5 Reasons Why Paper Board Meetings Limit You

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Our history, stories of the prosperity and pain of human civilization, began when our ingenuity led us to pound the papyrus plant into a thin material we now know as paper. Instantly ideas, tales, fables, and music could traverse time. It was an invention that when coupled with the written word allowed us to compound our knowledge over generations. Each generation inscribing its history and knowledge so that the next would discover a world better understood. So this went on, century after century, to reach a moment when we unlocked the secrets of the electron, a discovery that carried profound implications.

We can draw a direct line from our ancestors pounding that papyrus plant through to the electronic device you are reading these very words on today. We are living through an important historical moment, the transition from the papered world of our ancestors to the rich possibilities of a digital future. We cannot halt the momentum of this transition, but we can use the same ingenuity that brought us here to adapt and prosper in this moment. Discarding the papered past is merely the continuation of our innate desire to discover better and more efficient strategies to navigate our world, freeing time for leisure and more productive work.

At the forefront of our digital world is the personal tablet. A device that combines the mobility of paper with the utility of your desktop PC. Passageways is a company inspired by possibilities, we have seized the opportunity to help you organize and thrive in a paperless world with our board management solution, OnBoard. Eliminating paper within the boardroom and for your executive teams will bolster organization, efficiency, security, and the bottom line. OnBoard is the natural transition from a world inundated with paper, the smart and obvious choice for organizations wanting to keep up with the digital world.

Five reasons why eliminating paper in favor of board management software will add value to your board room experience:

1. Paper Cost Real Money

The printing, binding, and shipping each month, for each director quickly adds up. Combined with the real cost of labor for the compilation and review of each director’s materials, you can easily see cost rise above $15,000 a year to maintain your papered office. This costs only continues to rise if you must amend and distribute additional board materials.

OnBoard will save your organization over 25% on your board material expenses by eliminating paper. Leveraging this digital board portal to create, distribute, and review your materials will eliminate the paper costs and save you time and money. If you’re interested in a more detailed cost break-down we happily provide our ROI Calculator here.

2. Paper Provides No Security

From the moment the board materials leave the printer the only security is the physical building and the key personnel tasked with its creation. The distribution of the materials is then placed in the hands of various third parties who are now handling your most sensitive board materials. The ink on the paper is always unencrypted, and there is always a chance of misplacement by a director. If your paper board book was misplaced, how would you recover that information set? How would you protect company?

OnBoard is built on a world class physical infrastructure to provide the best in digital security. We provide a layered approach to security that protects your company’s most sensitive board materials by encrypting the data at every point in the process: on the servers, in transit, and on remote devices. The materials stay within the OnBoard application to ensure the delivery and access of materials are secure. If the device is lost, administrators have the power to remove a director’s access to materials and remotely purge the data if necessary. We also have an offline pin as an additional security option to protect you.

3. Paper Slows Down Business.

The paper process often involves costly and avoidable obstacles. For instance, a situation where you have just finished sending out your board materials, having already left delivery, when a sudden change to the current paper board book is required. An addendum must be created and forwarded to all board members, negatively impacting your business. The whole process is slow and inefficient.

OnBoard was designed to ensure this situation never occurs again. It allows for real-time updates to any board materials shared with the directors. It is simple to add, delete or update any section. With a simple announcement you can let your entire team know. No longer must you track printed board books through the mail nor will you have to verify that they received an updated document. OnBoard’s Annotation Persistence allows new information to be added without loss of the prior annotations created by directors. This lets directors know their time is both protected and valued. OnBoard fosters information reviews, agile information sharing, all while increasing overall efficiency throughout the entire process. We put ourselves in the user situation, making life for administrators that much easier.

4. Paper Is Antiquated

Can a paper board book increase font size when your directors may need it? Can you take all of your prior board books with you no matter where you go? Does paper offer a simple and easy to use search tool to quickly access particular sections or find phrases? Obviously not.

OnBoard is the future, it allows for your directors to have access to all the materials necessary where, when, and how they want. The intuitive annotation tools helps organize and summarize notes within the book itself. With OnBoard you are giving the directors all the tools necessary to take care of your organization, resulting in a more focused and well prepared board meetings.

5. Sustainability: Because Our Environment Matters

We believe that when a company seeks to reduce waste, the most obvious place to begin is redundant paper usage. Start by eliminating the paper waste in your board room and set an example for the rest of your organization. The average company wastes an annual 1.5 pounds of paper per employee. People often print because they feel they can review information “offline” or during downtime. OnBoard’s offline mode allows directors to view the board books even without an internet connection, there is no longer an excuse to hesitate utilizing such a powerful technology. Now you can get access to all prior board materials and other resources with OnBoard.

Without paper we would have never unlocked the mysteries of the electron. Having done so, we now must adapt to our digital future. OnBoard is that future. A powerful solution for a paperless world.

Want to know how we compare to alternative solutions? Click to see how OnBoard compares to email or even freeware options.