Businesses are transitioning away from manual, paper-based procedures and towards digital solutions for their Board processes. This shift has demonstrated many benefits, such as improved communication, streamlined operations, cost savings, and heightened security.
Board portal and Board management software has been key in pioneering this transition for organisations.
What Is A Board Portal?
Board portals enable digital Board meetings, and their software facilitates a secured environment for sharing confidential documents and information.
Board portals are a useful tool to ensure that the Board runs efficiently and that deadlines, goals and meetings are managed appropriately. They enable Board directors and other stakeholders to stay up to date with the Board's objectives.
Board portals have played a major role in supporting the information sharing, decision making, risk management and accountability that comes with good corporate governance. They provide a single platform for managing board and committee meetings, risk, decision making and other governance-related activities.
It provides an overview of governance throughout the organisation and its shareholders, helping identify issues and drive improvement.
Why Should You Use A Board Portal?
There are many reasons why a Board portal would benefit your organisation, from improving your governance strategy to enabling better collaboration between the Board.
Here’s a few specific examples of how Board portals, and how Convene, can help you:
1. Simple Meeting Management
The main goal of a Board portal is to make meetings easier for everyone involved. With an all-in-one tool, you can streamline the entire process from start to finish. Easily schedule meetings, create the agenda and send out papers within a single application.
Then, during the meeting you can take advantage of a wide range of tools. An effective Board portal like Convene will enhance communication on any device. The range of useful features like shared annotations, laser pointer and live voting will improve the flow of your meetings.
Even after the meeting, you can continue to benefit from a Board portal. Automatic reports and meeting minutes can reduce the workload for your team. You can even clone past meeting templates to create a regular schedule in the future.
2. Seamless Collaboration
Whether you are a Company Secretary, Director, or Chairman of the Board, a Board portal will ensure everything you need is in one place.
The best Board portals come equipped with videoconferencing, voting and presenting. This means attendees only need one app and one device for the entire meeting. They can focus on the important parts of the discussion and not waste time with technical difficulties.
At Convene, we have a strong track record of bringing organisations together. Read about some of the amazing success stories from places like Tesco, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, or The University of Warwick.
3. Secure Document System
A Board portal is a purpose-built solution for business, and so is far more secure than software which can be accessed via the web. Safeguard your data with the highest levels of data protection. Convene’s document library is protected by 256-AES bit encryption, which is the safest technology available.
Our Board portal also allows administrators to manage access rights during the meeting. This means attendees can only look at specific documents if they have the correct security clearance. A permission-based system has a concrete advantage over a paper-based system, where anyone who finds a document can read it.
Here at Azeus, we are a Level 5 CMMI accredited company which shows our commitment to security. We are already trusted by hundreds of organisations around the world which require the highest standard of security. This includes financial services, governmental bodies and academic institutions.
For more information on how Convene protects your data, please take a look at our full range of security features.
4. Smart Governance Processes
A Board portal promotes a culture of transparency and accountability across your business. As every action is monitored and tracked, you can make sure that nothing goes unnoticed or forgotten. In the 21st century, there is no reason your administrators should be scrambling to create an audit trail.
Whichever sector you are working in, good governance practices will increase your professionalism. It will also have a practical impact on the ability of your Board to make decisions and have dynamic discussions. Through a single, centralised meeting platform, you can maximise the potential of your organisation.
5. Ease of Use
Board portals are designed to streamline the Board meeting process, making it easier for your organisation to structure and run meetings.
As one of the leading accessible Board portals, Convene is designed to be easy-to-use for everyone. We recognise how important it is for your team to stay on the same page - no matter how confident they are with technology. Our software has an intuitive interface with all the features you need for effective and accessible meetings.
How To Get Started
When devoting energy and dedication to streamlining your Board's operations and keeping your communications safe, you should make sure that all Board directors are using the Board portal to its full potential.
Despite this sounding easy, some Board directors may not be willing to abandon classic techniques of managing Board activities. To make the most of your Board portal, you should be prepared for some reluctance and establish a few tactics to address it. Be resolute in utilising the features of the Board portal.
Convene offers unlimited training, so even those who are less 'tech-savvy' are supported during implementation. Your administrative staff do not need to worry about the time cost of training Board Members. Additionally, if there are any hiccups they can access a refresher course in no time.
It's important to provide Board directors with a gradual transition to Board portal software and other digital governance solutions. Don't expect everyone to be comfortable with the technology right away, and don't rush the process. Allow them to take their time and provide guidance and encouragement.
This will give the Board the best chance of success in the long run.
After deciding that a Board portal is right for you and your organisation, the next big choice is which one on the market to use. This is where Convene comes in.
So, Why Choose Convene?
Software should simplify your meetings, not complicate them. Join hundreds of organisations around the world in embracing a smart, simple and secure future with Convene.
Convene’s Award Winning software allows your leadership team to communicate effectively and efficiently, and get the results you deserve.
From creating an agenda to establishing a strong admin trail, every step of the process should be as smooth as possible. Convene also now comes fully integrated with Microsoft Teams, ensuring you an even more streamlined meeting process.
With the right software, the complex task of management can be much easier.
To discover how you can benefit from Convene, find out more about our software here, or book a free demo today.
