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Time For Business To Adapt To The Age Of Transparency

The Harvard Business Review is calling it the Age of Transparency. Businesses are learning that a proactive stance is better PR when an organization faces a crisis. Shareholders, customers, and the public at large are sick of the feeling that businesses are simply out to get their money at whatever cost to their health, well-being, and privacy.

Mismanaging or attempting to hide a crisis is a quick way to become the focus of national headlines. Take two different stories: the labelling and ultimately banning of trans fats and the new world of data breaches. In 2008, fast-food chain McDonald’s spent an entire year switching to food with 0 trans fats. In fact, the massive chain was behind an industry quickly adapting to health risks before bans came into place. The market responded with good will. By contrast, recent data breaches from both Equifax and Facebook were hidden by both companies and both have faced massive public backlash.

If organizations are going to respond proactively to crises, boards of directors need a guarantee of transparency from the executive.

Board portal software can ease the transition to better transparency at the board level. You can book a free trial today to try board portal software and discover how it can change your organization’s approach to transparency. Board portal software will make achieving transparency easier for all parties, including the executive, administration, and the directors themselves. Before you start researching your options, consider these benefits that a board portal can offer any business, public corporation, or not-for-profit organization.

#1 Centralized Access to Information

For most organizations, the days of paper board books have been gone for a long time. But if they were replaced by email or filesharing software, your board documents are still unsecure and easy to misplace. The main advantage of Aprio board portal software is centralized access to all board information, including updates. With all documents located conveniently in one place, available both online and offline, directors are better prepared for meetings. That means they also waste less time during board meetings.

#2 Online Voting

Sometimes decisions have to be made fast. When there’s no time to wait for the next board meeting, valid online voting on Aprio is a fair way to get a decision in a short period of time.

#3 CEO Evaluation

Board portals are an effective way to improve how your board handles CEO evaluations. Some directors are often reluctant to give their honest opinions in person, especially newer directors. The survey tools available in Aprio make it easier to get honest evaluations that will remain confidential.

#4 Update Alerts

Has a director ever requested additional information between board meetings only to find that other directors were unfamiliar with it at the next meeting? With board portal software, all information is shared via the portal and directors are alerted of any updates by email. Directors will arrive at meetings better prepared. It’s a great reason to learn about our board portal software today.

#5 Archiving and Audits

Great board portal software automatically creates an audit trail. All decisions, meeting minutes, and documents are automatically archived on our board portal software and easily accessed by directors later.

Board portal software is an important transparency and accountability tool for any organization. It’s time to adapt to the age of transparency. Board portal software can help.

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The Technology Secret To Easy Director Recruitment

Recruitment is an ongoing process for most organizations. As an older generation of directors retires, organizations face multiple recruitment challenges. They are struggling to recruit younger directors and create more diverse boards, but the pay offs are worth the challenges. Diversity in the corporate boardroom brings broader perspectives and it’s linked to reducing instances of fraud and shareholder battles. In response, organizations are investing heavily in recruitment, but what happens when a new director is brought on board?

Without investing equally in training new directors, board meetings will suffer. Organizations need their directors to stay up to speed to face new challenges. When they’re struggling to catch up on the organization’s past and present situation, the organization is left with the consequences. Organizations need to invest in orientation as well. If you don’t already, your company should use board portals as part of its orientation process. Board meeting software streamlines orientation and makes the work of preparing directors faster and more secure down the line. Here’s how you can incorporate board meeting software into the orientation process.

Partnering New Recruits with Experienced Directors

It’s much less intimidating for a new director to ask for help from a peer. When you partner up a new recruit with an experienced director, make sure senior directors know about all of the resources available to new directors. That includes technology training. When it comes to board meeting software, Aprio offers one-on-one training to new directors.

Presenting Company Challenges

Executives need to be up front with new directors about the challenges facing the company. New directors need to be aware of the risks the company faces, the priorities in its strategic plan, and the key decisions it will have to face in the near future. Executives can keep this discussion consistent by putting together a presentation via board meeting software that outlines those risks and challenges for all new directors.

Access to Information

Board meeting software is integral for access to information for new directors. In the past, administrators would have to walk new directors through massive binders. Now, using board meeting software like Aprio, new directors can access information on their own time. That means better retention on key issues. Focus orientation on using board meeting software to access information.

Security and Good Governance

Keeping the company’s data secure is an integral part of good governance, and board meeting software simplifies security. When you use Aprio board software, all of the documents your directors need before and during meetings is stored on the platform, accessible online and offline. Directors receive email notification of updates and links to updated documents, but must use a password to access the portal, keeping data away from cybercriminals.

If you think that board meeting software can improve the orientation process at the board level, book a free trial and find out. Board meeting software will make meetings more productive and help directors at all levels of experience.

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How To Change The CEO-Board Relationship This Year

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How To Change The CEO-Board Relationship This Year

How To Change The CEO-Board Relationship This Year

The relationship between CEOs and the board of directors is ready to change. Progressive boards are more productive, collaborative, insightful, and better at self-management. The relationship needs to become a two-way street, one that adds value to the organization and encourages collaboration, rather than a one-way relationship that piles work onto the executive. While executive evaluation is a core component of a progressive board, progressive boards work with the executive to achieve a better organization.

How are boards changing to build better relationships with the CEO?

They implement better communication technology.

Generative relationships are founded on better communication. For the board of directors, that starts with board of directors software designed to make communication between meetings fast, transparent, and convenient. A board portal is a central access point for all board documents, meeting schedules, and decision making. Not only will board management software prove to be an effective tool for directors, it’s also going to make board meetings better.

Executives should not just be standing in front of a board and presenting. All of that information should be in the board book, available for directors to read long before the meeting. Executives can easily share what the organization has gone through in the last quarter using the Aprio board portal. The meeting itself should be a discussion.

They don’t just listen, they engage in important debates.

A progressive board of directors doesn’t just listen to the executive, they contribute. The majority of directors prefer to just listen rather than engage in dialogue. That creates board meetings where the CEO stands in front of the room and presents, often information that could easily be shared beforehand with Aprio board management software. A progressive board of directors contributes opinions and solutions.

They self-manage.

A board of directors should not become a burden on the CEO’s time. Boards need to become self-managing. One reason to call us to book a free trial of board management software today is to experience an electronic board book that directors can use to prepare for meetings and show up ready with their own contributions. Directors need to add value and that means arriving prepared.

They engage in better board development and training.

Today, new directors are more important than ever. As many boards scramble to keep up with the changing demographics of their memberships and as diversity in the boardroom becomes a recruitment priority, new directors need to hit the ground running. As part of an extensive director training program, Aprio offers one-on-one board management software training for all of its users. Board management software is often the fastest way for a new director to familiarize herself with an organization’s risks and challenges. When you discover our board management software, make a point of asking about our director training.

Today’s boards of directors are not there just to approve or reject the CEO’s ideas. They need to actively engage in the boardroom and contribute toward the organization’s goals. Board management software makes it easy.

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Reduce Technology Risks By Eliminating Human Error

IT departments always have cybersecurity on their minds, but they’re not the only ones in an organization that should be concerned. Cybercrime is rapidly on the rise. Ransomware programs are multiplying, phishing attacks are more common, and organizations on average experience 130 security breaches annually.

The costs of cybercrime are going up as well. Worldwide spending on cybercrime is predicted to cost $1 trillion between 2017 and 2021. Your organization can either be part of the statistic or it can evolve to face growing threats in the digital world.

Human error is widely recognized as the biggest risk in any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. It may never be possible to completely eliminate human error, but there is technology that can reduce mistakes that put an organization’s data at risk.

Boards of directors are often a high-risk vulnerability in the cybersecurity chain. They regularly have access to high-level data and their decisions are themselves valuable data to cybercriminals. Many directors are not as tech-savvy as they should be and don’t have the time to worry about security. A solution like board portal software from Aprio takes the work out of cybersecurity for your directors.

Board portal software is designed to reduce some of the most common human errors that compromise security

:#1 Downloadable Data

Downloading data is practically an invitation to cybercriminals, but it’s done far too often by directors who may not know better or don’t have time to take the proper precautions. Data sent by email is immediately compromised, and directors then have no choice but to download the files sent. Even data sent via Dropbox can be downloaded. One of the benefits of board software is that ours prevents directors from downloading data without restricting access. All files can be accessed and annotated online or offline. Updates are made on Aprio board software as soon as the device connects to Wifi.

#2 Lost and Stolen Devices

Sometimes devices are stolen or lost. When that device belongs to one of your directors, that puts a lot of sensitive data at risk. That’s why the board portal software from Aprio comes with a remote wipe feature. No one ever plans to lose their tablet or laptop, but when it happens, your organization needs to respond instantly. Remote wipe erases any data shared through the board portal on the device.

#3 Director Communications Are Data

Email is convenient and easy to use, which is why it’s so hard to get directors to stop using it. Email is not secure, but director communications are valuable data. Instead of relying on email, they should be using secure board portal software to protect their discussions and decisions.Keeping your board safe from cybercrime is simple with board portal software. Find out more and call us to book a trial for your board today. Reducing human error at the board level is an effective solution to the dangers of cybercrime.