Innovation in the boardroom

Smart boards are realising that while the topic of technology is almost always on the board meeting agenda, it’s time to put technology into the hands of the board itself. As Nurole members are already the most innovative amongst the board community, we thought we would share five platforms that may help simplify and improve your board’s efficiency across five key areas.

1. Board reporting

One of the few platforms made specifically for boards, Board Intelligence helps with writing, organising and reviewing the board pack.

The ‘Write’ template helps deliver succinct board agenda reports with the information that really matters. Board Intelligence promises your reports will become half the size and twice as impactful with their help.

Once your papers are in place, the ‘Manager’ toolkit means it’s simply a matter of drag and drop to compile a board pack and put in place your board meeting structure, and in turn create an effective board meeting agenda.

Finally, from a board member perspective, the ‘Read’ toolkit gives members a secure set of papers that can be fully searched and annotated so they arrive at the meeting ready to deliver the conclusions that matter.

2. Communication

Sometimes described as e-mail 2.0, Slack has transformed communication in many organisations, helping to free up e-mail inboxes and structure internal dialogue along topic lines.

Simple to use, the mobile app and desktop version can be used at board level to structure pre and post board meeting discussions as well as keep board members informed in between meetings, leaving more time in board meetings for discussion as opposed to updates.

3. Expenses

Gone are the days of corporate board members delivering a bundle of crumpled paper receipts long after they should have claimed for reimbursement. Expensify can scan receipts with one click via an app on your phone and synchronise in real-time to your company’s accounts.

This simple but effective tool frees up time for both the executive and non-executive team that can be better spent on more important tasks.

4. Meeting Scheduling

Scheduling board meetings can sometimes feel like pulling teeth given the number of people and complexity of schedules involved. Calendly can help your board quickly find dates for annual meetings as well as ad-hoc meetings because of a major event without needing endless back and forth.

5. Getting the “worm’s eye view”

Board members can be at risk of making decisions in a bubble, based on meeting senior management and reading reports created to impress, but without the full picture of what’s going on inside the company.

By asking employees across the organisation a series of short questions each week via e-mail which it anonymises and aggregates, Motivii is a useful tool that boards can use to get a real time picture of the organisation’s mood and satisfaction, unvarnished by the senior executive team.