Boardlogic by PraxonomyWhat is a Board Portal?

Board members holding a virtual meeting

What is board management software?

Board management software, or a board portal, is a centralised, highly secure, online hub designed for board administrators and directors to organize and manage meetings, access materials, communicate with each other, and execute their governance responsibilities. It supports board-related functions.

Board meeting software allows board members to access board materials and execute their governance responsibilities securely, from any web-enabled device, and at any location.

Board meeting software provides important tools for boards and administrators to use before, during, and after meetings.

Their basic features and functionalities cover:

Pre-Meeting Activities

Prepare for meetings by:

  • Scheduling meetings within the application
  • Creating an agenda with the click of a button
  • One-click publishing and distribution of the agenda
  • Optional exporting of the agenda to PDF
  • Creating a digital board pack
  • Distributing the latest version of the board pack to directors
  • Collaborative tools (messaging and task-tracking)
  • Receiving notifications for important updates to board documents

In-Meeting Activities

Streamline board meeting processes with:

  • Easy-to-use digital board pack viewer
  • Attendance tracker
  • Use of public and private annotation tools
  • Collaborative tools (messaging and task-tracking)
  • Digital signatures

Post-Meeting Activities

Continue critical board processes after the meeting with:

  • Electronic distribution and approval of meeting minutes
  • Attendance reporting
  • Task tracking
  • Archiving functionalities

Who are the primary users of a board portal?

The end-users of a board portal are typically company secretaries, legal counsels, senior executives, and the board of directors of organisations.

They can be grouped in two broad categories:

Company Secretaries and Board Administrators

In most cases, company secretaries are delegated to be the administrators of a board portal. On occasion, these can be legal counsels and C-suite executives.

The board portal allows them to create meetings, compile and distribute digital board packs or packs, initiate electronic signatures, upload or update documents, send notifications, manage portal users and workspaces, as well as grant file permissions and system privileges.

Directors, CEOs and Executives

The board uses the board portal to receive meeting notifications, the agenda, the digital board pack, and other related board documents. They are able to share, review, edit, and comment on these materials.

In addition, directors are able to sign-off on board documents using digital signatures. This eliminates the need for the printing, distribution, and storage of hard copies.

A board meeting management solution should meet the needs of both administrators and directors throughout the board meeting life cycle.

What are some of the benefits of using a board portal?

The benefits of using a board portal range from a reduction in material costs to better corporate governance.

Save on Costs

Running paperless meetings help companies save on paper costs and resource hours because of the ease of building and distributing digital board packs. Meetings can be created in minutes, as opposed to hours. Changes to files and documents can be pushed instantly ensuring that the information in the hands of the members of the board is always up-to-date.

Save your organisation time and money. Use our interactive calculator to find out how much you can save with a board portal.

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Convenience

The "anytime, anywhere" remote access of board portals, through the use of a mobile app or the web portal, gives members the flexibility to log-on to the solution from any location - and by using any Internet-enabled device. This means that administrators and directors alike don't need to learn new technologies to be able to access the board portal. They work with devices they're already familiar with. This makes for a convenient, smoother, more engaging user-experience.

By allowing boards to access timely, up-to-date material that's relevant to them, they are equipped to efficiently prepare for meetings, manage tasks, and collaborate with fellow directors, all from within one central location.

In addition, there is no need to peruse through physical board packs or search through email threads for information. Information in the board portal can be relied upon as a "single source of truth." This saves time.

Better Governance

Board portals uphold and improve the cornerstones of corporate governance in specific ways.

Directors make efficient use of their time and increase their productivity levels because of the seamless ability to review, comment, and collaborate on board information and documents. Action items that require their attention are easily tracked and addressed in task-related functionalities.

From a macro perspective, this can not only enrich or enhance the board meeting experience, but also improve board engagement levels and director effectiveness - both critical cornerstones of good governance.

Security

Security is also one of the primary advantages of board meeting software.

In today's business environment, organisations are vulnerable to the continuous surge of cyber attacks. This is in addition to facing increasingly stringent security regulatory requirements. The sensitive nature of board documents demands that platforms use methods such as data encryption and appropriate security permissions to ensure strong data protection.

A highly secure board portal assures organisations that global privacy and security standards are complied with, allowing resources to focus on other matters at hand.

What are the essential features of a board portal?

Highly Secure

Security is the foundation of a board portal. A robust board portal should be secure by design. Data encryption, secure, and resilient application hosting are paramount. Board portals should have reliable uptime statistics and ensure that the hosting environment meets governance requirements.

Exceptional Client Support

First-class customer support is another essential feature. One of the main benefits of board management software is its ability to save time for both administrators and board members. The availability of a knowledgeable, dedicated, around-the-clock support team to address the simplest of questions (from onboarding onwards) assures users that productivity won't be compromised.

Intuitive and Easy-to-Use

Board portals designed with users of different technological competencies in mind, especially for busy board members. Administrators and board members should be able to comfortably navigate the different functionalities of the application and derive value without a steep learning curve. An easy-to-use, intuitive interface  ensures the successful adoption of the technology, and that is ultimately predicated on a solution that isn't over-engineered with features that users will not utilise.

Return on Investment (ROI)

All board management solutions are investments. The decision to avail of a board portal merits deliberate and thoughtful consideration especially in assessing the ROI.

It is important to compare vendor pricing alongside solution offerings. There is no need to pay for features that don't provide value to your organisation.

There is value derived in qualitative metrics - such as convenience, director engagement, security and risk management, compliance, and good governance. A board portal solution that delivers value on both quantitative and qualitative fronts best serves the organisation.

Are board portals suitable for all types of organisations?

The usage of board portal solutions spans industries and all types of organisations from public and private companies, government agencies, non-profit organisations to educational institutions.

Although previously used mostly in highly regulated sectors and by large-scale corporations, more organisations such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-profits are increasingly adopting the use of board portal software because of their lowered cost of ownership and the need to comply with data security and regulatory requirements.

Boardlogic's flexible design and configuration options make it suitable for most governance structures.

Read a Client Success study here.

About Boardlogic by Praxonomy

Introducing Boardlogic

We understand the critical work of boards. Our board meeting software, Boardlogic by Praxonomy, ensures that your board remains efficient, effective, compliant, and secure.

Boardlogic is an easy-to-use board portal solution that manages the full lifecycle of board and committee meetings.

Our board meeting management software enables boards to operate more efficiently while saving time and money.

Boardlogic is built on advanced security technologies and provides your organisation with a centralised platform to protect sensitive board communication and documents.

  • Regularly external penetration testing performed
  • Proprietary multi-level document encryption, full data encryption in transit and at rest
  • Highly robust and secure hosting infrastructure in the EU
  • Verasafe privacy certified, GDPR compliant

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