ADP: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

ADP was founded in 1949 as Automatic Payrolls by brothers Henry and Joe Taub, who were soon joined by Frank Lautenberg (who rose to the position of CEO before becoming a U.S. Senator from New Jersey for 29 years). By 1961, when the company went public, it had invested in punched-card machines, mainframe computers, and check-printing equipment, and had changed its name to Automatic Data Processing. Today, from its headquarters in Roseland, NJ, ADP manages payroll, human resources, and benefits for about 570,000 companies worldwide, from start-ups to multinationals. ADP’s main About Us page (“Who We Are”) is here.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Products/Services: A

The graphic across the top of the main About Us page is excellent. Rather than a pretty picture, it provides four easy-to-grasp but extraordinarily impressive statistics about ADP, including the fact that ADP transferred $1.3 trillion within the U.S. in 2013, and that it’s one of only 4 U.S. companies that have AAA rankings in both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. Corporate storytelling by data: very fitting here. The graphic is followed by an excellent summary of ADP’s services - always a good policy, but especially important when the company name doesn’t give a clue to its business. After the graphic and summary, we’re given links to a message from the CEO, a list of major awards, and contact information. This is a good set of options, arranged in a sensible order.

The Awards & Recognition page is well designed, with the logo of the organization that gave the award, a summary of the reason, and a link to further information. Clearly this page is kept up to date--there’s already a 2014 award listed.

A testimonial page would be a useful addition, particularly if the testimonials were chosen to emphasize the variety of ADP’s services and the benefits of using them. A timeline with the company’s founding and rapid growth would add some corporate history and also reassure actual and potential clients of how sound the company is.

Personality: B

The main About Us page has a link to a clear, focused message from the CEO: well done. The Leadership Team page offers the opening lines of bios about management. Clicking the More button for each loads the rest of the brief bio. Nothing surprising here, but they’re adequate. Our Commandment 3 of About Us pages is “Reveal thy personality.” More information on the founders and the company history would help with that.

Accessibility: C

The contact options start at the foot of the main About Us page, with a range of social media. Other contact pages are scattered across the site: one for U.S. offices (under an Office Locations link on the main About Us page), one for worldwide offices (under an “ADP Worldwide” tab at the top of the page), and yet another (the Contact Us page) for sending a form email or checking a FAQ. To save visitors time and confusion, all these options should be repeated on the main Contact Us page.

TAKEAWAY

Websites tend to grow by accretion. Have an outsider check your site regularly to ensure that important pages such as your Contact Us page remain well organized and up to date.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Puntacana Resort & Club: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

Puntacana, one of the Caribbean’s premier resorts, occupies more than 26 square miles on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1969 by Frank Rainieri and Theodore Kheel, it currently includes 2 hotels, 5 residential communities, 9 restaurants, 2 golf courses, its own marina and airport, plus an ecological reserve. The main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: C

Products/Services: C

The great material on this site needs to be reorganized and rewritten. For example, the main About Us page begins, “Visitors may be interested to learn.” Writing 101: If we’re reading it, we’re interested. The rest of the first paragraph doesn’t intrigue or entice us with a description of the delights of Puntacana; instead, it traces the development of the Puntacana name and brand. After a short description of the club’s history, we finally come, at the end of the second paragraph, to a list of the major attractions of the Puntacana Resort & Club, with links to Tortuga Bay, the Westin, the Sheraton, the Six Senses Spa, etc. The main About Us page would be much more effective if this list were at the beginning of the page, rather than the end.

The Press page gives an impressive number of links in a dauntingly dense block. Because many people won’t bother to load a new page, it’s always better to show off your media mentions by a logo, the article’s title, and a one-line summary of how the content relates to your company. This makes reading media mentions more enticing, and incidentally minimizes the problem of broken links.

The articles on the Press page date from 2009 to 2011: has Puntacana fallen off the media’s radar? But no, the Affiliations and Awards page has citations from 2013. Our Commandment 10 of About Us pages is “Remember to keep holy the updates.” Even the most beautifully designed media page falls flat if it’s obviously outdated.

Personality: B

The History page mentions founders Frank Ranieri and Theodore W. Kheel, and briefly describes the growth of the resort. This is corporate history put to decent use: it gives us a sense of the marvelous amenities that have been created at Puntacana, even if it falls short on corporate storytelling. The page would be even more fascinating if it showcased the history with archival photos of the area pre-1969, when it was an impenetrable jungle known as Punta Borrachon (“Drunkard’s Point”). Headings and images would help organize and break up the blocky text: e.g., Creating the Resort, Building the Airport, Building Infrastructure, Building the Brand, Awards.

Accessibility: D

The Contact page offers email, phone, and a mailing address. Oddly, not a single name or title of management or staff (and they must run to the hundreds) appears on this page. We assume this is intentional, but we cannot imagine why.

TAKEAWAY

If you have a list of awards and press mentions, make it more attractive with logos, the article’s title, and a brief summary, as well as a link.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Title Nine tells good corporate story

Strong piece of corporate storytelling by Title Nine, a women's activewear retailer and cataloguer. In effect they moved their About Us page to the inside front cover of their catalog. A quick glance at the 267 responses posted online in the first two weeks shows that Title Nine is open to honest feedback. 

The copy begins: "We are a small, Northern California company. We are not part of some large corporation. We are women-owned and run. We believe that many of life's problems can be solved by a good work-out. We know that a good work-out requires a good sports bra, and we are sports bra experts." Kudos for honoring CorporateHistory.net's Commandment 3 of About Us Pages: Reveal thy personality.

The image grabbed my attention, too. Isn't it usually preadolescents who have crushes on horses? No matter; this compelling photo upholds our Commandment 6: Honor thy visuals.

P.S. If printed pieces are going the way of the public telephone booth, you couldn't prove it by our mailbox over the holidays. We have never received so many catalogs. And yes, we ordered from a few (though not Title Nine).

Xerox Corporation: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

Xerox Corporation was founded in 1906 as Haloid Photographic Company, a manufacturer of paper and equipment for photographers. In 1946 Haloid bought the right to develop Chester Carlson’s process for printing images using an electrically charged drum and dry powder (hence “xerography,” or “dry writing”). The company’s name was changed from “Haloid Xerox” to “Xerox” in 1961. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Xerox has 140,000 employees in 160 countries. The main About Us page is Xerox at a Glance.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Personality: A

Highlighted quotes from Chairman and CEO Ursula M. Burns appear throughout the Xerox About Us pages. We have seldom seen the words of the leader of a company used more effectively to indicate the values of the company and the direction it’s going. Also exceptional is Burns’s bio, an engaging story that begins with her summer internship at Xerox and relates her rise through the ranks, including links to pages for departments she was involved with. The sidebar on the right side and the “Ursula Burns in the News” subhead give easy access to speeches and interviews.

Our Commandment 3 of About Us pages is, “Reveal thy personality.” Often the best way to do that is to recount the founder’s vision. But Xerox is no longer primarily concerned with photography or photocopies, so the extensive quotes from the current CEO are better suited to show the direction the company is going.

Products/Services: B

The main About Us page is an overview of the company, including a brief summary (with an optional video in a small box: bravo!) and information on the number of employees, active patents, R&D spending, leadership, locations, and core values. Side menus allow access to company information, products and services, and helpful resources. This page packs a lot of information into an uncluttered layout, but, perplexingly, there are no links where we’re clearly invited to learn more: “Do you have what it takes to join the team?”, “See how we’ve been creating business solutions for more than a century.”

The News page is excellent and comprehensive. Tweets appear in a scrolling column on the left, blog posts in the center. On the right are subheads for Xerox’s own press releases (available via search or by category), for Multimedia, and for Additional Resources (including press contacts). At the bottom of the page are Featured Images. Although this page appears uncluttered, it accomplishes the phenomenal task of allowing visitors to choose between a wide range of options, mostly without scrolling or loading new pages.

The Timeline of Business Innovation and Design is a disappointment. We can’t get an overview of the company history: instead, we’re forced to slog through decade by decade. A short narrative history above the timeline would be very welcome. Incidentally, as historians and philologists, we’d love to read the derivation of the Xerox name as part of the business history. These shortcomings are extra-disappointing because Xerox’s history video, featuring 75 years in 75 seconds, is exemplary corporate storytelling. 

Accessibility: A

Xerox’s Contact Us pages offer a wealth of well-organized information. The main page gives seven choices (e.g., Billing and Account Administration, Research and Innovation). Clicking on one takes us to a three-column page with information on specific divisions (e.g., Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox India Innovation Hub). For each division, we can see not only contact information, but what the division focuses on (e.g., strategic materials research, multimedia research, systems integration, document management). Providing contact information in this much detail reads as a sure sign that Xerox does indeed want to hear from us.

TAKEAWAY

If your CEO often lectures or gives interviews, as Xerox’s does, quotes should feature prominently on your About Us pages. If your company issues press releases, blog posts, and tweets, and is often mentioned in the media as well, make it easy for visitors to your site to find all that information easily.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.