Decision-making is a vital component of corporate governance. Whether it is about acquiring a new capital asset or changing organizational policies, corporate boards are responsible for making decisions in the best interest of the corporation. It is important to note that good decision-making is backed by different factors, including accurate information and better communication between the board members.
When it comes to safe information sharing and effective communication between board members, online board portal software is the unsung hero. Although thousands of corporations, organizations, directors and senior company officials have benefited from virtual boardroom software, a large section of the business fraternity is yet to discover what board software can do for organizations.
What is a virtual board portal, and how does it improve the decision-making process? What are its benefits? Here are all the answers.
What is board management software?
Board management or board portal software is a digital platform that helps facilitate online communication, data sharing, and board meetings. Virtual boardrooms provide a centralized platform for company board members and senior officials to communicate safely and regularly. They can share, edit, upload, and create corporate or board documents and use them for their governance responsibilities.
The best thing about board portal software is that board members can access it remotely. It is not necessary for board members to be present on the company premises for official proceedings. Board members can access the board portal from anywhere, anytime, and using any device, such as mobile phones, laptops, or tablets.
Better decision making with board portals
Corporate governance decisions are data-driven and not just the personal experiences of the board members. Online board portal software improves the decision-making process in different ways. Here are some of them.
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Centralized data management
How do you set your work room or office? Obviously, you will arrange everything in order where you can easily find it later. Similarly, it is important for the board management to provide all the necessary data in one place. But the question stands, how to do that?
If it is paper documentation, you will need a lot of copies of every single document, which is way too expensive. If you are thinking of hiring a developer to create dedicated software, it is also costly. Similarly, if you use free data storage platforms, you are risking the most important documents of your company.
Thanks to the board software, everything is taken care of. You don’t need to hire developers because you can employ board portal services anytime. Apart from that, you can store every single file needed for corporate governance in your virtual boardroom. Just add your board members to your portal and give them access to the documents.
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Organized corporate documents
Just randomly storing corporate documents does no good to your board. Imagine uploading your financial statements and tax records in the same folder? Or, to be more précised, storing income statements and balance sheets in the same folder is not smart either. The data needs to be centralized and organized as well.
The online board portal allows you to store data in whatever way you want. You can create folders, subfolders, and even classify further. Then, you can add search tags to any file to simplify the retrieval process. Organized business data saves time for your board members, thus improving their efficiency.
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Quick data access
Another benefit of using board software is instant access to corporate documents. Boardroom vendors have gone one step further in facilitating corporations. Every high-end board portal has a dedicated mobile and tablet app providing 24/7 access to the boardrooms. As a matter of fact, board portals are now accessible without internet connections.
When it comes to document access, board portals have multiple solutions to offer. You can find a file by simply searching its name or specific keyword/search tag. If you cannot find your required file, you can use the “full-text search” option. That said, a file can be retrieved by entering a phrase, sentence, or paragraph from the file in the search bar.
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Fast data sharing
Board members work in teams; they directly collaborate with each other and may coordinate with their subordinates in the organization. Using board management software, board members can seamlessly share documents with each other and their team members.
Boardroom users can create live document links and grant access to concerned persons. This way, multiple users can work on a single document simultaneously. Board members can edit documents, add annotations or comments to them, and tag other users in comments. They can also share files via dedicated emails, instant messages, or create temporary groups.
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Uninterrupted and secure communication
Apart from data sharing, virtual board portal software provides different ways of secure communication between board members.
Board members and project teams can create chat groups, communicate privately through instant messaging, create chat threads for brainstorming sessions, arrange audio or video calls for online board meetings, create polls to seek opinions from board members, and cast votes on motions proposed.
Summing it up
24/7 access to corporate documents is important to make more informed decisions. Online board portal software helps organization board members by giving them easy and safe access to board materials. Apart from that, multiple communication tools in virtual board software help board members collaborate as much as they want.
