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PRESENTATIONS

How much do they really cost to your business?

Is there any objective estimate on the cost of creating presentations?

Inadequate practices of developing presentations can divert employees' time from their

primary responsibilities such as promoting your company and advancing your business.

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About the Study

The study has been conducted by PowerLexis − a premium full service presentation

communication agency. Since 2005 the company has provided services and solutions to many of the world leading corporations and organizations.

The goal of the study is to analyze the practices of developing and using presentations as an important tool in business communications and identify deficiencies in existing

procedures that require optimization. The study is based on data obtained from reviewing operations of 515 most prominent

Russian and Western companies in various industries including information technology, financial, consulting, government and non commercial organizations.

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Introduction

In today's world presentations are considered one of the most, if not the most important,

tools of visual communications ─ regardless of whether being used to introduce an idea

to the general public or make an impression on a group of selected individuals.

Presentations are and will remain the most effective means to visually introduce

complex ideas in the most convenient and easy to comprehend for the audience

manner.

Unfortunately, while admitting the importance of presentations, many executives overlook

the ever complicated process of their development, instead leaving this solely to their

subordinates to deal with.

As a result, the highly paid and skilled employees have to spend their time and efforts

on mundane tasks in PowerPoint formatting their presentations and trying to make them

look professional in terms of structure, layout, color coordination, fonts, graphics, and styles

that meet the strict visual brand identity requirements.

The time and efforts that certainly could be utilized more productively to the company's

benefits.

.

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Companies are inadequately managing the employees time making

them do the work they are not qualified for.

Only three percent of the reviewed companies have a dedicated staff of designers and

developers charged with formatting presentations to bring them to professional and

corporate standards.

Four percent of companies have chosen to outsource these tasks. The rest are leaving

these duties to their employees, including at the management level, who have to deal with

them at the expense of more important responsibilities.

Most of companies leave the tasks related to presentation formatting

and visual styling to their employees,including at the management level.

3%

4%

41%

74%

95%

Special Department / Unit

Outsourced

Manager

Manager's Assistant

Specialist

Who is working on formatting presentations

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The problem is especially significant when it comes to departments

essential for a company's growth and development − Sales and

Marketing.

The study shows that Sales and Marketing departments are among the most heavily

involved in developing and using presentations both for internal ( reporting) and external

(working with clients) purposes − especially in industries dealing with complex projects and

solutions which require visual aids tools for presenting information.

Distracting these departments' staff from their primary responsibilities and diverting their

time to other tasks definitely has a negative impact on a company's operations in general.

Companies are loosing valuable opportunities when the key department

employees are being diverted from their main responsibilities −

advancing the company's business.

10%

15%

18%

83%

87%

95%

Accounting

Production

IT

Sales

Marketing / PR / Advertising

HR and Personnel Management

Departments that use presentations the most

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While developing presentations more than three quarters of the time

is spent on performing routine tasks.

Even though preparing presentations can be a complex and time consuming process,

developing the concept and actual content takes relatively a small amount of time.

Below are listed the tasks related to producing presentations that require most of the time

associated with the process.

As you can see, all the tasks associated with concept development (such as copyrighting,

structure development, analytics) require much less time compared to other tasks related

to this job.

While creating a presentation, on average only 24 percent of the time is

spent on concept development. The rest of the time is consumed by

formatting and detailing.

24%

19%

17%

13%

11%

9%

7%

Presentation development tasks

Desinging the slides apperance (charts, tables, diagrams)

Performing routine formatting tasks in PowerPoint / Keynote

Keeping all elements consistent with the brand identity

Developing a concept and logical structure

Placing and formatting text, copywriting

Searching for slides in previously used presentations

Searching for images and photos

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More than a third of employees spend up to 10 percent of their time

on formatting presentations.

This problem becomes especially significant when looked at in light of how much time

employees have to spend on presentation formatting and detailing compared to their

primary responsibilities.

When asked "How much time do you usually spend on presentation formatting and

detailing relatively to your primary responsibilities?" as many as 39 percent of

respondents indicated that this figure might be as high as 10 percent - i.e. one-tenth of

their total work time.

*Inclusive

Bear in mind, that these figures include not only low level employees , but highly qualified

specialists and management staff as well.

This makes the process of developing and formatting presentations

excessively expensive and in some cases economically nonviable.

17%

25%

39%

14%

5%

Time spent on formatting presentations

Less than 2%

From 2 to 5%*

From 5 to 10%*

From 10 to 25%*

25 % and more

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Most common solutions

There are several common solutions to the problem mentioned above. Each has it's own

benefits and shortcomings and can be successfully adapted only in specific situations and

under certain conditions.

1. Bringing in a team of dedicated professionals

A special unit is formed at the company to work on developing, formatting, and styling

presentations from all other departments.

Cons: High costs associated with introducing and maintaining a separate unit into the

company's structure.

Pros: All presentations are developed by trained specialists and consequently have

professional design, layout, and style that meets the brand identity requirements.

2. Outsourcing to a third party provider

All work associated with developing and formatting presentations is delegated to another

company. Can be done both on ad hoc or permanent basis.

Cons: Risks associated with reliability, operational availability, and quality of service of the

partner company.

Pros: Relieving the company's employees of additional work thus allowing them to

increase efforts and focus more on their primary responsibilities.

3. Installing special software

Employing special software tools and add-ons for creating presentations in PowerPoint that

optimize the development process and automate most of the routine tasks.

Cons: Relatively high initial cost of purchasing, customizing, and installing software, as well

as training users.

Pros: Keeping the development process in-house (might be especially important because

of the issues with confidentiality). Allowing employees to create presentations with

minimum efforts and time.

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Conclusion

As presentations become ever more complex and sophisticated, companies have to find

the ways to optimize their development process.

The value of presentations as a communication tool should not be diminished by the

increasing cost of their development resulting from the inadequate production process.

The process that requires highly skilled workers spend a substantial portion of their time on

mundane and tedious tasks instead of focusing on their primary responsibilities.

About PowerLexis

PowerLexis is a premium full service presentation communication agency.

Established in 2005, the company has provided services and solutions to many of the world leading corporations and organizations, including Fortune Global 500.

For more information please visit our website:

www.powerlexis.com

Frankfurt

Lyoner Straße, 14

Tel.: +496 96 655-41-77

Saint Petersburg

Dostoevsky Street 44 Building A

Tel.: +7 812 334-13-23