Secured access to business-relevant information is essential for the board and executive committee members. Therefore, they need flexible access options: from the office, from home, in-flight, or accessed from a tablet or smartphone.
A board portal, or virtual boardroom, is a fast service that allows for meeting management, communication, and collaboration between directors and the board administration. All informational materials are available to managers in mobile applications or specialized websites. Also, users can get instruments that make it more comfortable for administrators to schedule, run and study online meetings.
The virtual boardroom software enhances communication between particular team members, even if they are located on different continents.
The Reason for Switching to Virtual Boardroom
Digitalization and the evolution of technology have touched all the spheres. For example, a short time ago, paper-based workflows with inappropriate conveyance and costly to-produce folders were prevalent — extra costs for space funding for record storage, delivery, and so on.
Now, most companies have changed to boardroom management software with essential characteristics: usability, safety, and efficiency.
Businesses that use boardrooms can rely on the privacy and protection of corporate data. The software permits solving complicated tasks during an online board meeting, before the session, or at the end. In addition, advanced filtering opportunities and tokens facilitate document retrieval with a few clicks. As a result, it grows the efficiency of the business and decreases work and time costs.
Key Benefits of Board Portal Services
A virtual boardroom has made its key benefits a must-have tool for businesses in all spheres. The most common ones are listed below.
- Onboarding portals provide near-instant delivery of essential sensitive data to all recipients simultaneously. All document changes, updates, and revisions are displayed synchronously to all platform users with the appropriate permissions.
- Centralized pass to meeting papers, messages, archival docs, etc., is delivered through a highly secure and protected portal. State-of-the-art onboard document management software protects information with AES encryption, two-factor authentication, and more. In addition, company data is protected from malicious damage from the outside.
- Secure online note-taking and collaboration for directors. All messages, data, and minutes of board meetings are archived and can be analyzed later if necessary.
- Efficient production and distribution of documents. Portals are also an excellent paperless meeting solution.
- Highly accurate scheduling of meetings with the capability to fast complete transformations.
Key Features to Compare when Choosing Board Portal Software
The first virtual board software appeared in the early 2000s. It was not as advanced as we see now: it had security issues, storage size limitations, etc. Since then, board management software has gone through several stages of development. Nowadays, you can find a lot of conference room providers offering seemingly similar products, so choosing between them can be difficult.
Below are the main criteria you should assume when selecting a board portal.
Availability of Administration Management Tools
Understanding how a specific service helps administrators prepare for board meetings more efficiently and how information is updated when times, dates, or documents change is essential. In addition, it will help you compare how much time you spend on this in the current environment with the situation when you will be using the service. At this point, you should also decide how convenient the portal is.
Mobility and Easy Interaction
Most executives and board members have to travel a lot. Unfortunately, this routine duty can cause problems because they may not learn news and current information about their company on time. With boardroom software, you can ensure that your board of directors is 100% involved in the company’s life. So, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with the convenience of the service’s offerings, including cell phone apps.
Security
It is one of the essential conditions since board document privacy and message security is critical. Look for board portal software that protects the information and makes it easy to access. Specify how the information is stored (locally or in the cloud), what options are for saving data in an emergency, etc. Some come with 256-bit encryption and two-factor authentication.
Support Service
Here you need to understand what level of asset you can count on:
- Is there a guide on the platform?
- Do you have to pay for support, or is it included?
- What periods are available, and is it multilingual?
- What channels of communication can you use to contact the support team?
Good corporate governance is key to the success of any business, and virtual boardrooms have made life easier for governing bodies. They have automated board document management, streamlined board meetings, improved cooperation between board members, and reduced organizational costs.
By being able to discuss confidential information securely and efficiently, improved board governance is achieved. It gives boards clarity, control, and confidence in their decision-making. The best software will allow your board to access meeting minutes, sign important documents, create template agendas, automate meeting planning, and assign and manage tasks-all from anywhere in the world.
