Recently Sentry Select went live on the new Fund edition version of Q4 Web. 

Q4 Fund Edition supports unlimited product management including: mutual funds, capital units, preferred securities, income trusts, limited partnerships, deposit notes and more. Each of these products has unlimited configurations including: management, performance, distributions, portfolio holdings, prospectuses, press releases, historical NAVs, historical closing prices, regulatory reporting, distribution history, tax information and more.

Sentry Select, a Canadian wealth management company that manages over $8 billion in gross assets, is the first company to adopt the Q4 Fund Edition as its corporate standard for managing its web site. “With the new regulation surrounding secondary market disclosure (Bill 198), we felt it was important to secure and track our corporate web site and its content. “said Brian McOstrich, Vice-President, Marketing at Sentry Select. “We consider the web site as the main communication vehicle with the public and as such, it has the potential to be at the centre of interest regarding disclosure or potential misrepresentation. Having the ability to track the workflow process on our web site, and provide detailed reports on this from any point in time, significantly reduces any potential liability claims of misrepresentation.”

“We’re thrilled to be launching this product to the investment fund industry. Since late 2005 we have been providing issuers with a set of disclosure management solutions that aide in reducing compliance risk and increasing efficiency,” said Darrell Heaps, President and CEO of Q4 Web Systems. “In today’s environment, investment fund companies share the same risk and liability as issuers, but typically deal with numerous traded entities and sources of disclosure.“

More about Q4 Fund Edition can be found here.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4 WEB, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Compliance, Mutual Funds, Bill 198, MI 52-109, C-SOX

We are pleased to announce another member to the Q4 family. Vena Resources went live on the Q4 WEB platform last week in English, Spanish and German languages.

Stay tuned for a press release and please visit the site at http://www.venaresources.com

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4 WEB, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Compliance, Bill 198, MI 52-109, C-SOX

Another XBRL post… 

Yesterday the SEC held a press conference to announce the completion of the US GAAP Taxonomy which is made up of roughly 60 data tags. Based on US GAAP this new taxonomy is helping to ensure that teh filing of XBRL can now be automated for all issuers.

The finalized set of data tags (aka taxonomy) has been organized into 16 topics and is now in the hands of the 6 large accounting firms with their review being submitted to the SEC sometime next week.

The next key step for XBRL US and the SEC is how to move from the current voluntary program to market acceptance. By the spring of 2008 the SEC should announce their plans for having all US issuers submit all disclosure in an interactive format. The requirement for all companies to begin filing using interactive data sounds looks like sometime in the fall of 2008.

You can view the complete webcast here.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, XBRL, Disclosure, Disclosure Risk, Disclosure Risk Management, Q4 PRESS

Last Thursday the SEC Chairmen Christopher Cox announced that the combined market capitalization of companies submitting interactive data financial reports to the SEC has surpassed $2 trillion. 7 companies have joined over the last 3 months bringing the total voluntary group to just 40.

“The continued positive feedback from our enthusiastic group of test filers means that interactive disclosure is well on its way to becoming reality,” said Chairman Cox. “Investors in the future will have instant, user-friendly access to company disclosures that are far more accurate than anything that is possible with today’s EDGAR.”

Interactive data refers to financial information provided using XBRL (”eXtensible Business Reporting Language”) or any other computer software language that labels companies’ financial data with codes from standard lists called “taxonomies” so that investors and analysts can more easily locate and analyze desired information in a public company’s financial statements.

This milestone is one of many related to XBRL and there is sure to be more in the near future.  XBRL (aka interactive data) is an important trend in disclosure and is one of the main elements in transforming how market analysts and ordinary investors obtain and use financial information.

Interactive disclosure is an important trend for us here at Q4 and is impacting many of our soon to be released products. Look for XBRL based disclosure extensions to show up in Q4 PRESS in the near future.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, XBRL, Disclosure, Disclosure Risk, Disclosure Risk Management, Q4 PRESS

Being an on-demand software company we are committed to providing the tools and services that help our clients achieve their goals as they relate to their web sites, disclosure and compliance. Having said that, Q4 WEB provides a long list of benefits for issuers outside of its ability to help clients reduce compliance risk. Here is a list of top 10 non-compliance benefits:

1. Complete flexibility
Q4 WEB provides the ability to easily manage all aspects of your web site. This includes easily updating how information is presented on your site, where it is displayed and replicated throughout your site. Because of how the system is designed there is a complete separation between the presentation (what the user sees) and the rest of the system. This means that you are never tied into a design or layout. As your needs change you can easily implement these changes through Q4 WEB. No matter how you are thinking about improving your site – design, content, layout, features – you can use Q4 WEB to easily achieve it.

2. Automated work flow
Built into Q4 WEB is a powerful workflow engine that helps to move content through drafting, reviewing and approval stages. Email notifications with actionable detail and comments are sent to appropriate individuals to respond. This helps in getting content approved and onto the site faster than through standard methods. Also feedback and comments are maintained over time so that conversations regarding changes are evident and easily accessible.

3. Manage multiple web sites
Does your company maintain more than one site? Using Q4 WEB you have the ability to easily manage all sites from the same system. These sites can exist on different domain names and have completely different designs. Also, content can be shared across multiple sites. For example content such as management bios, press releases or events can be managed in one location and easily distributed across all of your sites.

4. Integrated multiple languages
Q4 WEB gives you the ability to easily manage multiple languages on your site. There is no restriction on the type of languages, Q4 WEB works with all of them. It also provides the ability for content to be mirrored or separate. Meaning the exact content is available in different languages or completely separate and independent. AND by using the workflow aspects of Q4 WEB your translator can be instantly notified when new content is available for translation – helping you get more done in less time.

5. Seamless integration with various data feeds
Most clients of Q4 WEB utilize data feeds to speed the posting of key information such as press releases, regulatory filings and performance data. Q4 WEB integrates all data feeds available in the market. Whether you obtain feeds from a large company, from Q4 or from a small vendor Q4 WEB easily consumes, maintains records and displays this information in whatever format you determine is most effective for your audience.

6. Easily create mini-sites for M&A activity or similar events
Do you need to create a special deal site for a corporate action taking place? Do you need to create it quickly without disclosing any information to the public? Using Q4 WEB these sites can be easily created and managed with only your internal resources. This means more control and confidentiality for your company. Using our tool, this entire site can then be timed to go live with other related events – such as a press release.

7. Full site preview
When previewing changes in Q4 WEB you are taken to a “preview site” that is a fully functioning staging site that includes all changes that are currently pending. When previewing in competitive systems what you are presented with is a constricted view – or just the content on the page you are working on. Using Q4 WEB, you are able to make an unlimited number of changes to content, layout, design, etc and to preview all of them without impacting the live site. AND you can share this preview with others to receive feedback prior to publishing anything to the live site.

8. Integrated email alerts and subscriber management
Q4 WEB allows you to segment and manage email subscriber lists according to a variety of variables. You have the ability to create segmented lists and to send both email alerts and manual email newsletters to any of those lists. In multilingual sites, users can also specify language preferences for the information they want to receive (for example as a press release is uploaded in the second language, it would then be distributed to subscribers who had requested alerts for this language). Email alerts can easily be configured against any type of content in the system. Clients typically choose to enable alerts for items such as press releases, reports, events, presentations, etc..

9. On-Demand service and architecture
Also known as software as a service, On-Demand means that Q4 WEB is delivered through the web as a subscription model. All IT related activities and costs are included in the service delivery. This includes: enterprise class redundant web site hosting, SAS 70 Type II certification, 24/7 extensive monitoring and alerting, 24/7 customer support, scheduled back-ups and disaster recovery, regular code maintenance and application performance upgrades.

10. A focused and committed technology partner
Q4 is a software company 100% focused on increasing efficiency in helping you communicate better while providing you with the tools that you need to consistently improve your communication with shareholders. Since our inception in 2005 we have continued to expand our services to help our clients achieve more by using our software to automate manual tasks and provide the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions. Q4 gives you the tools and the service that you can rely on.

In addition to the list above there are many additional benefits that Q4 WEB provides for companies that exist in specific industries including natural resources and financial services. But we’ll leave that for another post.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Bill 198, Civil Liability, Sarbanes Oxley, RegFD

Since Bill 198 became law back in the early part of 2006 there have been many different perspectives regarding what this means to directors and officers and how companies manage their secondary market disclosure.

Since our inception in 2005 we have had numerous regulators, consultants and customers support our position that companies should maintain records of what is being disclosed through the corporate web site.

Here is a quote from a recent customer: “The web site is now accepted as the main communication vehicle with the public and has the potential to be at the center of liability regarding disclosure or misrepresentation.  With the new regulation surrounding secondary market disclosure (Bill 198) we felt it was important to secure and track our corporate web site”

Here is another quote from one of our customers: “In today’s regulatory environment, it is very advantageous and reassuring that the system automatically tracks and logs all changes and approvals, ensuring greater protection and compliance”

In addition to these customer quotes, David Brown the former Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission said “With civil liability legislation, publicly traded companies should be doing everything they can to ensure comprehensive records of all capital markets disclosure - and this includes the full content of the corporate/investor web site.”

Mr. Brown was tasked with adopting US Sarbanes-Oxley for TSX listed issuers and is responsible for much of Bill 198 and other related legislation such as MI 52-109 (certification of disclosure controls and procedures). Mr. Brown is a member of our advisory board and has been instrumental in guiding the evolution of our products as they relate to Bill 198 and MI 52-109.

As corporate/investor relations web sites continue to increase in importance and in some cases are becoming the prime source of disclosure (Sun’s latest quarterly earnings - which were released through their web site first ) the fact that companies must maintain accurate records in order to reduce risk also continues to increase.  Claiming that the “web site record doesn’t matter” is completely counter to the true environment of corporate reporting, investor relations and capital markets disclosure.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Bill 198, Civil Liability, Sarbanes Oxley, David Brown, RegFD 

Through our expanding data relationships we are now able to offer data across the majority of European exchanges. With an increasing number of our clients trading in European markets we are pleased to be able to offer this expanded set of data.

Outside of North American exchanges we can now provide:

- London Stock Exchange (including AIM) 
- Euronext Exchanges - Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon
- Borsa Italiana
- Deutsche Borse
- Swiss Exchange
- RTS - Russian Trading System Stock Exchange
- MICEX - Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange
- Athens Stock Exchange
- Virt-X
- Irish Stock Exchange
- Stockholm
- Oslo
- Copenhagen
- Helsinki
- Madrid
- Vienna
- Luxembourg
- Stuttgart (EUWAX)
- German Regional Markets - Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Munchen

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, European Exchanges, Stock Quotes

As part of our ongoing effort to improve and upgrade our infrastructure I’m pleased to announce that the new Q4 data center is now fully redundant and SAS 70 TYPE II certified.

SAS 70 is an internationally recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Our data center’s SAS 70 certification enables us to further our expansion into the enterprise market by delivering certification of the controls needed for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

This certification deals with the controls related to service delivery, operations, infrastructure maintenance, change management, backup of programs and data files and logical and physical data center access.

Over the next couple of months we’ll be transitioning all clients over to the new data centre. Q4 has always provided a highly secure service delivery but now our customers will feel even more confident that our services are safe, secure, reliable and compliant with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, Disclosure, Disclosure controls, Compliance, SAS 70, Sarbanes Oxley, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites

Last week Inmet Mining went live on Q4 WEB, keep an eye out for a press release over the next couple of days. I’ll update this post once it crosses the wire. Inmet’s stock has seen significant growth over the last couple of years and we are thrilled to have them join the Q4 family.

You can visit the Inmet site at: www.inmetmining.com

Q4 Web Systems, Q4 WEB, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Compliance

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4 WEB, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Compliance

Last week BFI Income Fund (TSX: BFC.UN) went live on Q4 WEB. We’re thrilled to add BFI to our growing list of clients looking to increase the efficiency of managing their corporate web site disclosure.

“We are very excited to be using Q4’s content and disclosure management system to easily manage and control changes to our corporate website,” stated Chaya Cooperberg, Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for BFI Canada Income Fund.  “In today’s regulatory environment, it is very advantageous and reassuring that the system automatically tracks and logs all changes and approvals, ensuring greater protection and compliance. We were extremely impressed with Q4’s ability to smoothly implement their solution in conjunction with our site re-design, and we are pleased to be at the forefront of using this technology.”  

BFI’s web site can be found at: http://www.bfi.ca/

Full Press Release

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites, Disclosure, Compliance