How Board Portals Work

A board portal is a software for simplifying corporate management operations. It is time-saving and enhances the effectiveness of meetings, and decision-making for boards of governors and other types of leadership groups. A major function is to convert paperwork into digitalization.

The market for board portals is growing at a rapid pace because software has dramatically changed the way boards communicate. Only a paperless meeting solution can meet today’s challenges. Virtual board software is suitable for small companies as well as for large ones, where increased security is valued.

What features does a board portal include?

This kind of application necessarily includes features that make things easier for the management team:

• Votes
• Annotations
• Document storage
• Email
• Polls
• Meeting management
• Digital agendas

The availability of various features may vary from one software provider to another.

A quick comparison of different board portals

Board management software differs from each other and you need to do a board portal comparison to understand which one you need and for which functions. You have to highlight for yourself what is most important for your company and see what is available. If you take the three popular products with high ratings (Boardmaps, iDeals, and Diligent), you can notice the key features of each.

Boardmaps

1. This is a solution-oriented service. BoardMaps keeps unresolved issues in sight. Current issues are conveniently structured and it is possible to decide before the meeting which issues to raise and discuss during the event.
2. You can create a specific outline for the meeting. You can quickly create an agenda for an upcoming meeting. This way, everyone can prepare for the discussion. You can give different levels of access to materials within the meeting.
3. Decisions are controlled. Discussions and feedback can be recorded and stored in virtual storage. As the event progresses, participants can create draft solutions and vote on them to select the best one.

iDeals

1. Supports not only personal computers but also iPads. You can integrate this with various other platforms.
2. The app has a lot of tools for collaboration like messages, notes, calendars, creating an agenda, or scheduling meetings.
3. It has a budget price compared to competitors.
4. Intuitive navigation. The average user can figure out the functionality in a day.

Diligent

1. Communications. Diligent allows directors and executives to communicate with colleagues and partners in a variety of ways.
2. Quick access to documentation. Diligent books allow access to documents using portable devices, making it possible to work not only indoors with a computer.
3. Convenient content management. The Diligent board is an easy-to-use content management platform for document creation and collaboration. It is available as cloud-based and local software.

As mentioned earlier, these applications are almost identical in overall functionality. Only some special features or minor improvements within the existing common functions distinguish them from each other.

Advantages of using a board portal

These applications allow management teams to work more efficiently, strategically, and productively. For example, the following advantages can be noticed:

• Handy documentation management. The board portal is also a convenient repository for documents. Members can edit, browse, and search for various documents.
• Managing meetings on a brand new level. This kind of software makes it easy to get everyone together in one place and discuss some important agenda. It’s also easy to keep track of each board member’s attendance.
• Collaborative Improved Work. You can improve the overall performance by adding notes, comments, and suggestions to documents and tagging various users and groups.
• In addition, board portal software increases the overall security level of conversations through advanced encryption of video conferencing and the exchange of messages.
• Feature Management. A Virtual boardroom supports an improved workflow for managing meetings and collaboration processes. Optimizing the entire meeting lifecycle is a serious workflow enhancement.

The most important features

As mentioned earlier, the Board portal software has different functions from one developer to another. But these features remain important:

• You can use this to create and distribute meeting agendas using templates or from scratch.
• Online board meeting: Use this to schedule meetings by linking your calendar. This tool can be used to add details, attach documents, monitor attendance, and create remote meetings.
• You can view meetings, calendars, files, internal and external links, and documents.
• Single Sign-On (SSO): An advanced feature that optimizes the sign-in process to meet your company’s specific security requirements.
• Flexible security and permissions policy. Here you can set up account types to allow or deny viewing or editing certain documents.
• Presenter mode in conferences. You can initiate remote meetings and delegate the right to speak to another colleague.
• You can add private or shared notes to a document.
• Make digital signatures on documents and request them from others. This tool lets you keep track of documents you’ve already signed or documents that are waiting for you to sign.

Take a chance to look at the most common features of different software and find the most suitable for your business needs.

Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Rajen1980.