No 2 Transformation Paths to Digitize Are Alike
From decades of experience to a few months to switching portals midstream, boards everywhere take different journeys to use digital board solutions. Seek a board portal that is the best fit for your organization.
Efficiency, One-Stop Shop Among Many Benefits
Board members will be able to spend more time focusing on governance and issues that truly matter to their organizations, thanks to the efficiencies and conveniences that board portals provide.
Convince Veteran Board Members of Its Value
Seasoned directors or trustees might balk at switching to a digital board portal initially. But eventually, a good board portal will prove intuitive even for the most tech-averse board members.
Webinar Recap: Heather Fehn, Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at the College of New Jersey, Leslie Kaiser, Director of Board and Volunteer Engagement at Indiana University Foundation, and Matthew Maxwell, Senior Consultant at AGB OnBoard, explore how adopting the right board portal can significantly boost effectivenes.
Technology evolves more quickly than ever before. Yet, many boards still employ outdated processes and procedures.
`Today, a growing number of boards are attempting to transition to digital board management. But all too often, their chosen solutions fall flat.
However, even when a solution doesn’t fit the board’s needs, they’re often hesitant to make a switch. Oftentimes, this boils down to trustees’ fear of change and adoption of a new portal.
However, it is possible to find a board portal you love – and convince your board to actually use it.
Recently, Heather Fehn, chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees at The College of New Jersey; Leslie Kaiser, director of board and volunteer engagement at Indiana University Foundation; and Matthew Maxwell, senior consultant at AGB OnBoard, came together for a webinar on the topic of finding the ideal board portal for your organization.
The conversation spanned topics including:
Here, we explore some of the key takeaways from this session.
Each Board Has a Unique Path to Digital Transformation
At the start of the webinar, Maxwell ran a poll to determine what attendees’ current board processes look like. About half have started to use a third-party board portal. The other half use paper-based processes, email, shared drives, or a homegrown solution.
Clearly, boards are all over the map in terms of digital transformation.
According to Fehn, The College of New Jersey started switching to digital processes quite a while ago.
“I’ve been in the president’s office for over 27 years now and I’m proud to say I don’t have a trustee on our board who remembers our paper processes,” she said. “We used to kill trees all the time. We’d make piles around our conference room table, bind them, and ship them. Very early on I said, ‘there’s got to be a better way.’”
Initially, the board started scanning materials, burning them onto a CD, and then mailing the CDs to trustees. Then, they began using a homegrown portal. Eventually, the organization started using a dedicated board portal.
“I looked at all of them and I compared it to what I was using,” explained Fehn. “Most of the board portal companies just had too many bells and whistles. It was very clear that trustees needed to get into a product, access what they needed, and get out.”
Ultimately, the College of New Jersey board chose AGB OnBoard. “We’ve been really pleased with AGB OnBoard,” said Fehn
Kaiser, on the other hand, explained that the Indiana University Foundation continued to use paper-based processes until fairly recently. They eventually started using a board portal, but it wasn’t driving the efficiencies they had hoped for. “I just found that our board members were using it to collect and print,” said Kaiser. “It wasn’t saving the paper I was hoping we would save.”
The Foundation’s board of trustees went in search of a new portal and ultimately chose AGB OnBoard. “It has the best features for me as the administration. And our directors have zero tech issues.”
A Board Portal Serves as a Single Source of Truth
Today, many boards continue to use email to distribute materials. But when there are changes to documents, directors receive multiple emails. It can be difficult to know which is the latest version.
Adopting a board portal can ensure board directors are always looking at the latest, greatest versions of everything.
“Every time they log into the portal they have the most updated version of the packet,” said Maxwell.
In addition, board directors can easily locate any document they’re looking for – all from a single portal.
“If you’re using this portal [AGB OnBoard] to house documents, the searchability feature is incredible,” said Kaiser.
Does OnBoard allow you to regulate who sees which document without having to send different users to different areas of the portal? We use [boardeffect] and the workrooms have created serious confusion and frustration for board members.
It’s absolutely a point of frustration and confusion around permission, it’s part of what I was alluding to. You can very easily accomplish that in OnBoard — provide access to only the specific individuals, and not just by group, but by individual.
The Right Board Portal Drives Efficiency – Allowing More Time for Valuable Work
Paper-based board processes are time-consuming and clunky. Even digital solutions like email and shared drives are inefficient.
Finding and adopting the right board portal can save time for everyone involved. That means board directors and staff have more time for meaningful work that gets an organization closer to achieving its goals.
“[AGB Onboard] has created huge efficiencies in my work, which has given me more opportunity to engage with my directors and do things that are less about process and logistics and more about building relationships,” said Kaiser. “It’s been a great thing for me and the foundation.”
Getting Buy-In From Seasoned Trustees Can Be Challenging – But it’s Possible
How long would you say for tech savvy and non-tech savvy board members take to get up and running?
We’ve had 3 meetings utilizing OnBoard and from the very 1st meeting I’ve had very few questions… People were very happy”
Making the switch to digital board management makes sense. But initially, directors may resist moving away from the way “things have always been done.” This is especially true for seasoned directors or trustees.
“We went paperless so long ago. That initial move did take our trustees some cajoling and convincing,” explained Fehn. “They were convinced even back then that saving money and the environment were worth it.”
Choosing a simple, intuitive portal also helps trustees on board.
“We have a board of 53 and didn’t have term limits until 2020. I have folks on my board who have served for a long time. Oftentimes, they’re not a big fan of changes, and there was a bit of nervousness to move to a new technology,” said Kaiser. “But with AGB OnBoard, we’ve had a 100% success rate.”
Of course, driving adoption is a key goal of any board that has invested in a new portal. According to Fehn, “you need some trustees who are going to lead the band on this.”
“We had taken the time to get our governance committee familiar with the software,” she continued. “As we rolled this out, they were the voice among the trustees to let them know it was easy to use.”
The Best Board Portals are Always Evolving
Today, many boards continue to use email to distribute materials. But when there are changes to documents, directors receive multiple emails. It can be difficult to know which is the latest version.
Adopting a board portal can ensure board directors are always looking at the latest, greatest versions of everything.
“Every time they log into the portal they have the most updated version of the packet,” said Maxwell.
In addition, board directors can easily locate any document they’re looking for – all from a single portal.
“If you’re using this portal [AGB OnBoard] to house documents, the searchability feature is incredible,” said Kaiser.
“Thank you! I will be sharing this info with our staff member this could help the most in organizing our board and their function!”
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