Telecom Italia wins the annual survey of corporate websites performed by KWD Webranking (previously H&H Webranking) with an impressive 89 points, thereby pushing the Italian energy company Eni (87 points) down to second place after three consecutive years on the throne.

Winner in 2007, Telecom Italia has been in the top five of KWD’s ranking of Europe 500 companies ever since. By further developing their presence in social media channels and providing a high level of interactivity with their website visitors, Telecom Italia managed to climb past Eni and regain first position. The integrated communication project, the “avoicomunicare” blog, presents several corporate social responsibility issues and is a good example where Telecom Italia stimulated open online discussions regarding major issues regarding the environment, sustainable development, biodiversity, potential synergies between cultures.

Another recipe for success is Telecom Italia’s perceptiveness in understanding target group needs and providing a content rich corporate website. The Press- and Financial Reporting sections are particularly outstanding, both receiving top scores in the survey.

The German chemical company BASF breaks the Italian dominance in the top spots and claims third place with 83 points, one notch better than in 2010. A second energy company secures position in the top five, namely Repsol (81.75 points). The Spanish company makes an impressive leap from 10^th place in 2010 to 4^th. And for the first time, Swedish SCA becomes a member of the big five with 80.5 points.

Gas and Pharmaceuticals improve websites the most

When looking at the percentage change in rank of the 28 sectors* in Europe 500 compared to 2010, two sectors outshine by far: ’Gas, water & multiutilities’ and ‘Pharmaceuticals & biotechnology’.

The ’Gas, water & multiutilities’ sector makes a major leap from 4^th place to 1^st. Italian Snam Rete Gas, German RWE and English Centrica are the strongest in the sector. The Gas sector is especially strong in the Corporate Responsibility section of the corporate website, providing information about supply chain standards and sustainability index as well as working actively with membership and sponsorship programs, community involvement and charity. The majority of the companies also have the latest CR report online and a CR contact.

Treading on their heels, Pharmaceuticals & biotechnology goes from 9^th place to 3^rd. The sector’s key competence is providing enticing yet functional home pages, comprehensive and accessible general information about the company and its business principles as well as creating an attractive Career section to draw the attention of new talents. Finnish Metso and Wärtsilä as well as Swedish SKF are the best in the sector.

Worth mentioning is the ‘Electricity’ sector which has climbed 9 places, from 26^th to 17^th.  The main improvement lies in corporate transparency, where Electricity companies have increased and provided more detailed information in corporate governance related topics. For instance management and board share transactions as well as board and committees work. Best in this sector are Finnish Fortum and the two Italian companies Enel and Terna.

The only sector without a change is ‘Large international banks’ clutching steadily on to 5^th position.

Russian Bashneft – this year’s climber

Climbing with 17.75 points, The Russian oil and gas producer Bashneft has improved their score the most since 2010 in the ranking of the 500 largest companies in Europe. Since the 2010 Webranking, Bashneft has re-launched their website and now has a promising well-structured site which can easily be expanded with more information requested from the capital market and job seekers.

Read more:

• Euro 500 Results

* KWD Webranking’s sector categorization is based on the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB), an industry classification taxonomy developed by Dow Jones and FTSE. The ICB uses a system of 10 industries, partitioned into 20 supersectors, which are further divided into 41 sectors. KWD Webranking has consolidated ICB’s 41 sectors into 28 sectors. ICB’s ‘Banks’ sector has been divided into two sectors in KWD Webranking (1) Large international banks and (2) Other banks.

Telecom Italia Corporate Website

Telecom Italia back on top, followed by Eni and Hera. The average score dropped to almost 3 points. The 10^th edition confirms a big divide between the leaders and the vast majority of companies have not been improving in recent years

After four years, Telecom Italia regain the top spot in the KWD Webranking 2011 Italy Top100 with 89 points out of a possible 100, followed by Eni, the winner three years running, scoring 87 points. Hera the multi-utility based in Bologna, with 85.5 points kept a spot on the podium though it dropped to third.

 Ansaldo STS, with an improvement of 12.5 points, is the best improver compared with last year’s edition.

The Italian average fell almost 3 points compared with last year, dropping to 36.8 from 39.6. With the exception of a limited number of companies that have been working to improve their online communications for several years, the majority of those evaluated have not been improving in recent years and remain stuck in the lower part of the ranking.

 Read more

• Executive Summary in Italian
• Executive summary in English
• Article in Corriere della Sera
• The Italian result