Tesco PLC has been using Convene for their digital board meetings since 2014. Tesco is a leading multinational retailer, committed to serving shoppers a little better every day.
Chris Spanias, Solution Architect at Tesco PLC, talked to us about why they chose Convene as their board management software, and how it has helped them save time and money.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Chris notes that, “We had a board portal in place before switching to Convene. The reason for the switch was that BoardPad didn’t support Android. We had just released a device that was made by us and ran Android, so obviously the board wanted to promote using it within Tesco. It was a case of ‘eat your own dog food’ so we needed to find a solution that could continue to fulfil the need as well as work on Android. We did a comparison with other board portals like Diligent, but Convene impressed us the most.”
Chris adds that the feedback from their board members has been positive. They can use Convene on any device from iPads, Android tables, to the corporate Windows machines. They were happy to be able to use it flexibly and not have to carry around paper meeting packs.
Saved Time and Increased Efficiency
“Before Convene, our admins had to print out meeting packs and use the old software. It defeated the purpose of going digital and just increased the workload for them. The Convene app is so good at what it does, they don’t have to print anything anymore. It works on every platform so every user can access it,” Chris stresses when talking about the benefits of Convene as a board management software.
“That in itself has made our admins’ lives easier. They don’t have to print ridiculous amounts of paper and packs for the users and then set up the meeting and presentations within an application as well. It has saved them time and increased efficiency when it comes to organizing meetings,” he further adds.
Convene Pays for Itself
Tesco did an internal study done a while back. Chris states that, “We used to print hundreds of pages of PowerPoint presentations, pictures, etc. for 20-30 people per meeting, plus backup copies. And it had to be done every other week or so. Once they switched over to Convene, our board stopped using paper. Now the only cost left is the license per person, per year.” The study found that they had save so much money on printing and paper alone that Convene has almost paid for itself every year, which they found quite impressive.
Easy to Get Started
“Since we started using Convene, we’ve made virtually zero calls to the Help Desk. That is a good measure of success, I suppose. There’s been good feedback about the user-friendliness of Convene and its ability to completely replace printed packs, which was one of the main drivers for procurement to begin with. Once meeting participants have been authorized, they just log in and it’s pretty self-explanatory to them. It’s the same for advanced users or the admins,” Chris mentions during the interview. From what he could see, new users seem to pick up the board management software fairly well after the standard 30-minute demo.
Enterprise-Grade Security
“When Convene was reviewed by our InfoSec team, I remember them being happy and impressed by the security standards and certifications. From what they were saying, I believe it was a step above from what we had before. The fact that it can use ADFS authentication is useful for us because we use AD authentication. Convene also has the necessary security compliance standards and that was a prerequisite for us because of the people who use it (board members, directors, etc.) and the sensitive nature of the information discussed,” Chris adds when mentioning the board management software’s security features.
Powerful Meeting Tools
Chris ended with the following statement, “I particularly like the ability to annotate presentations in real time, during a meeting. I can do that privately, so only I can see it, or I can share my comments with anyone who is part of that meeting. That really comes in handy when you’re leading a meeting.”