Metro North Hospital and Health Service, the largest of the sixteen Queensland Hospital and Health Services, is a statutory body that focuses on collaboration with healthcare partners and investment in systems to deliver high quality health services to close to 900,000 people. MNHHS has been using Convene since August 2016.
Jane Albatal, Board Secretary of Metro North Hospital and Health Service (MNHHS), shares how switching to Convene benefits administrators and board executives in the government and healthcare sectors.
MNHS previously used Box to distribute board packs for their board. Their organization conducts 30 meetings per year on the board and committee level, with an average of 15 participants per meeting.
Multi-Platform and Preferred Choice of Government Sector Clients
After researching board meeting solutions, MNHHS chose Convene among other vendors based on two key factors: (1) multi-platform support and (2) feedback from other government agencies.
Jane said that, “Our Board Chair was the main decision maker. He takes strong interest in what platform we will use for board meetings. And the deciding factor at that time was the multiplatform capability. He liked that Convene can be used on a range of operating systems, not just on iPad.”
“We received very good feedback from some other Queensland government departments, notably the Department of Premier and Cabinet; Convene was really working well for them. They were using it across multiple departments for government meetings, and they had not experienced any problems. And I think having feedback from other government sector colleagues also supported the decision,” she adds.
User Friendliness of Convene
For MNHHS board members and administrators, Convene proved to be an easy system to learn, even for users who are new to using digital solutions.
“My board chair is extremely tech savvy, he is just going forth himself and working it out. Even telling us, ‘Did you know that you can do this with Convene?’ or ‘This is how you do it,’” said Jane.
She further highlights that, “For even the least tech savvy board members, I needed to sit down with them for only 10 minutes to show them the key things they needed to know.”
One-Stop Solution for Meetings, Reviews, and Approvals
Convene streamlines the board process for a convenient meeting and review experience.
“Our previous meeting solution, Box, was almost just like a document library. It doesn’t have the actual meeting functions. So the fact that Meetings and Review Rooms are available in Convene just make a world of difference,” Jane added.
Jane explained how Convene made meeting management more convenient for administrators, “You can invite the members within the system, and you get the practical details of the meeting, location and anything you need to know, and the fact that the meetings are linked with their calendars is good.”
“Our Board and Board Chair are not necessarily working on site,” said Jane, “that’s why we use Convene as an on-the-go document review and approval tool. If I get particular documents I want my board chair to review and approve for the organization, I use the Convene review room and it would just give him that secure space to review a document and make changes if he needs to.”
Now, MNHHS administrators send board papers through Convene a week before a meeting. Board members then choose to make their own comments via Convene, and are notified on real-time updates or documents left unread.
Comparing the use of Convene to their board’s former meeting practices, Jane relayed how all board members now preferred having Convene to review their papers, eliminating the need for bulky hard copies of meeting packs.
Flexibility and Support
With 24/7 global support and the flexibility to develop new features to address client needs, Convene stays true to its commitment to deliver an invaluable board portal experience. According to Jane, “Convene was pretty easy from the back office, like the administrative side. The user guides were very good and because the sales manager and helpdesk were responsive, I got quick turnaround time for the helpdesk.”
She added, “Board members were [also] keen when they were looking at documents to be able to print a page from their iPad. So I contacted Convene and asked if that is something that Convene offered. And then work was done, Convene is very flexible to change the system. They gave us a function to print from an iPad. I found that very responsive.”
Value for Money
MNHHS chose Convene for the value it adds to the meeting experience of both administrators and directors.
“I think Convene is very competitively-priced. I thought it would be much more expensive,” said Jane, “But it’s not. I think other providers such as BoardEffect and Diligent were a lot more expensive. Convene is not much more expensive than our previous solution, but it offers so much more.”
To conclude, Jane shared how Convene simplified board processes over other solutions, “The board members have had a better experience in terms of being able to read board papers quicker because of the Convene interface. Our board of directors are happy to feel that they are using a system that works for them and it certainly is via Convene.”