong corporate brand through its website. It also attracts talented Human Resource. So overall the website truly serves the purposes it was built for. Therefore the website naturally helps in marketing of the organization and providing a good respectable image. As with the benefits, there are always some objections that the users might have towards the website. Sometimes users object for not getting enough information, sometimes they object it to be not enough user friendly; some doubt the credibility of the website. Overall the GHD website is doing great and is effectively communicating to the audience. The only objection I find is overload of information. Some users prefer information to be kept brief and would not like to read long paragraphs to understand the meaning behind the company or its projects. Lastly, we will evaluate the website on the context. The users of website usually get clear picture of the website if it’s famous. This does not necessarily mean that the website itself is communicating to the audience very well. It is obvious that a user who opens website of Pepsi or Unilever for instance, would easily relate to everything and it will be very easy to understand what the website is about. GHD is a B-to-B company and it does not normally use print or electronic media to advertise itself. Hence most of the users look for information on the website only. Therefore the context of the business does not help users in understanding it. The website itself is so clearly represented that users find it helpful, informative and easy to use. Overall the website uses excellent business communication techniques. It serves its purpose fully. The audience is quite satisfied with the information it receives from it and the website helps GHD to get more clients. This proves the effective communication in the online world is equally important as in the real world, or perhaps more. It is because the clients of these organizations are also present in a cyber-world! References GHD [online]. (2011) [Accessed 18 August 2011]. Available from: . Website Standards Association [online]. (2009) [Accessed 18 August 2011]. Available from: . N/A (2009). What Purpose Does Your Business Website Serve? . 2009. Start Florida Business [online]. [Accessed 18 August 2011]. Available from: . De chernatony, L., and Mc Donald, M. (2003). Creating Powerful Brands. 3. ed. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Vicki B. jacobson (2007). Build a better website. PC magazine. pp.110. Marc Comeau (2005). Audience on the web. 29 May 2005. About a webmaster [online]. [Accessed 18 August 2011]. Available from: . Lindstorm, M. (2001). Corporate Branding and the Web: A global/local challenge. Journal of Brand Management. 8, pp.365-368. Tixie, M. (2005). Globalization and localization of contents: Evolution of major internet sites across sectors of industry. Thunderbird International Business Review.7. pp23-26. Allina Health System (1999). Criteria for evaluation websites. 17 February 1999. Library services [online]. [Accessed 17 August 2011]. Available from: < http://fpen.org/train/web/evaluating-sites.html>. John Simms (2005). 12 Benefits Of Having A Website. -. http://www.webworldindex.com/articles/12-Benefits-Of-Having-A-Website.html. [Accessed: 17 August 2011 ]. Web Transitions [online]. (2011) [Accessed 17 August 2011]. Available from: . Read More