Founded in 2001, the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) is an electronic manufacturing company responsible for the development and operations of high-voltage power transmission lines (above 33kV in Uganda). UETCL is also the country’s sole authorized bulk energy purchaser, electricity importer, and exporter.
UETCL is dedicated to expanding the national transmission grid and becoming a pioneer in the power sector. The company seeks to continuously improve the reliability and quality of power supply in Uganda. With the goal to improve its overall productivity, UETCL opted to look for a digital tool that can automate their board meeting process. Karim Jumba, Principal IT Manager of UETCL, shared,
“The complex nature of manual procedures has presented difficulties for our board, such as printing and distributing physical board papers, scheduling meetings through email or phone calls, and manually tracking changes to meeting agendas and minutes, has caused inefficiencies and delays in our board meetings.”
UETCL recognizes that its board’s time is valuable, leading them to actively explore solutions that can make their meeting processes more efficient. According to Karim, “We aim to provide our board with a highly-capable board solution that can facilitate smooth and seamless board meetings, enhance communication, and improve their decision-making process.”
According to UETCL, they have searched through the market by benchmarking with fellow energy sector players and ended up with three picks: Convene, Boardvantage MeetX, and Govenda. Its evaluation committee ultimately selected Convene due to it having all the features they wanted, namely:
- Ease of use
- Friendly cost
- Aligned with current board process
- Security
- Readily available support
Find out more about how Convene transformed UETCL’s board meeting process.
No More Bulk Printing of Board Papers
UETCL has expressed challenges with the bulk printing of board papers, which is both a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. Prior to Convene, its board prints large volumes of documents and distributes them to each member’s residence or office.
The board and its support team decided to use Convene to automate document preparation and distribution and enhance access of members to the board materials. For their complete transition from paper-based meetings to Convene, Karim shared, “We started with a parallel run with both paper and online we concluded this phase last month, March 2023. Next, we shall drop the paperwork completely and switch to Convene.”
Convene is positively expected to significantly reduce printing and paper costs for UETCL by digitizing its board materials. Distribution costs for printed board papers are also predicted to be utterly eliminated once the transition is completed.
Smooth and Secure Board Meeting Process
UETCL wanted a board software solution that is not only cost-friendly but offers ease of use. Convene is embedded with meeting preparation tools to help boards, including automated agenda creation, document compilation, and meeting pack distribution. Administrators can conveniently create and distribute the meeting agendas and attach relevant board materials.
Convene is one of the few with an extensive range of meeting tools, such as meeting scheduler, live minute and note taker, and access control and permissions for maintaining confidentiality and security. These allow UETCL’s board administrator to effortlessly manage meeting materials and ensure all discussions are kept confidential. In addition, the approval process for board documents is streamlined as directors can easily access, approve, and sign the materials in Convene.
Karim also revealed, “Convene has significantly streamlined our board meeting process. Convene’s collaboration tools allow directors to work as a team. They can edit documents, leave annotations, and monitor updates there and then.”
Moreover, Convene offers a secure and centralized repository for storing and sharing board documents, such as agendas, minutes, and reports. This eliminates the need for email exchanges and ensures all directors have access to the latest information and meeting updates.
Why UETCL Recommends Convene
UETCL expressed its delight at how Convene is changing the way their board conducts meetings — faster and more productive. The company now experiences seamless meeting processes and real-time board communications. But more so, UETCL commends how helpful Convene Support is: “I have contacted Convene Support and it was a wonderful experience with immediate response and the personnel is very professional.”
When asked if they would recommend Convene to fellow energy sector players, Karim said,