Convene sat down with Laurent Schlaefli, CEO, to talk about how Convene has helped Profond as a financial organisation.
Please describe your reasons for implementing an online system
We were looking for a solution that would enable us to hold collaborative meetings with people based both inside and outside the organisation, and for a secure system that would safely store documents while providing the appropriate level of accessibility to all concerned.
What were the key solution offerings you were looking for?
We needed a platform for the Board of Directors and for the executive staff. It was important for us to have a secure repository for archiving documents for people to refer to. Prior to Convene, all documents were shared via email, which presented a security risk, therefore we realised that a digital solution was required.
We looked at 4 different solutions including Convene. Our Chairman worked with Sherpany; a system that is used extensively in the Swiss market, and he was keen for this to be implemented at Profond. We assessed Sherpany, Diligent, and Owncloud. Convene was the solution we chose since it offered us a competitive range of features when compared against the other solutions, and at significantly lower cost.
Meeting preparation was something we wanted to improve, and with Convene this has been possible. We have definitely increased our efficiency in this area. Our Board packs can be up to five hundred pages which is quite significant. There have been noticeable improvements to our meeting process. Our meetings are now clear, comprehensible, and well structured.
Please describe your selection criteria
• User friendliness
• Easy to navigate.
• Comprehensible
• Good document storage
• Access management
• Return on investment/value for money.
How has Convene been received by your users?
All feedback has been positive. The Search function in particular is a popular feature. I use the Convene Search function to locate all the information I need without having to rely on previous methods. Convene is viewed as a logically structured and comprehensible system. We have made considerable gains as far as efficiency is concerned.
Is Convene a good system for the insurance/financial sector?
It’s definitely a good system for financial organisations especially when people are based in different locations. Convene is very user friendly as a system. We have varying degrees of IT literacy among our Board members, so it’s helpful to have a solution that is easy to navigate and use both for our users and also for our administrators.