Every day, more and more companies go public and expand worldwide. As a result, operating a business for the board of directors is now more complicated than ever.
Because directors must meet on a frequent basis, the costs of travel and boarding related to holding them in person pile up rapidly for the company.
There are many options available when it comes to social media and virtual meeting platforms, but most of them are not equipped to handle boardroom meetings because of the sheer amount of data and documents that need to be shared. That’s where a virtual boardroom comes into play.
What is a virtual boardroom?
A virtual boardroom is dedicated software that allows the board of directors to meet on a regular basis from around the globe.
Through audio and video conferencing tools, the board can decide on numerous issues by seamlessly communicating and sharing relevant documents all through one single platform.
If some of the directors are at one location and others must join remotely, board software also accommodates that scenario. A hybrid meeting can be held easily, with some members joining in-person and others – online through a platform.
Benefits of a virtual boardroom
Now that you know what a board portal is, let’s take into consideration some of the main perks it may offer to your business.
More productive meetings
Recent studies have shown that virtual meetings are more efficient as the board members are able to connect from wherever it’s more comfortable for them. The key to a successful virtual board room meeting is having a well-thought-out agenda, keeping presentations short, and having enough breaks to keep the board members engaged.
Board portal software allows the board members to have a strict agenda and structure to the meeting.
An agenda is an integral part of any meeting, but it’s even more important in a virtual setting. The participants must be aware at all times of what is being discussed, who is presenting, and what other activities are taking place.
Providing breaks in-between presentations or discussions also energizes participants to have a fruitful board meeting.
Careful moderation and consideration of all board members
While virtual board meetings have many benefits, there are also numerous downsides. Any virtual meeting requires more discipline and patience from everyone involved.
From giving the virtual floor to colleagues to not taking up too much time, social cues are harder to recognize online. This is why a good moderation of the meeting is the key to a successful virtual board room meeting.
The chair should ensure that each member of the board has adequate time to express their opinions and should make every effort to ensure that no board members with relevant expertise and perspectives on specific subjects covered are excluded from the discussion.
Thanks to a board portal, every board member can followed meeting agenda in real time, while keeping track of time spent to discuss each agenda item. This helps to stick to the original plan and make sure everyone has their word.
Document management
The board of directors needs to be able to collaborate and develop various documents during the meetings. Virtual boardrooms make these collaborative efforts easy and seamless thanks to the full integration of document processing tools into the software.
The document management features are arguably the most critical tools that set dedicated boardroom software apart from regular conferencing tools.Most virtual boardroom providers offer board document management in real-time without ever leaving the platform.
Furthermore, most providers also offer a digital signature feature for the directors to easily sign any necessary documents during the meeting without ever leaving or switching to other websites or applications.
The attendees can easily share files with each other. They can add, edit, remove or otherwise modify the documents.
Most boardroom software even has built-in storage features for saving large files, documents, and recordings of previous meetings. Individual board members can access the relevant files whenever and wherever they need them.
Voting
Voting on an agenda item or a business decision is integral to any board meeting. When meeting in person, the voting process can drag out and can be tricky for the chair to take notes and keep track of the votes.
Such problems are eliminated when working with a board of directors portal. The voting system is also built into most boardroom software.
Automated process makes the process of voting and decision-making more effortless for the board members.
The chair can decide what to do with the voting results. It can be displayed for all attendees immediately, or only to some. Additionally, the results can be shown by number or percentage.
The simplicity with which voting on issues is handled through the boardroom software is unmatched. So much can be accomplished when such processes are streamlined and easily accessible for the board members.
Heightened security
It is no secret that most social media, messaging, and e-meeting platforms tend to gather data on their users to use for targeted ads or other purposes.
This creates a high-risk environment when conducting board meetings where much sensitive information, data, and files are being shared.
The traditional, readily available meeting software is also much more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
When using board management software, such worries are eliminated because of the heightened security that most providers promise with their software.
Compared to commercially accessible social media or online meeting platforms, the files exchanged during the meeting, the recordings, and other sensitive information connected to or shared during the board meeting are considerably safer with dedicated boardroom software.
Final thoughts
Conducting board meetings online can be challenging at first for the directors and executives. However, the user-friendly interface that most providers offer, coupled with high security and collaboration tools, makes board software a go-to choice for businesses worldwide.
The boardroom software makes almost every aspect of a board meeting more streamlined, accessible, and suited for the attendees.
The ability to attend an important meeting from anywhere in the world while not missing out on collaborating on documents and voting on various decisions is something that every board member would value.
