What is a board portal?
A board portal is a secure digital environment for board directors to share confidential information and execute governance duties. Equipped with collaborative tools, this board software streamlines every step of the meeting cycle for both public and private sectors.
Your Meeting Cycle with Board Portal Software
Every board portal solution’s core functionality is to securely solve bottlenecks and redundancies in the meeting process. Here’s what you can expect in implementing one, specifically Convene.
Pre-Meeting
During Meeting
Post-Meeting
What are the top benefits of using a board portal?
With its ultimate goal of enhancing the board meeting experience, board portal solutions are designed to empower corporate governance across all sectors, including corporations, government, nonprofits, financial institutions, and healthcare.
Centralized Data Access
Everything your board members need — documents, crucial information, meeting tools — all in one platform. Using a single app paves the way for efficient workflows and timely decisions.
Increased Meeting Productivity
Spend less time preparing for meetings and stay focused on what should be discussed. Create board packs in just minutes and meet virtually. What’s more, boards can work anywhere and on the go.
Cost-Efficient and Paperless Management
Save time and costs with a paperless board portal solution. No need to scour paper files for hours with dedicated tools for meetings and documents.
Stronger Security
Worry less about board cybersecurity and compliance. Digital board portals are equipped with security features, such as permission-based access and data encryption, compliant with governance standards.
Better Governance
Ensure transparency and accountability at all times. Board directors can make informed and data-driven decisions promptly with dedicated board management tools.
Reduced Costs
Say goodbye to unnecessary expenses with a cost-effective board portal software. Such a tool removes the need for separate apps to conduct voting, document review, and meetings — consolidating all you need in just one platform.
Must-Have Features for the Ideal Board Portal
Maximize your investment by finding the best tools that address your needs and perform beyond. To experience efficiency, collaboration, and better governance, look for these electronic board portal features — readily available with Convene.
-
Meeting Scheduler
Invite participants and schedule one or recurring meetings with just a click. Collect RSVP responses to confirm meeting attendance.
-
Agenda Builder
Create your board pack within minutes with its drag-and-drop feature for documents and agenda items.
-
Video Conferencing and Integrations
Conduct seamless remote meetings with video conferencing capabilities within the board portal. No need to switch between apps.
-
Live Meeting Tools
Present and review documents in meetings with Page Synchronisation, Laser Pointer tool, and Shared Annotations.
-
Minutes Taker
Take minutes before, during, and after the meeting. Action items, votes, and meeting notes are synced in real-time.
-
Annotations
Collaborate on documents offline or online with annotation tools. Share your ideas with selected people in real-time or create private annotations for your personal notes.
-
Voting and Approval
Cast votes in and out of meetings and oversee all decisions in a dashboard. Review and sign off documents for approval.
-
Digital Signature
Affix your signature and initials on documents instantly. Or sign with your preferred local signature provider for compliance.
-
Document Library
Access and manage confidential data in a centralized hub within your online board portal. Set permissions on who can access each file and folder.
-
Task Management
Assign tasks and track the progress of action items throughout the meeting cycle.
-
Dashboard
With just a glance, you’ll have a clear overview of your board responsibilities, ensuring you never miss an important deadline or meeting.
-
Audit Trail
Enhance transparency and accountability by generating comprehensive audit reports that provide insights into meeting activities and information access.
Take the Next Move
How to Choose the Right Board Portal for Your Organization
Implementing new technology requires a thorough assessment of the capabilities you actually need and those of additional value. This will ensure that your digital investment is worth every penny.
So, what should you consider? Beyond a board portal’s benefits, you should also examine how the platform can support you and the reliability of the vendor available. Below are the key questions you should discuss with your board to determine the right board software for you.
How can a board portal support the efficiency of meetings and board processes?
The right software should promote collaboration and productivity throughout the meeting cycle. You need to ensure that the digital board portal is designed with easy-to-use tools that can hold secure and strategic discussions whenever and wherever your board members are. They should have immediate access to meeting documents and last-minute updates, so they’re ready to partake in fruitful discussions.
Moreso, corporate secretaries can build agenda packs within minutes as every piece of information can be retrieved in a secure centralized repository. Minutes and action items can easily be communicated and tracked by assistants within a board portal software.
Is the board portal easy for board members to use?
For a platform to be adopted and embraced by the board, it should be accessible to members across multiple devices and browsers. Tools don’t have to be complicated. The goal is to provide better functionality without sacrificing convenience. Your directors must be able to navigate and annotate documents on a board portal the way they do with a hard copy.
The right solution must offer intuitive tools accompanied by 24/7 product support and training for users.
How secure should a board portal be?
Security is one of the concerns of boards when going digital, due to data breaches and scams. For industries like financial services that demand enterprise-grade security, it’s crucial to have features such as document encryption, role-based access controls, auto purge capabilities, and robust device security.
Look also for government-approved cloud hosting offerings, enterprise continuity measures, and industry-compliant data processing procedures, such as GDPR.
How is the service and support of the board portal provider?
Is the vendor known in the board management space? Are existing clients satisfied with the service and support of the vendor? Beyond smart tools, a board of directors’ portal is the better choice when its vendor provides tailored customer support at any time.
Check also the vendor’s reviews, awards, and accreditations. These are key indicators of reliability and customer satisfaction. Azeus Convene, for instance, is a CMMI Level 5-accredited company with various awards from authorized review platforms like G2 and Capterra.
What is the return on investment with the board portal?
Besides board portal pricing, part of evaluating your choices is considering what value you can get from what you spend. Look for a solution that can ensure savings in time, paper costs, and even labor. Also, look into how it can support your goals. Can it boost operations for a more agile board? Will it ensure better decision-making and governance outcomes? Will this reduce paper consumption and support sustainability?
The right board software should take you closer to achieving your corporate goals and success.
Get Started with Convene
See why organizations worldwide are making the switch to board portal for improved board governance. Convene has been rated the top board management software by several trusted sources of technology reviews.
