Industry: Public services
Headquarters: South Africa
As a public service entity, Mayibuye Transport Corporation (MTC) was looking for an electronic governance solution for their board and executive committees. Members of the board needed the ability to collaborate easily from across the country.
Frustrated with the amount of paper being wasted and the difficulty of navigating and carrying about voluminous paper packs, Mayibuye were looking for a software solution that would enable them to manage meetings online and implement a paperless environment. It was also important to have a secure online document store that allowed information to be reviewed, edited, and audited easily.
BoardPacks was found to be the best fit in terms of cost effectiveness and sound product offering, providing a total solution which would aid board members from different organisations in collaborating easily and efficiently. With the Meetings and Knowledge modules, combined with iPads, MTC felt that they could achieve their objectives and reduce costs considerably.
Arline Coetzee, Manager, Corporate Performance and Strategic Planning at MTC commented, “iPads were an important consideration when choosing a solution. The BoardPacks app by eShare ticked all of the boxes in terms of security, ease of use, and functionality.”
Mrs Coetzee continued, “Combining the app with the eShare software has created a powerful solution to manage our meetings effectively and save us money.”
MTC have seen considerable savings in time spent on administration since the implementation of BoardPacks. “Purely taking the paper into account, we expect a return on investment in just 6 months. This does not include the vast savings in administrational time and resource. The financial rewards are just part of the benefits of eShare; the increased efficiency of the running of the board is invaluable,” said Mrs Coetzee
Communications and logistics have also dramatically improved, as the board spans a wide geographic area where board papers were couriered at great expense. With BoardPacks, last minute inclusions and corrections can be easily updated without the need to reprint and redistribute packs; this has reduced both time and cost. For example, a recent board meeting was convened with only two days to prepare everything. “I was still uploading documents at 9 o’clock the evening before the meeting and we had numerous changes to handle – it just would not have been possible the ‘old’ way,” said Charon Cronje, executive secretary.
MTC have successfully transitioned to paperless meetings, saving approximately 500,000 pages annually. In doing so, they have reached their objective of increased effectiveness and have achieved substantially reduced administration time and costs. If any issues come up, they know they can rely on eShare’s support team.
“We are very happy with the support we have received and it gives us confidence that despite problems that may arise we will be dealt with rapidly and professionally,”
Charon Cronje
The board has all of its governance information available at their fingertips. By switching to iPads, directors and the executive committee can review, annotate, and make decisions on the move, maximising the use of their time, and running a more effective board.
“Collaboration between board members is fluid and we are no longer relying on lengthy email trails and monthly board meetings in order to share information and make decisions. Board members have taken well to the new software and have found it easy to use with minimal training. The benefits to our organisation have been even greater than we expected; our governance practices have been improved and costs are reduced. Overall we are very happy with the solution,”
Arline Coetzee
Find out how you can improve your meetings with BoardPacks.