World Habitat

Background

With the board of trustees meeting four times a year and the Finance and Investment Sub-Committee members meeting three times a year, trustees at World Habitat were becoming increasingly frustrated with the sheer amount of paper wasted after every meeting, not to mention the security issues surrounding disposal of sensitive papers. The wasting of staff resources in both time having to create and distribute the meeting packs but also wasted wages was beginning to become prohibitive. Joanne Kovach, Head of Finances and Resources at World Habitat, said:

“One of the issues we were experiencing was the amount of paper wastage, not only this but our meetings weren’t running as smooth as they could be as board members were struggling to find the relevant papers. It was also taking up our staff’s time to prepare and bind all our meeting papers”

World Habitat were looking for a solution that would free its board members of their paper burden and make finding information easier, whilst improving efficiency and reducing stress on the administration side.

The solution

World Habitat decided to look into adopting a board portal solution and after a recommendation from a new trustee, they decide to implement BoardPacks. Joanne continues

“We had a new trustee that had used BoardPacks before and said how good the software was. We are surprised at how easy it is to use, its great having all the board papers in one place and the Knowledge section is really useful”

World Habitat implemented BoardPacks in June 2017 and the Knowledge module is making things much easier for the board members, who no longer need to sort through reams of paper files to find the information they need.

Implementation

Implementing the BoardPacks system at World Habitat was a quick and pain free experience. Training the necessary people in the use of BoardPacks has also been easy. Joanne said:

“Implementing Boardpacks has saved our organisation a considerable amount of time in preparing for board meetings and has vastly improved the flow of the board meetings. The training we received from our Client Relationship Manager, Alasdair Ward, was personal to our business needs, easy to follow and has enabled the board to focus on the important matters arising, without losing valuable time.”

Conclusion

World Habitat are already seeing the benefits of BoardPacks and they’ve quickly noticed just how much paper they’re saving by using the new system. It has also proven to be a major relief for those on the administration side, reducing the stress of assembling the meeting packs and incorporating last minute papers. It has freed up their time and is a far more efficient way of working. BoardPacks is also highly useful for ensuring that directors have the most up to date information as possible. Joanne commented:

“It has made board meetings more productive and recording decisions makes it easier to track all of our outcomes of a meeting.”