Board portal

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A board portal is collaborative software that allows decision-making bodies (often management or the board of directors) to electronically access meeting documents and to interact electronically with other decision-makers.

backgrounds

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act increased the legal and financial responsibility of boards of directors to perform their oversight duties towards the shareholder, which has led many companies to increase the independence and competence of the board of directors. Due to the greater need for information and communication, the number of VR meetings and the amount of meeting documents has increased. This has led to the need to use IT for efficient exchange and interaction with the board of directors.

Functionality of a board portal

A board portal can either be an application developed in-house, commercial software that is operated in-house, or it can be obtained as a service ( software as a service ). Board portals usually have the following functions:

  • High security: Due to the sensitive nature of management and board of directors documents, security is a key issue. Two-way authentication when logging in is the rule and 256-bit encryption when saving the data.
  • Compilation of administrative board documents and their distribution: Thanks to the board portal, general secretaries can easily compile the meeting documents, update them if necessary and distribute the documents to the participants. Editing, updating and deleting of documents can be done online and these are immediately available to all participants. This saves printing, compiling and sending (traditionally often via courier) the meeting documents.
  • Online availability: Management and board members can obtain the documents electronically and communicate with other decision-makers at any time via a secure channel.
  • Offline availability: Management and board members can download the documents to their end devices and edit them on the go. Board portals ensure, however, that documents available offline remain protected according to the centrally set security levels.
  • Digital preparation of meetings: meeting documents can be prepared digitally thanks to the note function.
  • Archiving: Meeting documents from previous meetings are stored for several years and thus meet the legal requirements of the multi-year storage and documentation obligation.

Advantages of a board portal

  • Meeting documents can be compiled more quickly and distributed electronically
  • Worldwide access takes into account the increased mobility of decision-makers
  • High security thanks to encrypted access
  • Less paper
  • Paperless preparation of meetings thanks to tablets (e.g. iPad) and note-taking function
  • Archive and search old meeting documents
  • Manage different security levels
  • Timely communication between management and board members

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