For organizations of all sizes, strong governance practices are fundamental for building and sustaining long-term success. Robust governance processes and practices helps companies foster transparency, accountability and act responsibly, ultimately gaining the trust of customers and investors.
More organizations are using cloud based corporate governance software to enhance their governance processes including board governance. Software like Aprio can be used by both executive leadership teams and the board of directors to help manage corporate governance risk.
From supporting compliance to decision-making, see how governance management software offers several benefits for organizations seeking to lead with good governance. You can also skip ahead to these specific sections:
- Benefit #1: Streamline compliance and risk management
- Benefit #2: Drive accountability and transparency
- Benefit #3: Boost meeting productivity
- Benefit #4: Optimize decision-making
- Benefit #5: Simplify reporting
- Manage your governance risk with Aprio
- See Aprio’s corporate governance software in action
Benefit #1: Streamline compliance and risk management with corporate governance software
Governance software can help simplify and automates governance processes to help ensure compliance with regulations as well as internal policies. For example, Aprio’s board portal software can help streamline policy approvals, document reviews, and compliance assessments.
The software can also deliver timely notifications, reminders and updates related to legal or compliance activities. For example, legal departments may use corporate governance software to share timely updates with the executive team.
Governance management software also provides an easy-to-access centralized repository for storing and managing company information including compliance-related documents such as regulations, policies, and procedures, as well as financial or entity management documents. The software can be used to control document access and provide version control.
Benefit #2: Drive accountability and transparency with governance software
Organizations use corporate governance software to help keep the board and executive leadership accountable while providing transparency in their operations.
Take activity logs, for example. The software automatically records every action taken within the system including tracking by IP address including logins, downloads, approvals or other activities. This transparent record of activities makes it easier to track updates, detect anomalies, and hold individuals accountable for their actions.
Governance management software also supports accountability by supporting task management. Administrators can assign specific tasks or action items to a committee or individual, along with a due date and priority levels. It not only holds individuals or groups accountable but also reduces the time and effort for administrators to ensure task completion with notifications and reminders.
Benefit #3: Boost meeting productivity with integrated corporate governance software
Governance software supports effective time management during meetings. When creating a meeting agenda, administrators can allocate time slots for each topic and assign a presenter. This ensures that important topics are adequately addressed in a timely manner, without unnecessarily extending the duration of the meeting.
Communication features such as instant messaging or chat functionality also help enable real-time communication among meeting participants. The ability to resolve a question or clarification quickly without having to interrupt the flow of the meeting can go a long way to accomplishing more during a meeting.
Many governance software solutions like Aprio also integrate with participants’ calendars. This allows for easy scheduling of meetings and automatic reminders, reducing scheduling conflicts and improving meeting attendance. For virtual meetings, participants can join in one click directly from Aprio – no matter if you use Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting or another video conferencing tool.
Benefit #4: Optimize decision-making with governance tools
Corporate governance software can also include collaboration, communication and decision-making features to facilitate informative discussions and decisions among the leadership team or the board.
Customers use Aprio’s board management software to achieve faster and more strategic decision-making. With secure document sharing, annotations, online voting and electronic signatures, software like Aprio helps improve ongoing communication between board members and executives, as well as exchange ideas, ask questions, and provide input during the decision-making process.
Benefit #5: Simplify reporting with robust corporate governance software
Governance management software can help organizations streamline their reporting efforts. For example, it automatically tracks and documents the decisions made by leadership and the board by maintaining an audit trail of decision-making processes, including discussions, voting outcomes, and action items assigned.
Aprio provides an automated audit trail of key compliance actions and dates to make regulatory reporting easy. Get access to several standard reports to track board activity including attendance, login behaviour, groups, and audit reporting.
Manage your governance risk with Aprio’s corporate governance software solutions
Our top corporate governance features include:
- Online voting and electronic signatures to streamline approval processes and decisions.
- Standard reports including an automated audit trail to simplify reporting and compliance.
- Task Manager to keep executives and the board organized and accountable by tracking and assigning action items to individuals or groups.
- Customized surveys and assessments to gather valuable feedback from executives and board members including board or CEO evaluations.
- An easy-to-use Agenda Builder to streamline the creation of meeting agendas, and assign time limits and presenters to keep meetings on track.
- Advanced layers of security including granular user permissions to allow or prohibit specific users from accessing or downloading documents.
“Aprio has made our governance practices so much easier and more efficient. The efficiency of providing board information to our directors has improved immensely using Aprio.” – Elaine Hasemore, Board administrator, BlueShore Financial
See Aprio’s corporate governance software in action – book a demo
Aprio helps organizations large and small efficiently run board and executive meetings, keep leaders up to date with governance processes and keep data secure. Governance features we hear that set us apart include reports to track board and executive activity, online voting tools, and the ability to assign granular user permissions for advanced document control.
Whether you’re looking to make a switch in board governance software or are considering adopting it for the first time in your organization, assess the fit with Aprio. Get in touch with our sales team. We’d love to learn more about your business and how we can help support your corporate governance goals.
