Customer Stories

Australian Clinical Trials Alliance

A board management platform tailored for time savings for unique nonprofit organisations.

Industry: Nonprofit healthcare

Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia

Board Management Goals

Intuitive, high-performing product; ease of use
Serves needs of nonprofits
Improves board’s efficiency and organisation

Results

30%–40% time savings
Easy to use; 100% board participation
All resources available in one, secure place

A board management platform tailored for time savings

The Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) is a nonprofit organisation that promotes better health outcomes and quality of care by expanding the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical trials. It supports vast networks of clinician-researchers and trial coordinating centres, representing a community of more than 10,000 clinicians, researchers and consumers across the Australian health system.

“We are quite unique in what we do,” says Katie Legge, Office Manager and Administrator. To help the organisation’s 10 board directors manage its governance and financial oversight—and to avoid the massive paperwork burden of managing the board and its committees—ACTA moved to OnBoard in 2020.

The simplicity and convenience of using OnBoard has resulted in “a definite 30%–40% in time savings,” Katie estimates. “It just cut out an enormous amount of administrative work. The value is in the time savings.” OnBoard also simplified processes for ACTA’s CEO. “She likes the fact that all the governance documentation—constitutions, charters, everything—is in one place and the directors can access them at any time. She refers to it as ‘the library.’

“A definite 30%–40% in time savings,” Katie estimates. “It just cut out an enormous amount of administrative work. The value is in the time savings.”

— Katie Legge, Administration Officer

Offering document security without the flashy ‘whizbang’

Katie recalls that previously she was chasing 150 to 200 pages of papers prior to board meetings, and then creating a PDF to send out. “The papers were getting stuck in inboxes and not getting through,” she recalls. “So, we went searching for a solution that would fit us.” She says the organisation “didn’t need all the whizbang” or the added costs—such as buying new equipment— that come with other platforms. “I did my trial of OnBoard and I really liked it,” she says.

ACTA finds the platform security a definite plus when using OnBoard for its Membership Committee, Nominations Committee, and Finance, Audit and Risk Committees. “Even within the committees, we can lock down which directors have access to which papers,” Katie explains, noting that such a secure system brings peace of mind. “You certainly don’t want documents available to people who aren’t authorised to see them.”

OnBoard simplifies governance and onboarding

As an added benefit, the way that ACTA captures and documents within OnBoard helps the organisation maintain compliance with annual audit requirements set by the Australian Securities Commission. “Because we are member-based, we have a constitution,” Katie states, “so we have obligations to our members regarding the board practices and function, like how many meetings we hold and how the directors are elected.” Since OnBoard makes it easy to capture and securely store board materials, the information required to prove compliance is readily available.

Being able to keep resources in one place through OnBoard also aids with onboarding new directors. To facilitate that, Katie has created a board induction folder, which also satisfies governance requirements and ensures 100% board director usage. “Because our new directors can be based anywhere in the country, we hold an online meeting and give them OnBoard access. They can go through the past documentation at their leisure, in their own time. OnBoard keeps a good historical record of the company.”

“The strength of OnBoard is that it is straightforward and uncomplicated to use. It provides everything that we need.”

— Katie Legge, Administration Officer

Prompt local support, if needed

Katie says implementation of OnBoard was “fairly instant” and training was “seamlessly smooth.” She especially appreciates the availability of Australian customer support. “That’s important… really important,” she points out. “There have been a few times when I have had to call for help.” With busy directors, she finds the availability of local, last-minute administrative support from OnBoard essential. Also, with local support, there are no time zone issues; that’s not always the case with other tools the board uses. “With OnBoard, help is really prompt, really quick.”

Katie also likes that she has heard no complaints from board directors. In fact, there are no comments at all. “Which is a good thing,” she clarifies. “They don’t make any comments when things are working. The fact that there has been this uniform silence in the background means it is working well.”

Elevate Your Board's Decision-Making with OnBoard

OnBoard combines the highest level of security with innovative features designed to optimize your board’s effectiveness. Start your journey and unlock unparalleled security, insights, and efficiency.