Great board portal software is more than just a document receptacle; it’s a platform where directors work, collaborate, and evaluate their plan’s performance. It also helps the administrator keep accurate documentation of decisions and bylaws to meet demanding legal standards placed on directors and governors. It eases scheduling and invitations to meetings, and administrators don’t have to worry about couriering documents to last-minute invitees. Any governing body of a public or private organization that wants to become more efficient, organized, and productive should consider a software tool to help.

Minutes

Effective trustees need access to meeting minutes at any time. Directors are often busy people who manage a number of responsibilities at once. When they can access reports, discussions, and motions presented at previous meetings, they can arrive at the next meeting prepared, informed, and ready to make a decision. Meetings quickly become a waste of time when participants show up lacking critical information. Directors that use the right portal can also collaboratively annotate documents and work between meetings, with instant notifications to all users so that everyone can keep up with progress.

Legislation

Directors are accountable for legislation and their own body’s bylaws, but keeping up with everything can quickly become a burden. They stay informed when they have easy-to-reach links to pertinent legislation at all levels of government. Portals also make it easy to find the most current legislation pertaining to a board’s responsibilities.

Strategy

Many of today’s directors are no longer content to approve management’s plans, and wish to involve themselves directly in the strategic planning phase. Good planning means diagnosing markets and competitions, creating a plan, and creating a process for implementation. Directors can become part of an agile planning process with the collaborative features of digital tools like Aprio board portal software. Boards that are involved in the planning process can add insight and fresh perspective into the state of their market, develop the company’s vision, and question the goals and performance metrics presented by executives.

Evaluation

Board portal software makes it easier to access legislation and the organization’s internal by-laws, helping directors enforce compliance.Tools such as the purpose-built Aprioalso enable to work on executive evaluation behind an additional layer of access, keeping performance evaluations confidential. They may also feature scorecards that allow users to monitor strategy and financial decisions, approve decisions, and evaluate the organization’s executives.

Security

The real difference between free and purpose-built board portal software is security. Many companies seek out “home country hosting,” one of the benefits Aprio offers. That means that their documents are stored on servers within their country and cannot fall under the jurisdiction of foreign legislation. Secure software also means administrators can control access permissions to certain documents, prevent print outs, and even remotely purge laptops or phones that have been lost. If your organization needs organized, secure, and transparent governance, now is the time to invest in portal software.

By Eddy

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].