Why Switch to Convene for Your Board Portal?

More and more, housing associations are turning to digital solutions to help with governance processes and to streamline communication. With meetings occurring online and organisations going paperless, software has developed to aid in ensuring business as usual.

For many housing associations, board management softwares have become a crucial part of their operations. Board portals are a useful tool to ensure that the board runs efficiently and that deadlines, goals and meetings are managed appropriately.

With so many board portals on the market, it can be hard to know if you’ve got the best deal going for your organisation. We’re going to run through the benefits of using Convene, what our housing customers say about us, and why you should consider making the switch to our smart, simple and secure software.

Why Housing Associations Use Board Portals

Board portals enable digital board meetings, and their software facilitates a secured environment for sharing confidential documents and information.

They provide a single platform for managing board and committee meetings, risk, decision-making and other governance-related activities.

The main goal of a board portal is to make meetings easier for everyone involved. With an all-in-one tool, you can streamline the entire process from start to finish, easily schedule meetings, create the agenda and send out papers within a single application.

A board portal promotes a culture of transparency and accountability across your business. As every action is monitored and tracked, you can make sure that your board’s meeting process is documented. In the 21st century, there is no reason your administrators should be scrambling to create an audit trail.

Whichever sector you are working in, good governance practices will increase your professionalism. It will also have a practical impact on the ability of your board to make decisions and have dynamic discussions. Through a single, centralised meeting platform, you can maximise the potential of your organisation.

Why use Convene?

Intuitive Technology and Ease of Use

As one of the leading accessible board portals, Convene is designed to be easy-to-use for everyone. We recognise how important it is for your team to stay on the same page – no matter how confident they are with technology. Our software has an intuitive interface with all the features you need for effective and accessible meetings.

With an all-in-one tool, you can streamline the entire process from start to finish, easily schedule meetings, create the agenda and send out papers within a single application.

During the meeting you can take advantage of a wide range of tools. An effective board portal like Convene will enhance communication on any device. The range of useful features like shared annotations, laser pointer and live voting will improve the flow of your meetings.

Convene even integrates with Microsoft Teams and Zoom so you can use them with our portal’s features.

Even after the meeting, you can continue to benefit from Convene. Automatic reports and board meeting minutes can reduce the workload for your team. You can even clone past meeting templates to create a regular schedule in the future.

Convene AI

Here at Convene, we understand the impact that artificial intelligence has had on organisations. That’s why we’ve introduced Convene AI.

Your AI powered Companion can assist with resolving technical issues, navigating the platform and answering questions about your documents and summarising them.

Our AI boosts your efficiency by presenting past decisions and meeting records, creating and delegating tasks, and sending real-time notifications.

With Automated Minutes, Convene AI reduces the time it takes to get transcripts and recordings. You can even edit the AI-generated summaries to improve precision and if you want to revisit a certain topic, you can search for specific words.

Value

Every organisation in the world needs to make decisions about cost and functionality. Sometimes, the decision is easier than others. A board portal can totally transform your business practices which may make it difficult to know what to expect.

In the long-term, a board portal can save money on administrative costs. It’s not just about increasing the amount of work that gets done but also improving the quality of that work.

Convene is the perfect midpoint of functionality and cost. The comprehensive software was conceived to streamline communication and improve your business meetings. From the agenda to the audit, you can make sure your team is all on the same page.

Despite the low price, you can still find numerous helpful features to support your meetings. With meeting tools such as shared annotations, instant voting and Action Items, you can ensure everyone is at the same place.

Security

When you move to a secure solution like Convene, everything is documented. The automated voting information and attendance registers make audit trails simple. Tracking and recording the actions of users, particularly concerning sensitive information, means they cannot misuse this data.

Even in the most secure systems, data breaches are a possibility. It is crucial any security system includes appropriate contingency measures to deal with those who have gained access.

Cyber-criminals have marked the housing sector as an easy target. Due to their relatively lower levels of budget provision towards IT security, housing associations are perceived to have weak defences.

Inadequate, ineffective and insecure software can provide access points for cyberattacks. Your association needs a system that it can trust and ensures that security is top priority. By establishing strong cyber security measures from the start, housing associations can be confident in their defence against cyber threats.

Our Security Certifications

• ISO 27001
• ISO 27018
• ISO 27017
• AICPA SOC
• CMMI DEV 5

We are committed to supporting your organisation to better information security. Monitored 24/7, Convene’s detection mechanism alerts the Support Team to any incidents that are then forwarded to the System Team for immediate resolution. Users can also report any incidents via chat, email or phone and our team will be ready to support you.

Community

As the No.1 board portal platform dedicated to housing associations, we want to help build a  community in the sector.

We facilitate discussion and wisdom sharing for our housing community and beyond. We’ll be hosting events, webinars, articles, newsletters and more, all focused on Governance, Risk and Compliance. Get all the updates now!

Convene offers unlimited training, so even those who are less ‘tech-savvy’ are supported during implementation. Your administrative staff do not need to worry about the time cost of training board members. Additionally, if there are any hiccups they can access a refresher course in no time.

Once you and your team are settled into using the Convene system, the support doesn’t stop there.

Our Customer Success team are just a phone call or email away and can be in regular contact to fix any issues that arise, provide extra training, respond to feedback for systems development, while highlighting new and exciting use cases or features that are in the pipeline for Convene.

Similarly, if you have a technical issue, our Support Team of experts are available 24/7, 365 days a year.

What Our Housing Customers say:

Given rising operational costs, it makes sense housing associations want to cut down the resources spent on meeting preparation. Convene saves administrators valuable time and energy, so they can focus on the important things.

With Convene, housing associations can organise the Agenda and Board Pack with a simple drag-and drop. Once you have created your meeting template once you can re-use it as many times as you need for future meetings.

‘Convene has significantly reduced the time and resources required to create meeting reports and board packs. In Convene, all you have to do is import all the relevant documents and updates and the app collates them for you!’

– Paul Phillis Kirk, Your Housing Group

When it comes to security standards, housing associations need to stay ahead of evolving cybersecurity threats.

‘We needed the assurance of a secure system due to our strict rules and regulations. Convene is great because it ensures that the right data is visible to the right people.’

–Rachel Wickenden, Head of Executive Support, Newlon Housing Trust

Convene comes with a comprehensive suite of features that allow housing associations to make the most of their meeting time. One of these is the live annotations function, so directors can share notes before the meeting.

‘You can make notes on documents and share your notes with others on the team. I can sit at my desk or at home and add a comment, and my colleagues will see it when they next log in. It’s a really efficient way of working.’

– David Wingham, Coastline Housing Association

Housing Associations require a solution that is simple and intuitive. Many of our customers have noted that Convene is easy-to-use – even for the most technophobic members of the team!

‘Normally, I’ve needed to provide the support for the implementation of any new systems, often needing to sit at desks and give granular instructions to users, it’s something I’ve done for years! However, with Convene, this is not necessary as it is such an intuitive system.’

– Scott Hyde, Senior Governance Manager, Clarion Housing Group

So, Why Switch to Convene?

Housing associations play an invaluable role in providing quality homes and creating communities. That’s why we’re proud of how many have chosen Convene to help fulfil their social purpose of housing people.

Here at Convene, we have over 150 clients in the Housing Sector, and we are dedicated to helping them achieve that all too important long-term stability.

That’s why software like our board portal exists. Associations and their boards need smooth meetings, and they need softwares that facilitate this. Without easy access to relevant information, boards cannot effectively administer their duties.

Convene provides directors and administrators with the necessary communication and collaboration tools that simplify board material preparation, reports, and board document sharing, among many other meeting-related tasks.

Whether you’re switching from traditional methods of meeting management or from another platform, it’s quick and easy to migrate your all too important data with Convene.

With a Board portal like Convene at your side, we can help make your day-to-day easier, so you can focus on the long-term plan for housing.

Book a demo if you’d like to explore how Convene can enhance your board.