As technology has increased the speed of communication, it has also raised expectations for boards of directors to conduct their business differently. With the rise of cloud technology and digital access to important documents, boards cannot only rely on printed board packets before meetings to stay up to date.
As more and more boards of directors realize the challenges of keeping information updated and accessible, they have turned to board management software to streamline administrative work and help board members find information more easily.
1. Quickly Access Important Board Information
With board software, board members can access all the important information necessary to effectively deliberate and make decisions.
Traditional boards are typically limited to the printed information that is provided for specific meetings. The transition to board software allows board members to have secure, remote access to important documents, such as:
- Past meeting minutes
- Strategic plans
- Policy manuals
- Orientation materials
- Audit reports
In the context of a meeting, board members are able to quickly search through past documents to find answers, instead of raising questions or requesting additional documents from administrative staff.
2. Streamline Board Administration
With board management software, meeting preparation time is reduced from hours to minutes. Instead of printing, assembling, and shipping paper copies of materials, all documents are instead uploaded to the cloud. Files automatically convert to PDF as they are uploaded.
Administrators can save draft meeting books until a final version is ready to publish.
Board software also allows administrators to organize committees, set meetings, request votes, create surveys, and share files. Meeting agendas can be created once, and saved as templates for future use.
Additionally, board software removes the concern about last minute revisions to meeting materials, since updates can be made quickly and shared instantly. With board software, board members always know to look to the software – not the board secretary – for the latest version of a board packet.
3. Increase Board Member Engagement
Member collaboration is no longer confined to the boardroom. Votes, survey tools, and discussion boards allow committee members to provide feedback as their schedule permits, while keeping to firm deadlines.
Instead of relying solely on meetings to create urgency behind decisions, board software can allow administrators to keep projects on schedule, and can even reduce the need for frequent meetings.
Also, going back to our first point, members can access relevant documents from anywhere. That means that, as time permits or conversations require, a board member can reference materials from their mobile device, and quickly relay information as needed.
Instead of waiting for a policy manual or bylaws to clarify an issue, board members can simply reference the materials at their convenience.
4. Control Access to Information
Board software provides specific controls over who has access to what information.
Administrators can easily add or remove members, edit profiles, and assist with forgotten passwords. Members can be assigned to one or more committees. Committee information is private and can only be viewed by the committee’s members.
Meeting materials can be scheduled for automatic archival or deletion. Permissions can be set at the document level, allowing administrators to share documents with specific individuals within a committee.
Administrators can configure settings to suit their organization’s security requirements; such as enabling or disabling printing, emailing, and annotations.
5. Reduce Board Administration Costs
As we mentioned earlier, boards typically spend valuable time and money on printing, assembling, and shipping board packets before meetings. With board software, information is shared instantly and securely with members, significantly reducing costs and speeding up the distribution process.
Organizations using board software experience a substantial return on investment from materials and labor savings alone. Additionally, with the current trend toward green initiatives, reducing the use of paper helps the environment and generates goodwill among key stakeholders.
The advantages of board management software are clear. Board software streamlines administration, eliminates key pain points, improves communications, increases engagement, and enhances organizational governance.
With these benefits, it makes perfect sense that the majority of Fortune 500 companies and other progressive for-profit and non-profit organizations are adopting board management software.
With a diverse, global, client base ranging from international public corporations to small non-profits, Directorpoint is an established leader in the rapidly growing board portal software market. You can learn more about Directorpoint’s board software features here.