Last week Saudi Aramco relaunched its website, www.saudiaramco.com. According to a press release, the company’s new online face “is a high-energy Internet website with interactive features, rich content and an array of personalization options in both English and Arabic versions.”
Saudi Aramco stated that its website is streamlined and offers faster navigation with new mouse-over effects and dropdown menus. The website has a “flattened” construction that is easier to access, with all content reachable within three clicks. The website is based on SAP Netweaver software. Saudi Aramco has upgraded its website to maintain the company’s “position as a pacesetter in the online oil and gas community, and to lay the groundwork for new features and applications.”
Sounds like a major effort but unfortunately the site doesn’t live up to the promise of the press release. It was disappointing that some of the interactive features didn’t work. For example, two of the virtual calendars can’t be retrieved. They simply stop loading shortly after the download begins. When downloading a news story the message popped up, “There was problem retrieving the XML data: internal server error.” When attempting to hear the CEO’s welcome message, instead, the message appeared, “Windows Media Player cannot play the file because a network error occurred.” Accessing the website features was tried with several computers and connections and all produced the same outcome.
Accompanying the welcome message of Abdallah S. Jum’ah, Saudi Aramco’s CEO, is a strange photo of this industry leader. Due to an anomaly in the wall behind him, it appears as if an antenna is sticking out of his head! It is unfathomable that a better picture of this distinguished gentleman could not be found.
The virtual tour of the Saudi Aramco Exhibit is nicely done, but other sections of the website are weak, such as the Recent Speeches page where the most recent speech dates from Nov. 7, 2006.
All the coding and server errors at the website can be quickly overcome but there is one aspect of the site that will not be so easy to rectify. In all the tabs on the website, there isn’t one labeled, “Our People.” There is one titled “Our Business” and another one called, “Our Story,” but where are all the people whose efforts make a company great?
Under sections such as R&D and Community, the website describes facilities and programs, but not individuals. The company gives prominence to members of its corporate management but doesn’t highlight any of its outstanding scientists or oilfield technicians. That’s a pity, because a global energy company without geologists, petroleum engineers and drillers can’t power very much.
