At BoardEffect we believe passionately in the power of good governance to advance organizations toward achievement of their missions. Our “Governance for Good” blog often focuses on board-related trends and best practices through recent posts likethis one and this one. But we also remain firmly rooted in helping administrators and board liaisons use technology to tackle the tactical challenges they face everyday. This pragmatic approach is supported by the fact that 84% of attendees at the BE Connected Users Conference report participating in the event in order to “learn how to use features of BoardEffect.” Our research indicates that nowhere is this truer than in connection to the building and distribution of meeting books.
It is with this in mind, that board books have been a huge focus in the new BoardEffect upgrade. And, while significant client feedback hails BoardEffect as easy to use, a meaningful number of people have requested enhanced ease of use and expanded supporting documentation. Moreover, we know that the traditional workflow around publishing and enabling meeting books presents a steep learning curve for board liaisons, especially the first few (potentially daunting) times. Based on this, the new BoardEffect seeks to simplify meeting book capabilities with an over-arching upgrade to the platform’s user interface. Importantly, there is also an increased emphasis on the support BoardEffect administrators receive throughout the process of building meeting books.
First, there is a new twist on an old standby– training videos. BoardEffect clients have long leveraged “help videos” that explain how to perform various functions within the product. With the platform upgrade, a new series of videos has been created in order to further support clients in leveraging BoardEffect to the fullest. They are designed to be short, direct, and digestible…and to help users develop the core competencies they need to confidently address a wide range of their most pressing tasks.
Second, we are delighted to introduce a new concept within BoardEffect – contextual help. Contextual help is really just a fancy term for providing tips based on the specific task a user is trying to accomplish. Most specifically, when someone is trying to build a meeting book, step-by-step instructions are now only one click away. Below is a screenshot of what this looks like:
While this is a relatively simple concept, we believe contextual help will remove a great deal of stress for new users or those whose other tasks keep them away from BoardEffect for extended periods of time. At this point, we are doing limited testing of the contextual help concept within the “Administrator” view of BoardEffect and only in connection to meeting book functionality. With our clients help, though, we plan to refine this functionality and deploy it more broadly within the platform. Ultimately we plan to use contextual help to optimize the experience of board members within BoardEffect.
The meeting book is the fulcrum of the board’s governing processes; its ease of production and distribution is paramount in supporting board member engagement and, ultimately, organizational effectiveness. We offer these new support enhancements to put the power of good governance more easily in your hands. Because, as I think we can all agree, we are all better off with a little help from our friends.
— Todd Gibby, CEO at BoardEffect
