Companies Registration Office upgrades its website
‘New website will save time and money for companies’ – Minister Kelleher
Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr. Billy Kelleher, T.D. today (Thursday 8th April 2010) launched the Companies Registration Office (CRO) redesigned and revamped website www.cro.ie.
The site is very widely used and is considered a vital source of information for company directors with over 100,000 unique visitors per month and 322,000 documents retrieved and purchased through it in 2009. In addition 50% of all company documents are now filed online through the website making filing faster and saved companies an estimated ¤3.6 million in 2009.
Launching the site the Minister said “The CRO’s new website is part of an ever-increasing drive towards better e-government service provision. With an increasing number of people using the site to source information and to initiate electronic submissions to the CRO, I am very pleased to see the website has been redesigned around customers’ changing needs”.
“With over 50% of all documents now submitted to the CRO filed electronically, the user-friendly nature of this new website should further increase this figure, saving time and money for both companies and the CRO”, the Minister added.
The upgraded website has increased accessibility and usability as well as featuring an improved appearance. Users are able to navigate in either English or Irish on approximately 180 pages of the website, the search facility has been upgraded and Information Leaflets are available bilingually for download from the site.
In its first four weeks in operation the new site has already had over 100,000 unique visitors with the Company Search function accounting for one third of all hits to the site.
ENDS/TC426
For more information please contact:
Tom McGovern (01) 8045216
Editors Notes:
Background for CRO
The CRO is a government organisation under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and is the central repository of public statutory information on Irish companies. The CRO is currently located at 14 Parnell Square, Dublin 1 with some back office functions located in Carlow. The main functions of the CRO are:
Incorporation of companies
Registration of business names
Registration of company post-incorporation documentation
Registration of changes in business name particulars
Enforcement, prosecution and striking companies off the register of companies
Provision of information to the public
There are 185,000 companies on the CRO registered. In 2009 there were
13,321 New Companies were registered
25,750 Business Names were registered
1245 companies went into insolvency
Website:
The CRO’s website previous layout and design was put in place in 2003 and the content management tool was replaced in 2007 by Arekibo Communications. Arekibo Communications also carried out the present redesign. The website consists of two sections: (i) Information and (ii) Online Services.
(i) The Information section contains approximately 180 pages and comprises:
Information regarding a business lifecycle in respect of the CRO
Information relating to the role and functions of the CRO
Information on how to conduct business with the CRO, and
Access to relevant publications, forms, gazettes, etc
(ii) The Online Services section of the website comprises:
Company search tool
Email newsletter
Late filing penalty calculator
Duplicate certificates
Disqualified/restricted person search
Features in new website
Improved interactive features (company search, account information)
Improved visual appearance
Increased accessibility
Text information fully bilingual.
Quick-links in each section
Improved access to tips and relevant forms and information leaflets
Improved security.
Site search that is quick and accurate
Under EU Law a government website is obliged to be accessible. There are three levels of accessibility. The upgraded website reaches Level 111 in most instances is therefore accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability. Examples of improvements are people with poor eyesight will be able to change text size and it is possible to negotiate the website without a mouse.
E-filing
Significant advances have been made in the data that is presented to clients submitting forms electronically through CORE, the online filing environment of the website and further advances have been planned for 2010 in the form of allowing PDF Accounts and the A1 Registration of a Company to be submitted through the website.
It is also possible to enter CORE, the Companies Online Registration Environment, through the website. CORE has recently benefited from added functionality. Company Names can now be reserved in CORE. It is also now possible to lodge an RBN3 to cease trading as a Business Name. Since last September, Electronic Filing Agents can use ROS signatures to sign forms in CORE. 50% of all documents are now filed online through CORE, which saves companies money and time. In 2009, ¤3.6 million was saved by filing online.
ENDS
Last modified: 08/04/2010
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