As one of the top Pan-African banks, the Bank of Africa Group is committed to delivering excellent banking and financial services with a total of 20 subsidiaries across the continent. Besides bringing its unparalleled expertise in the financial industry, the Group desires to maintain best-in-class governance and compliance as they continue to build strong financial partnerships.
Arnaud Bihannic, Secretary General at the Bank of Africa Group, reveals why they chose Convene for their digital transition, and what makes it paramount for maximising efficiency in their board activities and document management.
The Switch to a Digital Board Management Solution
The Bank of Africa Group did not want to settle for a solution that lacks imperative features and functions. The Group covets a better digital experience for its board and Directors.
Arnaud shared that they used to print 100,000 board-related pages each year, which is not only costly but also requires extra effort and time to prepare. Physical documents present other challenges such as making last-minute changes or sending them to directors in different locations and countries.
Eager to improve this time-intensive process and conduct more productive virtual meetings, the Group decided to switch to a board management solution, Convene. “Our team tested several tools and our choice went to Convene because of the very reasonable cost and its ease of use,” Arnaud explained.
He also shared the Group’s three objectives in shifting to a board management solution:
- Simplify the document management process
- Reduce board meeting costs
- Reinforce document security
Simplified Document Management, Reduced Costs
Through Convene, the Bank of Africa Group was able to meet its first two objectives: to simplify its document management process and reduce board-related costs. “We are looking for this agility in the preparation of documents”, Arnaud shared.
Arnaud praised the ability to privately or publicly annotate the documents, even during live board presentations — making it easier for board members to do follow-ups on documents subject to modifications or approval.
He also shared that the ability to upload, share, and annotate documents is among their most-used features in Convene. During meeting preparation, board secretaries can create and distribute a digital agenda in just a few clicks. No need to print out hundreds of pages of board documents. Meeting these objectives allowed the Bank of Africa Group to also obtain its main goal: “We want to be a modern and digital bank, and also modernise our board of directors.”
Better Security and Effortless Deployment
For its third objective, the Bank of Africa Group was able to strengthen its security in managing sensitive board documents. Arnaud revealed that Convene enabled them, not only to digitize all documents but also to control access, “to know who has access to which document and when, this is a key aspect (for us) in terms of security.”
The Group was worried about the complex security settings of some solutions, but found Convene to be very simple — without falling short on security features and standards, “Defining the users in the system is simple. We can quickly change the access and delete them without the need to have an IT team.”
Arnaud also praised the quick, hassle-free deployment of Convene into their processes. He mentioned that the software was deployed and implemented in just a few weeks to all of their 20 subsidiaries, “which did not have the same languages, the same processes, and where people had to be trained”.
The Group’s board members and board secretaries of its branches were able to benefit from the minimal training effort, making it possible to implement Convene on a large scale effortlessly.
Bank of Africa Recommends Convene for Streamlined Board Management
With their amazing successes in using Convene, Arnaud recommends the board management software — also complementing the excellent support service they have received, “if there is any problem and there has not been much during the last five years, the support has always been there to train new administrators and accompany them in the navigation.”
Arnaud further expressed the Group’s satisfaction and confidence in the system, and how it distinguishes them from some competitors — who use fairly complex and more costly tools. For more than five years of use, the Bank of Africa Group was able to obtain proactive board collaboration, secure document management, and responsive system support from Convene.