Adoptability
If the app you choose isn’t adopted, it’s a wasted
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investment that may leave you less secure than you
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App Suitability: Whether your business is private, public,
were before. For an application to be embraced by
nonprofit or a government, look for a robust, yet flexible
your board, it needs to be accessible from a multitude
app that allows you to maintain your current governance
of devices, easy-to-use, and accompanied by live
practices and in some instances, heighten them, making
it easier and more helpful for directors to perform their
support at any time. Having the ability to read and
duties. A vendor should have clients like yours. If you’re
annotate board materials like you could do with a hard
a small nonprofit, ask for references of a similar makeup.
copy is comfortable and functional; an electronic board
book should be as simple to flip through as paper, but
Likewise, if you’re a Fortune 1000 company.
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Onboarding: A smart vendor knows that adoption of
any new technology is a challenge and the onboarding
with lots of additional advantages, of course.
experience is critical to the long-term success of the app.
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Every onboarding experience should be customized not
How can you be sure your solution will be suitable
for my business?
What is your onboarding process? Do clients have
a dedicated success team? How much training/
onboarding support is included with the subscription?
only for each customer, but each individual end user. This
means offering a variety of training types and styles,
and most importantly, unlimited, one-on-one and/or
in-person training.
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Adoption and Attrition Rates: Find out how many
customers have boards that are totally paperless; many
companies may buy a board portal but it is important
What percentage of clients end up not adopting?
What percentage only partially adopt (i.e., the board
ends up using paper in addition to the software)?
to know how many have achieved the goal of going
paperless. Also, be sure to ask for total customers that
leave each year divided by the total number of customers.
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What percentage of customers leave each year?
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What kind of support do you provide your users?
Companies have lots of tricky ways to make attrition rates
look better than they are.
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Continued Support: Ongoing support is also critical to
the sustained adoption of the tool. Support – whether via
a quick phone call or in-depth training (or re-training) on
a new feature – should be provided for the duration of
your contract and never for an additional fee.
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Reputation and Service
While there are dozens of electronic board apps to
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choose from, board apps are not a commodity. It’s
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Years Experience: Work with a vendor that has at least 10
like buying a car – while there are seemingly endless
years of tenure in the corporate governance space so you
options, all cars are not equal. How do you know if the
can be sure that they understand the pain points of both
company you choose will actually understand your
directors and administrators and can properly address
them. Additionally, look for a vendor with extensive
pain points and be able to solve your organization’s
experience with developing software. When you’re
problems? Excellent customer service is necessary at
effectively entrusting your board to the hands of a vendor,
the outset to train the administrator and end users, but
this should remain a vital component on a continued
you can never be too careful.
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benchmark for performance. Look for a vendor that has
basis so that all users have the support they need to
been recognized for delivering the same world-class
feel comfortable using the product.
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How many years has your company been in the
governance and technology space?
Awards: Awards serve as an important independent
assistance you would provide your own board.
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Clients: A vendor needs to have a breadth and depth of
experience within your particular industry. With an industryexperienced vendor, you will receive a more customized
implementation that reflects years of best practices and
What awards/recognition have you won for
customer service or app usability?
specialized support on how to utilize the app in ways that
can maximize effectiveness.
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Who are some marquee clients in our industry?
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What is the average wait time for support calls?
Do you outsource your help desk?
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Wait Time: It is imperative to find a vendor that
understands the importance of your and your directors’
time. Due to the nature of board meetings, questions
often arise at off-hours and are often very urgent. Don’t
get stuck with a company that does “call-backs” or has
To what professional bodies and organizations
does your company belong?
hold times of more than a few seconds. And that support
should come from a true expert on the app: an in-house
employee, trained to resolve problems efficiently and
effectively. Support delays may introduce security risks as
board members may look for work-arounds to solve an
immediate need.
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Professional Organizations: A vendor should be actively
engaged in the corporate governance community and
readily share best practices with its client base through
professional organizations like the Society of Corporate
Secretaries, the National Investor Relations Institute, the
National Association of Corporate Directors, as well as
other member organizations in your space.
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