Prior to employing a board portal,
there are some unique planning variables to consider for successful implementation including,
but not limited to the following:
1) Board Buy-in
Companies in various industries are adopting portals
at a rapid pace, and there is a good chance one or
more of your directors already use a portal. Finding
a champion on the board can make a considerable
difference when it comes to influencing board buyin.
This gives you the ability to leverage that board
member’s experience to highlight the key features a
portal solution includes such as:
- Ability to search current board books or archived/
related documents
- Annotative capabilities to help prepare and
approve documents on the go
- Multi-board functionality
2) Cost Analysis
While running a cost analysis for a board portal
solution, it is important to not only look at the
annual fee associated with a board portal, but
also to explore the costs in your current board
management processes. When you factor in the
savings associated with eliminating courier fees,
printing and binding costs, and the soft costs due
to a simpler collation and distribution process, a
company will see reduced costs within the first 12
months of implementation.
When evaluating providers take time reviewing
your options and find vendors that can provide
you with the required value based on your board’s
needs. Keep in mind, the functionality gap between
portal providers is steadily closing but pricing gaps
remain prevalent.
3) Cyber Security
Cyber-attacks are becoming an increased threat
for all global businesses. Based on a
recent study by PwC, the number of attacks reported by midsize
companies jumped 64% from 2013 to 2014 (2,581
attacks to 4,227 attacks). The information you share
within your board portal includes the most vital,
classified information about your company.
The increased need for cyber security creates
multiple “must-haves” when it comes to the security
offered by the vendor. Check to see if the vendor
owns their own servers and infrastructure and if
they have any IT security accreditations such as
SSAE16, AT101 or equivalent audited data facilities.
If the data is hosted by a third-party hosting center,
it is important to investigate the specific warranties
and obligations provided. End-to-end security may
include encrypted data at rest (in the database
vault) and secure document transmission to ensure
downloaded content is protected, such as document
rights management capability to automatically
expire documents that have been transferred from
the server to the director’s laptop or tablet after a
pre-set amount of time.
4) Director Support
If you have domestic and international board
members, check to see if the vendor provides local
business hours or ‘follow the sun’ type support
models. Next, decide whether the vendor should
have any or no contact with the directors and if
they offer “train the trainer” programs. The ability
to handle basic technical questions and individual
inquiries quickly and efficiently is key.
5) Beyond the Board book
What else can the portal do specifically for the
directors and the company secretary? Examples
of additional benefits and features of a portal
include detailed information and reference
material related to the meetings, online document
approval, e-signature request workflows, director
and officer questionnaires and storing/sharing
sensitive information within the security guidelines
of a portal.
As you look to transition from print and mail
practices, or to increase security in your digital file
transfer, make sure to find a portal that has the
security to protect your data, the functionality to
streamline all of your processes and the support to
tie it all together.
To see the power of BoardWorks in action,
schedule a demo today at
cgsboardworks.com/demo-schedule
