How to Choose the Best Board Portals for Your Business

virtual board software
virtual board software

The use of technological solutions has been increasing rapidly in the global corporate world due to their cost-effectiveness and role in a productivity boost. For example, board portal software is one of the highly adopted business solutions for online board meetings, communication, and document management.

However, the selection or procurement process of virtual boardroom software can be a risky one if you don’t do well-planned homework. Many companies fail to procure the right solution because of neglecting some very major elements, such as ease of use, industry-specific services, etc.

The following guide includes some of the most important things which you would want to consider when choosing virtual board software for your company. Also, we have listed some of the best board management software to choose in 2023.

How to choose the best board portal software?

Virtual board portal software is a digital repository and collaboration platform. It solves some basic board management challenges, including:

  • Board document management
  • Board meeting management
  • Content or document security
  • Safe online communication

To explore how board portals combine all of the functions above, head over to: https://board-room.ca/.

To get the algorithm for choosing the best board portal software, continue reading the article.

1. Define your needs and budget

An effective procurement process begins with identifying needs and objectives, which a board portal will help you achieve. Most of the time, companies need board portals for regular or long-term use to streamline communication between their board members. Sometimes organizations use boardroom services for temporary events like deal management.

Similarly, defining a budget is also necessary as it will help you create a more targeted list of potential virtual boardroom vendors.

2. Look out for specialized services

The nature of operations is not identical in the corporate world. Nonprofits have different ways of doing things, while commercial corporations do things differently. That means your ideal boardroom vendor is the one that specializes in your particular area. This is important because such vendors will know the challenges faced by organizations in a particular sector.

3. Make sure the boardroom has standard security features

Companies turn to board portals mostly because of their all-in-one features and supreme online security. Now, it is obvious that the more you invest, the better the features will be. However, make sure that you don’t miss the following platform and document security features in your board portal.

Platform security features

  • Two-factor authorization or multi-step verification
  • IP address access restrictions
  • Customizable NDAs
  • Remote device deletion/content purging
  • Fingerprint login (if possible)

Document security features

  • Document access control
  • Document access revocation
  • Digital watermarks
  • Fence view
  • File tracker and file locker

In addition to that, it is important to choose a certified boardroom vendor. Ideally, the board portal vendor should be ISO certified (ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27081, etc.). Vendors may have to comply with local regulatory bodies as well, so look out for that too.

4. Ease of use

Saas solutions intend to simplify and automate things. That’s why your ideal board portal must bring as much ease as possible. First of all, the boardroom should have a neat and easy-to-navigate user interface. It would be better if it has a detailed yet simple dashboard to monitor everything in one place.

Second, the notification system in the portal must be customizable so that you can adjust the way and frequency of receiving notifications and never miss on anything important. Then come other handy features like drag-n-drop or bulk upload to upload a large number of files in one go.

File indexing is another useful feature that indexes documents as soon as they are uploaded and makes it easy to find a document. The full-text search feature is more than good for locating a document in seconds if you don’t know the title.

Other useful features include a built-in document and Excel file viewer, task manager, and document format converter tools.

5. Meeting management features

You will need your boardroom for regular board meetings, so look out for the following basic meeting management features:

  • Meeting agenda and minutes builder or free customizable templates
  • HD audio and video calling and conferencing tools
  • Digital notes taker
  • Voting tools
  • Board packs builder
  • Presenter mode
  • Electronic signatures

Apart from these features, having a built-in chat messenger is also necessary for both group and one-to-one communications.

Top 5 virtual board software to go for in 2023

  1. Azeus Convene — commonly used in the telecommunication and IT sector.
  2. Nasdaq Boardvantage — common in the healthcare and banking sector.
  3. iDeals board portals — useful for commercial and nonprofit organizations and known for their imperial security.
  4. BoardPro — most suited for nonprofits and social organizations.
  5. Boardable — commonly known for its services in the education sector and nonprofits.

Final words

Identification of needs and budget, ease of use, platform and document security, meeting management tools, and industry-relevant experience are some essential things to consider while procuring a paperless meeting solution for your board.

Azeus Convene, Nasdaq, iDeals, BoardPro, and Boardable are among the best board portals to go for in 2023. However, it is essential to conduct your own comparison based on the criteria above to make your perfect choice.