I use BoardEffect, a Diligent Brand, to manage Board Meetings and agendas and to handle communications. It helps streamline communication and helps consolidate board materials for us, and it's easily editable.
Pros
Organized
Effective
Helpful
Cons
Trainings
Option for surveys to have a "as needed" option
Likelihood to Recommend
When we had a board Immersion Day, we used BoardEffect a Diligent Brand to plan the agenda for the day. I just learned today that BoardEffect can help with surveys, etc., too.
In my organization, I use BoardEffect a Diligent Brand for all governance meetings. Simplify and secure storage and notifications.
Pros
Building meeting materials
Reviewing materials
Storage of materials
Access
Sharing
Cons
Contribute time frames needs to be longer than 2 weeks
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend BoardEffect a Diligent Brand to a colleague because of, in my experience, BoardEffect a Diligent Brand's Ease of use and access.
In our organization, We use BoardEffect a Diligent Brand for our meeting management.
Pros
Agenda
Minutes
Reminders
Workrooms
Cons
I think there is room for improvement in BoardEffect a Diligent Brand with Attendance talking to minutes
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend BoardEffect a Diligent Brand to a colleague because, in my opinion, BoardEffect a Diligent Brand has been our best meeting management software that we have ever had
I'm the board secretary. I use BoardEffect for meeting documentation. The organization uses the overall Diligent system for a range of compliance documentation. The critical business problems are managing collaboration and authorization.
Pros
organizes board documents
allows granular permissions
provides repository for large documents
Cons
BoardEffect allowing board and CEO to be admins yet board still able to maintain documents confidential from CEO
document formatting for all Board Effect docs... that is, ensure all pdfs in board packet have consistent easy-to-read format
AI summary never works in BoardEffect. It's horrible in my opinion. We need it so it needs to be fixed.
Likelihood to Recommend
Main complaint is AI summary not working. The overall Diligent platform is much better than other platforms I've used
We use it to manage our board as well as other smaller decision making groups withing our organization. It helps with issues like privacy and convenience, allows us to track our attendance for meetings as well as share regular updates with our board members and other group members. It also helps with things like polls so we can gauge interest or quickly get answers to problems.
Pros
It is very easy to build out different workrooms and add members.
It is easy to message everyone in a group or event all at once.
It helps build the meeting materials in a secure place where we don't have to share them until we are ready.
Cons
The communication with the support team is not great - takes way too long for responses.
Not being able to have different RSVP templates for different workrooms is a problem.
Updates frequently cause tech errors and chaos.
Likelihood to Recommend
BoardEffect is well-suited for larger organizations and companies. I think it makes sense for people who have multiple boards, groups, or committees. I don't think it makes sense if it is a small board that doesn't meet frequently and doesn't share documents online. I think there are many features unnecessary for smaller boards/groups.
I run a large nonprofit organization and serve on several other nonprofit boards. BoardEffect is used by three of the organizations, and it makes creating and editing Board packets very easy. I have several Board Members who are 70 or older, and they find it easy to use (I have never had to provide a tutorial).
Pros
Organizes Board records.
Allows Board Members to access packet and make personal notes.
Saves a lot of paper.
Cons
It’s a little slow navigating the calendars inside the workrooms.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well-suited for non-profit organizations, as it offers strong record-keeping capabilities. It’s very easy to create and edit Board packets. It helps me distribute a large quantity of information quickly, without having to print and mail Board packets.
We use BoardEffect a Diligent Brand for all of our board meeting documents, board policies, etc. This allows us to store the confidential documents in one place for board members. Only those that have access can view the documents.
Pros
Allows me to use the same template every month.
Limited access to users.
Easily able to organize our board meeting agenda.
Cons
None that I can think of.
Likelihood to Recommend
I have had very good experience using BoardEffect a Diligent Brand to organize our board meeting documents. We have also created other workrooms for other confidential work groups which limits access to only those users.
Our Board members login to BoardEffect a Diligent Brand to gain access to all of their materials for quarterly meetings. I create different folders for them to find the information they need. Instead of me having to email many things to them, I can just post them to BoardEffect a Diligent Brand and they can each go there to view the materials. Also, I don't have to produce a hard copy book anymore. They each bring a laptop or tablet to the meeting and bring up their materials. Archived information is all available there too, eliminating any need to print anything out. Also, I don't have to project anything on a screen anymore because they all have it in front of them! Yay!
Pros
Houses all the information needed for meetings.
Holds all the older information so we can access it if needed.
It's fairly easy to use for all our members.
That it is portable is a great bonus!
Cons
I've had a few issues with customer service, but I think those have been ironed out now.
I do wish I could still re-set my user passwords, since it's all the information that I post, but I understand the why.
There are times I can't figure something out, and look in Help and just have to call Customer Service. I can't think of one specific thing, but I've found it hard to get help sometimes on what I need.
One time, I posted our board book on the event page, then someone changed something and I had to figure out how to get that book off and put the new one on. I finally did figure it out.
Likelihood to Recommend
For my 20-member Board, it seems to work very well, having them access the things they need. I will email them and include the link to BoardEffect a Diligent Brand and give them specific instructions as to exactly where to go to find what they need for that particular meeting. Sometimes one will say they have trouble and I'll need to walk them through, but it always works. And of course a few will forget their password. Knowing that our information is there and safe when it's needed and kept secure is just the greatest. For sharing documents and meeting materials, I can't think of a better program to use. It really works for what we need. I do imagine there could be some scenarios where it would not be helpful such as a place where people don't have the knowledge to use the computer or don't care to use them.
As one of the Ops Managers, I use BoardEffect for managing our local Board of Trustees. I use the platform to schedule and track meetings throughout the year, build our meeting books in BoardEffect, and store meeting minutes and slide decks in the library.
Pros
File Storage/Library - BoardEffect is great at providing a centralized location for all Board-related materials. I appreciate that I can allow/exclude members' access to certain documents depending on what committees they serve on.
BoardEffect provides a seamless experience for storing Trustee information that we can pull for grant reporting. It is a centralized repository of contact and workplace information, demographics, terms, and Board roles.
BoardEffect provides a very user-friendly experience for administrators. For example, it is simple to add or remove a Board member when they join or step off the board.
Cons
I would love to see BoardEffect work toward a more integrated collaboration system. For example, we have a master tracking document for recruiting new Trustees. It is helpful for everyone to have editing access to this document so that it can be routinely updated ahead of committee meetings.
It would be helpful if we could message workroom members through the platform while making the email/message appear as if it came directly from my account.
It would be useful for members of a workroom to be automatically notified when an event is created.
Likelihood to Recommend
BoardEffect is well-suited for my organization because we are a large, national team with nine different boards. The entire org. can utilize BoardEffect simultaneously, thanks to the exclusions and permissions you can set. It is less functional (right now) for committee meetings where there are working documents. If BoardEffect could more closely mimic the functionality of the Google suite, that would be a huge improvement.
