COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis has shaken up the world, and it is safe to say that almost every sector has been affected in some way. In hard times it is understandable that organisations will start to look for ways to rein in their spending.
Sometimes however, spending a little extra can actually save you money in the long-run. Using a board portal to facilitate meetings can reduce costs in a variety of ways that we will detail.
They are:
Meeting Packs
First and foremost, the cost of compiling and distributing meeting packs for board meetings can be very high. Paper, ink, printing, binding and distribution costs quickly add up. Not to mention that last minute changes to meeting packs significantly increase these costs when having to re-print and distribute.
Then there is the negative externalities that printing paper packs has on the environment – something that we take seriously at Azeus Convene.
How many board meetings does your organisation hold each year? How many board members attend these meetings? How large are the meeting packs for said meetings? These are all questions that will help you get a better understanding of actual costs of printing for your meetings. You can also use this cost calculator here. One of our customers, TESCO PLC, reported that they saved over 90,000 pages per year by switching to digital board packs.
Administration Time
We’ve all heard the saying ‘Time is money’. Efficiency is something that organisations of all types strive for and the efficiency of meeting preparation is not something to be overlooked.
The average meeting administrator will spend hours of their valuable time printing, collating, and editing meeting packs. Convene allows meeting organisers to set up and publish a meeting within minutes. Once a meeting is published in Convene, the meeting participants receive an email notification and are able to view and make annotations to the documents. Even better, last minute changes are simple, once the changes are made the participants are notified. This allows the organisers to spend their time focusing on their actual work.
Our customers consistently comment on how much time they have saved since implementing Convene, such as HouseMark and Mills & Reeve.
Security Breaches
Possibly the most important issue with board meetings is managing the security risks. What happens if documents with sensitive information are left at the printer? How do you prevent meeting packs being passed on once it has reached the recipient?
Security breaches can be extremely costly, but using a board portal alleviates all of this risk. All secure board portals will have a range of granular access controls, so that the meeting organiser can choose which participants can view particular agenda topics or documents. If this doesn’t put your mind at ease, a secure board portal will also have full auditing capabilities – from logins to document downloads.
Convene has a range of security features that makes our board portal second to none on the security front, including AES 256-bit encryption.
Commuting
Needless to say, COVID-19 introduced a new WFH lifestyle and boosted the popularity of video conferencing which is an enduring trend in 2023. However, most effective board meetings usually require the members to be in the physical location where the meeting is taking place to enable better discussion and decision-making. This can often require lengthy commuting and even hotel stays, costing the organisation both time and money.
Using an effective board portal will reduce the necessity of being physically at a meeting – thus reducing these costs. As you would have read in our previous blog, built-in video conferencing, in-meeting voting and annotation tools are essential features that will enable seamless collaboration during your meetings, whether on-site or remote.
Find out more about how a board portal solution can help you with remote working.
Archiving
Last but not least, (and often one that gets overlooked), is the cost of archiving meeting packs and minutes. According to the Companies Act of 2006, minutes of directors or shareholders meetings and resolutions passed other than at the general meeting must be kept on file for 10 years.
Archiving meeting documents for 10 years requires significant storage space, as well as the time and effort to organise and maintain a system for filing these documents.
Storing documents and meeting minutes in Convene couldn’t be easier. Our retention schedule allows you to store documents for as long as you need in one centralised repository. Once documents are uploaded onto Convene, they are automatically indexed and searchable.
These are just a few the long term cost benefits of investing in a board portal. If you would like to find out more about how a board portal can transform your meeting process, contact us here.
