The Future of Board Portals

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Board portals have been with us for many years. From the initial early versions, through the transformations triggered by the advent of the iPad that brought us board portals on every phone, tablet, and computer. Simply, board portals are constantly evolving. By some measures, board portals have become an out-of-date description as its use has extended far beyond the board. Today, board portals are not the province of board and executive committees meetings, it is just as common to see them used by leadership teams, management groups, loan committees, IT steering groups, resource allocation committees, nominating committees, and a variety of working groups.

So what is the next stage in the evolution of board portals?

There are multiple factors that will affect this including rates of adoption, new and enhanced technology, new and revised working practices, and increasing cyber security threats. National and international legislation, codes and guidelines will also have a direct impact.

In response, we will see board portals evolve to enable organizations to increase their levels of collaboration, cyber security, information and user management and corporate governance standards. All this will need to be delivered whilst lowering the total cost of ownership; as this becomes more of a commodity market board portal providers will need to constantly innovate to offer more for less. To deliver increasing value to customers.

An example of this is mobile devices. Their use has expanded in the range of devices the board portals supports and the type of work that can be done on them. Long gone are the days when the only mobile app needed was for the iPad for directors to use. A common standard today is to have apps for iPads, iPhones, tablets and smartphones utilizing Google Android, and a range of Microsoft devices including 2-in-1 laptops. Also, there is an increasing demand to be able to do administrative tasks on tablets. If you’re out of the office why shouldn’t you be able to change an agenda order, or create an approval, on your iPad?

In a series of posts to follow we will explore how Board Portals are likely to evolve over the next three years.