Tamer Group, a leading healthcare, wellness, nutrition, and medical research company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for over 100 years, is a family-run conglomerate comprising both executive and non-executive directors. With members serving multiple high-impact governance committees, the company was challenged with coordinating frequent global meetings. To address this, the Group adopted Convene, a cost-effective board management solution, resulting in significant improvement in board operations’ efficiency.
The Operational Challenge Behind Every Tamer Board Meeting
Being a national entity with partnerships across the MENA region, and spreading roots across the world, the Tamer Group had frequent board meetings on crucial needle-moving decisions. Delegates had to fly in from all corners of the world, every time they convened for board and committee meetings.
The major issue that hamstringed the board and the administrators was the sheer volume of paper board packs prepared, revised, printed, sealed, and sent confidentially to delegates in different countries. Other concerns include:
- Overseas couriers, no matter how safe, raised security concerns given the importance of the documents being sent.
- Administrators had to constantly contact the couriers to track their packages live.
- They also had to confirm receipt manually, and ensure the directors and members went through the pre-reading materials before the big board meeting.
- Sometimes, due to unexpected circumstances, packages were delivered late, leaving little to no time for directors and members to go through pre-reading materials.
This was too cumbersome, labor-intensive, and turned out to be very expensive.
Even after the board meeting ended, the tedious management process still continued. The team was required to shred every board pack, retrieve materials from multiple distribution points, and manage the global circulation of meeting minutes and related documents for review and signatures—ensuring everything was returned on time.
It was difficult to coordinate online and offline participants on the same page even if every step seemed like clockwork. There was always some degree of disconnection.
Why Tamer Group Sought a Better Board Management Solution
Being an efficiency-first organization, the Tamer Group wanted to fix the gap with a solution that made the entire process easier–from preparation to conducting the meetings easily, and centrally storing documents in an entirely secure environment.
Given how dynamic and multi-faceted the organization is, there would be unanticipated changes in documents as approvals come in. The board didn’t want to choose between waiting for revisions to be over to send the board packs too late, or send them revised materials once again to board members.
They wanted a convenient and reliable tool that can work with them in maintaining versions easily, without the risk of losing any data.
Why Tamer Chose Convene Over Other Contenders
The board was crystal clear on exactly what parameters they had to evaluate in each tool they found:
- A clean, easy-to-use, secure document storage platform that helps with quick and streamlined distribution
- Ability to build agendas and manage meeting in one belt
- Feature to send documents for reviews, signatures, and approvals
- Built with a solid, robust security protocol impenetrable by cyber attackers
Ateeq-ur-Rehman, Chief Corporate Governance Officer at Tamer Group says, “The solution evaluation process involved a comprehensive approach, leveraging online marketplaces and search engines like Google to identify potential board portal solutions. An internal assessment was conducted to align shortlisted solutions with the organization’s specific requirements. Four solutions were initially selected for proof-of-concept (POC) testing, which were Diligent BoardEffect, Azeus Convene, Nasdaq Boardvantage, and On-Board. Following the POC phase, Azeus Convene and Diligent BoardEffect were identified as the top two contenders, demonstrating the closest alignment with the organization’s needs.”
The board had a clear mandate, which made their evaluation process simple. They took to Google search and came up with possible options for board management solutions. After multi-level screening, they narrowed the list down to two big names in the board management portal market – Convene and BoardEffect.
Despite going head-to-head in competition with many competitors, Convene came out ahead. That’s because Tamer saw how the team checked every need they had, and also came with a combination of desirable features, a hyper-local and knowledgeable support team in Saudi to tend to every need, a strong client portfolio in the KSA region, and an unshakeable collaboration with Tadawul.
How Convene Eased Transition For the Tamer Board
The Tamer Group onboarded Convene as a vendor and kicked off usage on June 2022.
From the time Convene began working with Tamer, the team came up with a hyper-customized onboarding, cohort-based training, and change management plan for the board of directors, administrators, users, corporate secretaries, and senior management.
Convene’s cohort-based training sessions were adapted to address very specific needs and use cases various user groups experience. All queries were answered promptly and thoroughly to instill trust in the tool amidst users. Since board members and administrators may work different time zones, they require anytime assistance. Convene promised and fulfilled the same with a steady support system 24/7.
Based on the Tamer Group’s unique setup and requirements, Convene prepared training materials, knowledge base, and user guides to encourage confident and early adoption.
Board and committee members extensively used the meetings feature and review rooms to go over important documents for signature, Other specific features they have found to be helpful are single sign-on to easily access the tool on the go, Convene Connect to connect meetings from inside the Convene app, and signature placeholders for easy signing.
The entire Tamer Group utilises Convene board portal to build agendas, integrate with Google Calendar, edit live, allude to points using Laser Point tool, and conference seamlessly. Additionally, the team also uses it for post-meeting board operations, such as scheduling next meetings, accessing minutes and documents swiftly, annotating and retaining notes, signing documents in the intended order, and taking quick votes and surveys.
The Tamer Group Board Meetings Are a Breeze Now With Convene – In Their Own Words
The major area Tamer trusted Convene with was security, and Convene delivered on the promise.
Instead of the vulnerability manual board management brings, Tamer now could set:
- Limits on sign-ins to prevent malicious attacks
- Notifications on locking accounts
- Timeouts on sessions a user can try on web portals
- A validity period to reset passwords (to keep control)
- Biometric authentication to keep permitted personnel only for confidential documents
- Automatic sign-out
- A strict policy policy
Ateeq-ur-Rehman stated, “The implementation of Convene application has yielded significant benefits for Tamer Group, notably in streamlining meeting workflows, resulting in time and cost savings. The platform’s robust security features have enhanced confidence in protecting sensitive board materials and communications.”
The combination of features Convene brought to the table cut down the time and effort significantly, and the team was able to set up and bring together members from around the world without spending much time, effort, or energy.
Board packs were made digital, editable, and version controlled. Administrators could track if pre-meeting documents were received, read, and agreed upon. Documents could be retrieved, reviewed, and signed easily and securely since they were stored in Convene’s secure repository. Integrating with board members’ calendars and setting up recurring invites were smoother than ever.
“We have also experienced a simplified meeting preparation process and improved collaboration among participants, presenters, and administrators. The transition from traditional paper-based meetings to the Convene platform has been successful, contributing to a more efficient, secured, and effective governance framework,” he added.
Bring on Convene to automate everything related to board management, and witness a massive reduction in the time, effort, and bandwidth your team spends on preparation. Request a demo of Convene, and see how we can help you address your board management needs.
