Online Board Portals

1. Online Board Portals Tina Holloway The University of Texas System Board of Regents NAPAHE Annual Meeting March 2012

2. What is a board portal? • Web‐based, online workspace • Secure access to board materials • Online tools such as email, online voting and surveys, document management, etc.

3. Why use a board portal? • Reduced paper usage and waste • Faster board material creation and distribution with real-time updates • Access to information by board members from any place at any time • Search capabilities • A single location for all important documents and announcements

4. Build or buy? • Outsourcing draws on the expertise of companies whose core business is board portals • In-house development may permit greater customization

5. Key steps to follow • Support of board leadership and board administrative staff • Research various products and vendors • List of requirements and budget parameters • Committee or task force to agree on priorities and evaluate the various products • Finalize your list of requirements

6. Key steps to follow (cont.) • Choose vendors who meet your top priorities • Contact other users who are willing to discuss their experiences

7. What are others saying? …we developed ours in-house in 2008 -- a document portal that accomplishes several important goals:(a) "live" agendas for all board meetings and committee meetings that contain live embedded links to all relevant support materials for the meeting, thus reducing our dependence on board books and other printed materials (longer-term goal is 100%paperless board operations); (b) search-able document storage and archiving for all board of trustees business; (c) manage routine business functions like scheduling and RSVPs for trustee events, and rosters, directories and other board records; and (d) an interactive capability (blogging) for trustees that allows us to post a document such as an architectural plan or draft report and give trustees the opportunity to "discuss" it by posting comments online at their convenience.It is a password-protected, secure site for trustees and key staff only, the content of which can easily be maintained day to day by non-IT staff. (Technical fixes and improvements are managed by our IT and web development team.) We have been very pleased with how it functions overall.

8. What are others saying? …we developed ours in-house in 2008 -- a document portal that accomplishes several important goals:(a) "live" agendas for all board meetings and committee meetings that contain live embedded links to all relevant support materials for the meeting, thus reducing our dependence on board books and other printed materials (longer-term goal is 100%paperless board operations); (b) search-able document storage and archiving for all board of trustees business; (c) manage routine business functions like scheduling and RSVPs for trustee events, and rosters, directories and other board records; and (d) an interactive capability (blogging) for trustees that allows us to post a document such as an architectural plan or draft report and give trustees the opportunity to "discuss" it by posting comments online at their convenience.It is a password-protected, secure site for trustees and key staff only, the content of which can easily be maintained day to day by non-IT staff. (Technical fixes and improvements are managed by our IT and web development team.) We have been very pleased with how it functions overall. We switched to … a year ago and it is working well.  Most trustees are getting their materials online, however, we do have a few trustees who ask for the materials to be printed and sent.  Obviously, we accommodate the special requests.

9. What are others saying? …we developed ours in-house in 2008 -- a document portal that accomplishes several important goals:(a) "live" agendas for all board meetings and committee meetings that contain live embedded links to all relevant support materials for the meeting, thus reducing our dependence on board books and other printed materials (longer-term goal is 100%paperless board operations); (b) search-able document storage and archiving for all board of trustees business; (c) manage routine business functions like scheduling and RSVPs for trustee events, and rosters, directories and other board records; and (d) an interactive capability (blogging) for trustees that allows us to post a document such as an architectural plan or draft report and give trustees the opportunity to "discuss" it by posting comments online at their convenience.It is a password-protected, secure site for trustees and key staff only, the content of which can easily be maintained day to day by non-IT staff. (Technical fixes and improvements are managed by our IT and web development team.) We have been very pleased with how it functions overall. We send our Board members paper copies of materials. It is expensive and time consuming. We switched to … a year ago and it is working well.  Most trustees are getting their materials online, however, we do have a few trustees who ask for the materials to be printed and sent.  Obviously, we accommodate the special requests.

10. Key steps to follow (cont.) • Vendor demonstrations • Ask about the features that are most important to your organization • Ask about security and support • Make your selection

11. What’s next? • Implementation • Phase approach • Research and purchase • Demo portal • Train users • Stop printing books - paperless

12. Questions