“For those companies that have embarked on the route of using soft board papers via IPAD or other similar products, which software are they using for the soft board paper management? And, having used that software, would they recommend it and why? If so, how much does it cost?”
We are using BoardVantage for the Board and Exec and are happy with it. We pay about £9,000 p.a. all together and just the other week our FD has asked to extend it to another teamspace for his Finance team
We have recently started to use Diligent Board Books. This was selected after an extensive tender process, which primarily centred around security, ease of use for director and ease of use for administrator. We trialled a number of products and found Diligent to be the stand out product.
We circulate the pack as a pdf and recommend directors to use iAnnotate to review it (which they each buy on itunes for a modest amount). The ability to index, book mark and annotate the document are all helpful. I believe Good Reader has very similar functionality.
We have been using the ICSA product since November of last year for Main Board and all Boad Committees and have now migrated to the Gen2 version. We are very happy with the product and directors and administrators find the product easy to use. Security is a key requirement and we have carried out our own extensive due diligence to assure ourselves on this point. The reading room capability (in Gen1 version) has become an essential tool for the Board and Gen2 is being enhanced to provide this capability as well. We have now rolled out the product to our ExCom.
We have just implemented Diligent, after having done research of others who were ahead of us in the process and reviewing the alternatives. We have found it, so far, as easy to use as the literature suggests.
We started using IPads for board papers in November 2010. We purchased three apps :Air Sharing – for around £2 – this enables you to download the papers from a server to the IPads; GoodReader and Iannotate – these enable you to read and annotate the documents you view on the IPad – they each cost just a few pounds. We also needed to have a dedicated secure server for the process – cost a few hundred pounds I believe.
So, in addition to the cost of the IPads and server, we paid just a few pounds for apps and did not need any fancy “board paper management software” that costs £20-30,000 per annum………………
We use Diligent and are very happy with the product and service. Our main concerns during the tender process were simplicty for both the end user and the administrator and security of the system – Diligent met all our criteria and the board are very happy. We have now started to roll out to Executive management meetings.
We are planning to look at Diligent Board Books later this year and would be interested in any developing experience.
We have just gone live with the ICSA’s Boardpad on the ipad. So far so good as we have sent out the papers, but havent had the meeting yet. I can update again after that if helpful.
We have not looked into this as yet but as we were intending to upgrade Blueprint we thought that we might use their product. I understand that the product is much improved.
We use Diligent Board Books and have done for a couple of years now. Very happy with it and we have just moved on to the iPad version which the board members have really taken to.