Board meetings join the movement to the cloud

Dottie Schindlinger

Editor’s Note: BankBeat interviewed Dottie Schindlinger, technology evangelist at BoardEffect, to find out how putting the board in the cloud benefits businesses. BoardEffect is an online tool designed to organize, manage and run a board meeting.

Q. What problems does your typical bank board have that your platform helps to solve?

For our bank clients, BoardEffect ensures board members are able to uphold their fiduciary responsibilities — including having easy access to important data and reports, dashboards and  meeting updates. Additionally, the level of security we provide on the platform allows directors to have peace of mind about the safety and privacy of sensitive data.

BoardEffect is designed to provide easy management of board information, while enabling board members to fulfill their obligation of elevating organizational performance. Our product design and roadmap are based on the full spectrum of board activities, which can be neatly divided into three overlapping and interdependent cycles: The meeting cycle — where board members, committee members and key staff prepare for, conduct, and follow-up after meetings; the annual board cycle — which includes board activities that generally occur annually, such as approval of the budget, the annual audit, conflict of interest disclosures, board self-assessment, board appointments and the like; and the board development cycle — which is ongoing, and encompasses activities such as board member recruitment and nominations, new member orientation/on-boarding, and board member education.

Q. Have clients found unexepected benefits to using BoardEffect?

This is a common occurrence. Most of our clients seek our software as a way to build efficiency in the preparation and management of meetings. But the platform offers so much more. Just to provide one example, we recently provided templates to clients to create forms and surveys – such as a Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form. This interactive form allows directors at any time throughout the year to update their potential conflicts of interest – making the process more fluid and evergreen. Directors can simply update their electronic submissions, sign the document, and then the administrator has a compiled report with all the potential areas of conflict of interest that can be given to the board chair for reference during meetings.

Q. Banks have security concerns beyond most other businesses. How does your platform approach security?

BoardEffect regularly undergoes security audits and penetration tests to ensure all our protocols are working properly. Our banking customers can receive copies of all our reports annually.

Perhaps even more importantly, we recognize that security is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.  BoardEffect allows your bank to fine-tune the level of security to fit your needs. For example, you can customize settings such as password complexity, whether or not you use 2-factor authentication, how frequently passwords must be changed, and how frequently the app times out. You can also control who has access to your platform — both via the web and mobile applications. You have the ability to manage all users — you don’t have to come to us to add a new user, reset a password, or change someone’s permissions. We give you the ability to manage your portal fully.

Q. In your interactions with customers do you see any boardroom trends developing?

Board meetings are changing. We’re seeing more time on agendas for strategic discussions, and less time for routine reports. Board members are expected to step up their game – it’s no longer sufficient just to show up to meetings, they have to be ready to dive in and make tough choices quickly. Staying on top of all the information required to make those smart choices is hard.

One trend we’re seeing in several industries is a move towards having more time allotted for open-ended “generative” discussion at the board table – time for board members to ask big-picture questions, and questions they don’t already have a ready answer to. Boards that start out at the 30,000 foot level on tough issues often can arrive at a better set of specific strategies and tactics down the road. We believe this is an important trend, and one we want to support – as it can lead to higher performance by board members.