| Website
of the Month: Freed Maxick & Battaglia, PC
By
Susan B. Anders
JUNE 2005
- Freed Maxick & Battaglia, PC, is the largest local public
accounting firm based in Buffalo, New York. Its website (www.freedmaxick.com)
was recently redesigned to present a more sophisticated appearance,
with improved navigation, access to information about the
firm, and other interesting resources. Freed Maxick &
Battaglia’s website contains positive examples for local
and regional accounting firms to consider, in addition to
some less well-developed areas that are problematic for many
firms’ websites.
The
homepage is attractive, professional, and welcoming. It
contains a banner with the firm slogan at the top, and the
bottom is framed by a horizontal main menu bar. The main
content is simple, but the space is well utilized and provides
some background information about the firm. Two useful items
appear at the bottom of the homepage. The first is the address,
telephone, and fax information for three of the firm’s
offices. The second is a hyperlink to a site map, which
deserves special mention because of its level of detail.
The
main feature pages mimic the homepage. Some main pages,
as well as some subsidiary pages, also present left-side
vertical menu bars that link to the resources available
under the specific feature. Navigation is made easy by the
uniform menu bars, a keyword search feature, navigation
path hyperlinks, and a “return home” link on
each page. The contact information and a link to the site
map are also available on each of the main feature and subsidiary
webpages.
Potential
Clients
Under
“services,” potential clients can access brief
descriptions of the firm’s assurance, consulting,
employee benefit, and tax services. These subsidiary pages
are underutilized, and contact information for firm personnel
on each of the service pages would be an improvement.
Under
“industries,” users can see the firm’s
11 industry specializations, such as agribusiness, healthcare,
and real estate. Subsidiary industry pages offer some descriptions
that are relatively brief, while others offer more detail.
The firm misses another opportunity to present contact information
for its designated personnel to a potential client. A listing
of the firm’s directors, with their photographs and
e-mail links, is available under “about us”;
however, no specialization or background information is
provided.
An
attractive, one-page “firm facts” brochure summarizing
the services, industry groups, and office locations is hidden
under “resources.” For marketing purposes, it
should be directly linked on the homepage. The “newsletter”
link on the homepage might also be improved by linking it
to the most current issue, rather than to the subscription
page.
Potential
Employees
The
“careers” section is a well-developed. The careers
webpage contains descriptions of the number of employees
and offices, and links to general statements about recruiting
activities and career development. Two excellent features
are the name and contact information for the human resources
director, and a specific list of open positions, with links
to job descriptions and posting dates.
General-Information
Seeker
Users
that aren’t interested in becoming clients or employees
of the firm will still find the interesting information
in two areas of the site, “resources” and “links.”
Under resources, the website offers short PDF documents
on the 2003 and 2004 tax law changes. Students are especially
encouraged to take a look at these. The links webpage provides
excellent links to several federal and state tax and other
governmental resources, which practitioners, educators,
and students will find useful.
Susan
B. Anders, PhD, CPA, is an associate professor at
St. Bonaventure University, N.Y.
Note:
This column periodically reviews websites for some
of the larger public accounting firms, as well as for smaller
firms that have particularly good sites. |