Stuffy board meetings are becoming a thing of the past as new technologies improve efficiency and cut carbon footprints

When search firm Directorbank asked 375 chairmen and non-executive directors how effective they believed board meetings to be, responses were mixed. In privately held companies, one-third of respondents felt them to be only "partially effective". Overall, less than half the NEDs polled rated their boards fully effective.

That might be attributed to a whole range of factors, but could technology provide an answer to at least some of the challenges faced by the modern boardroom? After all, many companies now implement a vast range of technologies to enable employees to work more flexibly and to collaborate more closely. Too often, though, those innovations are left at the boardroom door and, once inside, a PowerPoint presentation projected on to an overhead screen is as high-tech as it gets.

But that is starting to change, according to a report last June from management consultancy Accenture. And there are many gadgets already available to transform and streamline stuffy board meetings, claim the firm's consultants. "Technology can allow boards to more effectively participate in discussions of relevant performance metrics, company strategy and enterprise risks," says the report. "It is inevitable that information will go online and the use of interactive, mobile and social-networking technologies will rise."

Director spoke to three companies that are already leading the charge.

How new ideas flow

Who Publicasity
Sector PR/digital media consulting
Technology Digital paper

Board meetings at Publicasity, a 50-strong public relations and digital media consultancy, can be lively affairs. Although founder and chairman Carl Courtney is keen to impose the discipline of a strict agenda and minutes on these meetings, the spontaneous freeflow of new ideas isn't something he wants to repress, as they frequently represent opportunities to attract new business or take existing clients in different directions.

In order to harness that creativity, Publicasity uses Papershow, a digital pen and paper system that allows board members to make annotations directly on to a live PowerPoint presentation. Comments that are written with a Bluetooth-enabled pen on digital paper placed either on the desk in front of users or on a flipchart instantly appear on screen and can be saved to file and emailed to participants after the meeting.

Papershow is the brainchild of Hamelin Paperbrands, a Publicasity client. What the system offers, says the company, is a newer, fresher way to captivate an audience, make meetings more productive and presentations more engaging. That proposition works well at Publicasity, Courtney says. Although the board consists only of him and the company's managing and deputy managing directors, attendance by a second tier of management at all meetings typically bumps the numbers up to eight. It can also lead to a flurry of ideas, comments and suggestions.

"In board meetings, we present those second-tier managers with evidence of their progress against targets for the relevant period via PowerPoint and they use Papershow to scribble down notes," Courtney explains. "When something's not clear, I use Papershow to illustrate my point on screen. Because the process is spontaneous, it leads to more lively discussions, with the benefit that all ideas are captured electronically as a record and nothing is lost. We believe that when the best brains in our business are gathered around the table, that's the best chance we've got to tap into their expertise and creativity."

Tuning in on the web

Who Harpenden Building Society
Sector Financial services
Technology Online board portal

When Paul Marsden, director and chief executive of Harpenden Building Society, found himself scrambling around on the floor of his office, surrounded by paper late on a Friday night, he decided that enough was enough. Something needed to be done to make the process of assembling board packs, loaded with 50 or 60 pages of information, less stressful. And when a handful of those packs failed to reach their destinations in time, because they'd got caught up in the Christmas post, he looked for a solution.

The answer came in the form of an online board portal from Diligent Boardbooks, which replicates the look and feel of a traditional, paper-based board pack in an on-screen format. This enables directors to review, update and comment on content, via the internet, ahead of meetings. It also eliminates the need to manage voluminous, unwieldy and often out-of-date paper files.

"Our non-executive directors are busy people who are often travelling on business, but they usually have easy access to the internet. Using Boardbooks, we can alert them by email when the new board pack is ready and they can go online, view it on screen and print out pages if they require. It makes life easy for them."

What's attractive about Boardbooks, he says, is that they look like traditional books, with tabs, paginated pages of text and so on. That makes it intuitive and easy-to-use for even the most technology-averse director, says Diligent Boardbooks chief executive Alex Sodi. But it also means the process of assembling the books is far easier at Harpenden Building Society, because the system can convert most common electronic document formats into Boardbook pages. It also provides workflow capabilities that guide company secretaries through the process of capturing documents and routing them through approval processes. Not only that, but all previous board packs are stored online for future reference.

The system is provided on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis, meaning that it is hosted by Diligent on its own servers. End-user organisations are charged a monthly per-user subscription fee for board members to access the system, at a rate that typically averages around $80 (£54) per user, per month.

"Boardbooks has bought us time, because we get the packs assembled quicker and NEDs get longer to review the documents ahead of board meetings," says Marsden.

In recent months, he has also uploaded the building society's board and corporate policies on to the portal, so that directors can consult these over the internet, without needing to telephone him. It's a far more efficient way of keeping directors up to date, he says—and one that presumably incurs less wear and tear to office carpets and business attire.

Global connections

Who Clinton Devon Estates
Sector Rural land management
Technology Videoconferencing

Despite a history stretching back almost five centuries, land management business Clinton Devon Estates isn't afraid to adopt new ideas. In fact, says chief executive John Varley, innovation is key to improving the productivity and sustainability of its operations, which are spread over 25,000 acres of east and north Devon, including 45 farms and 6,000 acres of forest land. These activities include a range of rural businesses—from a sawmill to an equestrian arena—and a large portfolio of residential and commercial properties.

The business began in 1550, when the ninth Baron Edward Clinton acquired land near Exeter. These days, its board of trustees (including the current Lord Clinton) looks way beyond Devon for the experience needed to preserve the estates' heritage and assets. They have worked closely on strategic issues with the Family Business faculty at the prestigious International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and with architects, designers and environmental consultants to create a state-of-the-art headquarters, the Rolle Estate Office, which had its official opening in April.

At the heart of this complex is a boardroom, complete with a new videoconferencing system. "It can be awkward to get all our board members to Devon for every meeting. In any case, the travelling involved certainly has clear implications for our carbon footprint," explains Varley. Many board members are based in London, he adds, and one lives in Italy.

Plus, the board of trustees frequently requires other employees and partners to attend meetings in order to report on the progress of new initiatives. For example, they used videoconferencing to consult with a Danish technology adviser on the possibilities of making a £6m investment in anaerobic digesters (which compost biodegradable waste) in some of its businesses. Videoconferencing, explains Varley, has allowed Clinton Devon Estates to cut the travel previously associated with meetings by around 50 per cent.

Smaller businesses that dismiss videoconferencing as a technology only for large, multinational corporates should think again, adds Varley—and he should know. In his previous job, he spent 16 years in senior executive roles at BT. "Videoconferencing kit is smaller and less expensive and the quality has come along in leaps and bounds. These days, it's just as applicable to a rural family-owned business as to any other," he says.

In the case of Clinton Devon Estates, the hardware is from video communications specialist Tandberg, while the network that underpins it is provided and managed by a third-party specialist, Mvision, in return for a monthly fixed fee. "That really takes the hassle out of using this technology while the capital costs of the hardware will be offset by reduced travel costs within 18 months," says Varley.

The system isn't just used for board meetings, but also for resolving day-to-day issues in real time. The head gamekeeper and his team have a video unit in their converted stable, while Lord Clinton has one in his London office, as does the company's law firm, Forsters. "In a globally connected world, I can't think of many businesses that can't afford to implement at least some kind of video communications," says Varley.