A recent European survey “Boards of the Future 2018” paints a clear picture of the problems in the way boards are working today. Belief in the impact of megatrends has reached even the most skeptical board professionals. In the responses, “IT/Digitalization” was clearly the number one thing believed to have the greatest impact on board work. 82% of the respondents estimated that, as a company, they are already strongly affected by forces of change, and that scenarios and new operating methods should be created for this. A quarter of the respondents were of the opinion that the results of their own board work should be improved. And possibly most importantly, more and more time is being spent on board work and tasks. This is why the need for a board of directors portal software has emerged.
What is a board of directors portal?
Board of directors portal–or board of directors software, or simply board portal–is a paperless and secure solution for managing the entire board meeting process from assembling the meeting to creating, approving, and e-signing the minutes.
What features does a board of directors portal have?
Planning a board meeting involves many time-consuming and laborious steps. Save your precious time and utilize solutions available on the market offering support for this.
An efficient board of directors portal should provide at least the following tools to justify the investment:
- Finding and scheduling a suitable meeting time effortlessly
- Possibility for internal discussion by the board
- Secure distribution of the board meeting agenda and materials
- Providing tools that facilitate the work of the board members (such as MeetingBook with annotation tools)
- Taking notes of the meeting directly in the portal
- Marking the issues discussed with keywords (tags) so that decision-making processes can be tracked in retrospect
- Easy and quick organization of the comment round for the draft board meeting minutes
- Easy monitoring of agreed tasks (task management)
- Easy and quick electronic signing of the final minutes
- Comprehensive and efficient search capabilities
Is it time to modernize the way your board is working?
Make an investment in the future and evaluate how your company’s board is coping in the changing business environment. Ensure the return on this investment by focusing on the optimal composition of the board as well as other prerequisites for successful board work, including modern tools.
Stop using insecure email for this. Old practices with inefficient sending of emails back and forth no longer serve anybody and using them adds unnecessary costs to this already heavy investment for any company:
A single board meeting in a large listed company can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, given preparation and meeting time, resources to produce board information, and myriad other costs. (Company Director Magazine)
Time is money. Given the profile and busy lifestyle of board members, the price of time usage is particularly high. Research company ICD says that unnecessary work related to documents reduces the productivity and performance of organizations by as much as 21.3%.
Therefore, It is no wonder that new electronic tools have grown in popularity.
Board meeting materials as part of operational activities
Within an organization, it is typically the duty of the chief executive, financial or legal officer to ensure that all minutes are securely stored, in chronological order, and always readily available.
In larger organizations, it is also common to have a board document library containing other important documents that are not directly related to a specific meeting.
Being able to quickly find and access materials is extremely important as these materials effectively guide the company’s operations and the success of the strategy.
What about Due Diligence situations?
The documents mentioned above form an integral part of the Due Diligence materials. Whether we are talking about a startup company or a Fortune 500 giant, the top management is responsible for the management of the most important documents, such as contracts, minutes of board meetings, and other business documents.
A smart board professional wants the company to be Due Diligence ready every day. This also simplifies time‑consuming tax inspections and audits of the accounts.
The Due Diligence conducted in situations of corporate acquisition and financing is often a hefty operation that takes weeks of calendar time and a lot of resources. According to international professional estimates, a typical Due Diligence process also costs a fair amount—50,000 to 100,000 dollars on average.
Virtual data rooms (VDR) traditionally cost as much as thousands of euros and creating them is time-consuming. In the best-case scenario, the meeting management software enables the easy and professional distribution of even a large number of documents when needed. ContractZen’s built-in data room solution (VDR) allows small and medium-sized organizations to also handle the Due Diligence process very quickly and affordably.
Digitalization should also reach the top
Digitalization most often refers to improving and/or transforming business operations by leveraging digital technologies. That should certainly include the operation of the board.
Utilizing new productivity‑enhancing solutions is part of the modern board professional’s overall value for the company whose value the professional has committed to developing. As urban air mobility pioneer Volocopter's CEO Florian Reuter tells us:
“Our board spans the globe and we needed a collaboration tool as dynamic and flexible as we are an organization. ContractZen is exactly that, supporting our agile ways of working – we recommend it to any board wanting to make a difference.”
We at ContractZen believe that modern board meeting tools belong to companies of all sizes regardless of industry, and that price or difficulty of use must not become obstacles to acquiring them in the current age of technology.
By using the latest technological innovations, ContractZen aims to help every company on the planet take care of operations in accordance with good corporate governance more easily than ever before. You will also benefit personally—nimble tools save not only time and money, but also your nerves. Start by trying ContractZen's board portal software for free for 30 days.
