Not every board meeting goes smoothly and productively. Sometimes there is stagnation due to disagreements, the clutter of documents, and misunderstanding of the purpose of the meeting. But in today’s world, there is a solution that will make every board meeting more effective and convenient for absolutely all participants, and that is board portals. It is a cloud-based software that allows you to do everything in one place and conduct meetings remotely. In this article, we will explain how exactly board portals will help in managing board meetings.
The Challenges of a Traditional Board Meeting
Many board members do recognize that modern technology provides more opportunities to improve the meeting process, which positively impacts company productivity. Those who still use traditional meeting methods like document printing, email file sharing, and other manual processes highlight the following challenges they face:
- Time and energy-consuming preparation for the board, which requires printing a large number of documents, notifying board members promptly, and controlling the version of the document. If suddenly unforeseen updates are made before the meeting, it all has to be reprinted, which is very wasteful
- Big risk and data security concern there’s no guarantee that the paper version of the documents won’t go missing, and it’s also much easier to steal or make a copy. Sharing files via email is also insecure as it is one of the most frequent points of attack for cybercriminals
- Unproductive meetings – board members spend too much time reviewing documents and there is too little time left to discuss issues and make decisions
- With the advent of the pandemic, having a board became a big problem for many companies as they tried to move all the information into separate applications which further confused them. It is much better to use special business programs that have this thought out, a board portal is one of them.
The Advantages of Board Portals
Board portals provide many useful tools and features that make managing a meeting easier, the main ones are:
- Better board management – A board portal automates many processes that previously had to be done manually. So board managers can prepare agendas and necessary meeting materials in minutes. All users are automatically notified. Survey and e-signature tools are built into the software to allow for more active participation in the meeting and additional responsibilities outside of the board
- Enhanced information security – it is impossible to compare the security capabilities of with paper documents or email. These programs provide you with multiple layers of security which includes encryption and a sophisticated login system. The administrator can also manage the control of documents using the permissions function. You can also easily store all sensitive data inside the program and easily organize it for other participants. You can do this by using the drag-and-drop, mass upload, and document indexing features.
- Enhanced collaboration and productivity – Most quality board portals include features for conferencing in their tools. So, no matter where your employees are, they can always attend a meeting in person, which also increases company activity and productivity. Collaboration features allow participants to edit documents, leave comments and notes, and share and discuss documents in real-time. This greatly speeds up the decision-making process and discussion of the right strategies.
However, it is important to decide on the main features that you want to see in your advice portal, check the level of security of the program, and choose only portals with a user-friendly interface.