With January 1, 2011 just a couple days away, right about now is when a lot of folks start thinking about their goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. Lose weight. Start exercising. Take a trip somewhere. These are a few of the most common.
So, what if you asked me what my goals were for the upcoming year and I told you the following:
- Like the rest of mankind, I’m going to start an exercising regimen and I need to buy a mobile music apparatus so I can listen to music while I’m jogging. I think I’ll get myself a Sony Walkman!
- My kids have been really good this past year and they deserve a new video gaming system. So we’re picking up an Atari 2600!
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| This camera might be the equivalent of your XBRL solution, you just don't know it yet. |
Safe to say you’d think I was a little nuts? I mean, sure, a Sony Walkman still plays music, right? Pong for Atari 2600 can undoubtedly keep someone amused for hours, and it is pretty darn cool to be able to pull your picture right off a Polaroid the moment you take it. All these guys get you from A to B, but would you really buy all this outdated, obsolete technology if given the choice?
Now consider your current SEC reporting tools, especially those you already use for EDGAR and the ones you are already using, or are considering using, for XBRL. Same deal as that Sony Walkman and Polaroid camera. Maybe they get you to where you’re going, but if there is a more efficient, more streamlined system already in play, why consider these clunky alternatives?
When making a decision for your company as to which reporting and XBRL solutions you’re going to employ, you must think big picture. XBRL is a process, not a single event. This is a decision that starts with the beginning of document creation, and must be considered over the 24 month, if not 36 month implementation cycle. It is not a one-and-done scenario, as it is the reporting tool for the future.
Your company will want to control – SHOULD want to control – its own destiny in XBRL, and that's why it is important to choose a solution that enables more than just simple tagging. Add-on products, by definition, add time and complexity to an already compressed timeline. You must improve the entire process to see real benefits. You must avoid the obsolete.
Another thought dawned on me these past few weeks that led up to Christmas; weeks that involved shelling out a couple hundred bucks for an Apple iTouch for my son. Last year it was a Nintendo DS, this year it’s an iTouch. What’s it gonna be next year? Does the madness ever stop? Get my point here?
This train of thought brought me back to WebFilings, and further advantages you get using our system over bolt-ons or printers: Every time a shiny new version of WebFilings gets released, you don’t have to buy anything – it’s just there. It’s always there; a dynamic, regenerating, practically living, breathing organism that will never be obsolete. No version updates to buy. No new software to install. Just always the next, best thing, only a mouse click away.
Over the last few months Fortune 100 companies like Valero and Sprint have moved to WebFilings. So have other globally recognized firms like The New York Times, Boise Cascade, eBay, Dish Network, Cabela's, Winnebago, Westwood One and Herman Miller. Each of these were faced with the decision to use something obsolete, or to embrace the future now. In each case, they determined that WebFilings was the best choice for their needs based on our products and our team.
I would ask you to look at where you want to be twelve months from now, not just where you are today. The WebFilings Customer Success team builds out long term relationships based on knowledge of your business, not on quick-turn, standardized responses. Our team includes some of the industry leaders and visionaries in XBRL who are helping to set the future direction of XBRL. And we are using that experience to create the most innovative, forward-thinking and complete reporting solution, including XBRL, on the market today...and tomorrow.