These annual reports and magazines are excellent
Long-term partnerships
With such a large and repetitive process, well-rehearsed processes are important for Jolanda Meyer. That's why St.Galler Kantonalbank relies on long-term partnerships and professionalism. The defined and proven processes and alliances create security for content, deadlines and costs, and in order to achieve error-free publication, the entire annual report is thoroughly proofread (externally) at the end. The plausibility of the figures is also checked. As the report is only published in German, no translations are required. This simplifies the process. The final check is carried out by the Finance department, the external auditors and Corporate Communications. Final approval is given by the Executive Board and the Board of Directors. The publishing tool ns.publish has proven to be a helpful tool in project management. It allows everyone involved to work efficiently without overlaps.
Cooperation with external service providers
Clariant, a globally active Swiss company in the field of specialty chemicals, relies on cooperation with partners. Service providers from Switzerland and abroad are used for editing, concept, graphics, online reports, photos, translations and printing, and the "One source of truth" plays a central role in project coordination. This Excel document is the central data document and contains all relevant key figures for the integrated report. It is stored on Sharepoint so that it can be maintained and updated independently by the people who provide the key figures. The editing system used is ns.publish from Neidhart + Schön. GlobalLink serves as a translation tool and review platform. Information and documents are exchanged internally and externally using Sharepoint and e-mail.
Who gets what?
The target groups of the integrated report are broad: private and institutional investors / shareholders, proxy advisors, journalists, suppliers, customers, scientists, NGOs, sustainability experts, existing and potential employees, etc. The general concept - and thus also the fundamental decision in favor of integrated reporting - is driven by Clariant's communications. The Integrated Reporting Team works with a clear mandate from the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. The Integrated Report is published in print and online.
Print and online with the right partners
Both channels are taken into account when developing the concept. The implementation is integrated, taking into account the strengths of the respective output channel and focusing on the respective target group. Depending on the tasks assigned by Swisscom, know-how and experience in corporate reporting, layout or online implementation are required. Innovative approaches and a straightforward approach are also required. It is very important to have a trustworthy basis, which forms the foundation for long-term cooperation.
Control and tips
Various committees are involved in the clearing process: Review Teams, Disclosure Committee, Steering Board, approval by the Audit Committee and Board of Directors. Responsibility for the accuracy of the language versions of the various reports lies with the project management and the core team, and a well-coordinated team that remains calm even in hectic phases and clear responsibilities are certainly valuable in the reporting process. The tight schedule and the resulting tasks must be constantly monitored. The support and acceptance of top management are very important for the entire project process.
