Paperless board meetings: the smarter way to run your board

According to submissions to our board reporting self-assessment tool, 23% of boards were still distributing printed board packs in 2020. By 2025, that figure had fallen to just 7%. Over the same period, use of secure board portals has grown from 40% to 56%.

So, what's driving the shift? Directors and governance teams have realised that printed packs can't keep up with the needs of modern boards — most of whom are dealing with large volumes of information, working on the move, and required to meet rising information security standards. Paperless board meetings offer a more agile, secure, and sustainable way of sharing information. Bringing documents, workflows, and collaboration into a single digital space means boards can use their time more efficiently and deliver more effective oversight.

In a paperless board meeting, digital tools are used to prepare, distribute, and review board materials. Going paperless means more than simply emailing PDFs instead of printing them. The most effective approach brings documents, workflows, and board collaboration into a single, secure digital space. Directors can access everything in one place, with no need to manage multiple versions or chase attachments. A consistent way of working across boards and committees follows naturally from that.

Boards have always needed clear information and actionable insight to make good decisions, but the way boards work today has stretched traditional paper-based board workflows to their limit. Boards need to move faster, fulfil an ever-expanding remit, and satisfy the needs of a wider range of stakeholders. They're also more likely to meet online and rotate board meeting venues, which means directors are often accessing board papers on the move, anywhere in the world.

Research from the Stanford University Corporate Governance Research Initiative shows a broad shift toward digital governance and smarter board meeting preparation and going paperless supports that shift. Paired with Board Intelligence tools like Report Writer and Agenda Planner, the move doesn't just mean swapping paper for screens. It means improving the clarity, relevance, and discipline of board reporting.

Digital access means directors can prepare anywhere on any device. Offline reading, synced annotations, and smart search help them quickly find the materials they need and avoid the "lost pack" risk that comes with printed papers.

Bringing previous meetings' packs and reference materials together in one place also provides vital context and helps directors to analyse trends.

Directors often comment on how convenient the process is. "The Board Intelligence portal has brought many advantages including strong governance and security, paperless management of meetings and centralised and mobile access to board packs. It's a great partnership," said Mick Hackett, Director of Corporate Secretarial Services at Waystone.

Boards are moving to digital board packs and purpose-built portals for a range of reasons. Information security is often the primary driver, followed by the administrative burden of producing and distributing printed packs. Sustainability is an added benefit.

Our Board Value Index found that poor-quality information is one of the biggest barriers to effective board decision-making, cited by 26% of directors. A purpose-built portal won't fix information quality on its own, but it creates the foundation: a single, secure, always-current source of materials that governance teams and directors can rely on.

Compiling a printed board pack takes hours of manual effort, and the burden compounds quickly. According to our board reporting research, the average organisation now hosts 31 board and committee meetings a year, up from 23 in 2019. Multiply that by the effort involved in each pack, and the case for removing manual steps from the process becomes straightforward. When papers are updatedby management, those hours multiply. Digital processes remove this burden and free teams to focus on quality.

Board Intelligence tools take it a step further. Agenda Planner streamlines agenda building, while Report Writer brings structure and consistency to report writing and pack updates. This helps teams stay on top of quality and avoid "pack sprawl," a common side effect of going digital, as well as reducing spend on colour printing, binding, rush fees, and shipping.

Pro tip: Use our Board Reporting Cost Calculator to calculate what your board reporting process is costing you and find out how much you could save by going digital.

Security is often the biggest driver for going paperless. Printed papers can be left in public spaces or passed on without control.

A purpose-built digital environment removes that risk. Board Intelligence provides several safeguards, including:

• ISO 27001-governed controls.
• Encryption in transit and at rest.
• Client-segregated keys.
• MFA/SSO.
• Paper-level access permissions.

Our AI features also never train on client data, giving directors confidence that confidential information stays protected and compliant with internal and regulatory expectations.

Digital board packs reduce printing, shipping, and waste while enhancing security and improving efficiency. Aztec Group's experience with Board Intelligence illustrates how adopting a paperless approach can support broader ESG commitments.

Aztec Group, a global fund and corporate services provider, faced a significant administrative burden. In 2016, its secretariat team spent up to 70 hours per week compiling board packs, as tasks such as numbering pages, creating tables of contents, and making late corrections were all manual.

Partnering with Board Intelligence, Aztec Group adopted our board portal, which is built for multi-entity, multi-board structures, and streamlined its reporting workflows. The results included:

• A paper-saving equivalent to the weight of six African elephants in 2023 alone.
• Elimination of about five million printed pages, equivalent to 24 tons of paper and eight million litres of water.
• A more time-efficient secretariat: the manual workload was reduced, enabling staff to focus more on value-added service rather than board pack production.
• A simpler, more intuitive experience for directors: one device, unified login, annotation capability, and always up-to-date materials.

For Aztec Group, as with many other organisations, moving to a paperless system delivered tangible cost savings as well as sustainability benefits.

Paperless board meeting software delivers a wide range of benefits beyond sustainability gains. Switching to digital workflows facilitates collaboration across governance forums. It also strengthens information security, speeds up board meeting preparation, improves the searchability and accessibility of board materials, and ensures version control — all of which help directors use their time more efficiently and arrive better prepared for board meetings.

Going digital means directors always work from the same, up-to-date pack, wherever they are, and however they join the meeting — whether in person or online. If something changes, they can see what's changed, so they don't have to re-read the entire pack. They also know that any notes made on materials previously shared will be carried over to new versions of the pack.

Board Intelligence supports accurate updates with features that clearly highlight new content.

Digital tools make it easy for directors to share comments, raise questions, and prepare for meetings by enabling them to ask clarification questions in advance of the meeting and access the contextual information they need. This pre-meeting dialogue often leads to richer, more focused discussions in the boardroom and helps boards use their time more effectively.

The following collaboration features create an environment that enables directors to engage and work together more effectively:

• Secure document sharing.
• Real-time access.
• Integrated, secure communication tools.
• Version control and audit trails.
• Agenda planning and document collaboration.
• 24/7 support.

A central digital repository gives directors a reliable history of past papers, minutes, decisions, and policies. This strengthens institutional memory and reduces the risk of information being lost across cycles or leadership changes.

Board Intelligence builds on this foundation with Insight Driver, an AI-driven tool that highlights trends, surfaces gaps, and expands the context available to directors. It helps boards see patterns across reporting cycles and prepare discussions with a deeper understanding of the issues.

Transitioning to digital does not need to be complicated. With the right setup and support, most boards move quickly and comfortably.

The best board management software is simple, structured, and supportive. Board Intelligence provides an intuitive user experience with clean layouts and easy-to-use navigation. It also offers secure hosting and additional features such as Agenda Planner and Insight Driver to elevate the governance team and board experience.

Everything is designed around how boards and governance teams really work and the decisions they need to make.

Every director needs to feel confident using digital tools, regardless of their familiarity with technology. Because directors sit at different points on the technology adoption curve, it's essential to build confidence and make support accessible.

Board Intelligence provides 24/7 human support as standard. Our onboarding process is designed to get all users up and running quickly, with a staged rollout approach that lets organisations manage the transition at a pace that suits their board. For guidance on how to support directors through the shift to digital, see our blogs on how to get directors on board with new technology and how to ensure your investments in board technology deliver.

For organisations looking to go further, Board Intelligence offers a range of advisory and professional services, including board effectiveness reviews, board development, and tailored advisory services. These services are designed to complement our software products, and clients speak to the value of working with a board effectiveness partner rather than a software vendor alone.

Going paperless doesn't have to mean more content, though many organisations find that's exactly what happens. The average board pack is now 220 pages long, up 27% since 2019. A digital environment makes it easier to add material, not harder. That's why the quality of what goes into the pack matters as much as the process for distributing it.

Board Intelligence's QDI Principle gives teams a proven framework for keeping papers concise, relevant, and focused on the decisions the board needs to make. Report Writer embeds that framework directly into the writing process, helping report writers structure their thinking and stay on point from the first draft.

A board portal also supports governance more broadly. Beyond distributing board packs, you can use it to:

• Centralise all governance policies in one secure location.
• Use permission controls to reinforce access policies.
• Plan meeting agendas to prioritise time and focus and track where your board spends its time.
• Track decisions and follow-up actions transparently.

Good technology enhances every step of the meeting lifecycle. When designed well, it makes preparation simpler and decision-making processes faster and more robust.

These are the vital board portal software features that make going paperless easier:

• Annotation persistence on pack updates, so notes stay anchored to the right part of the pack.
• Clear signals on what changed, avoiding the need to re-read entire packs.
• Intuitive navigation with a lean feature set and clear, easy to use layout.
• High-quality, around-the-clock support.
• Offline access.
• Device-agnostic access.
• Strong security.
• Version-true collaboration.

Using paperless board management software does not automatically stop you from creating bloated packs. When you use Board Intelligence tools, which are specifically designed for this purpose, you help teams control quality upstream by keeping board papers relevant, structured, and concise.

Directors travel frequently and have busy schedules. Offline reading with synced annotations, combined with the confidence that they are always accessing the latest version of the pack, streamlines the preparation process. This is one of the most highly valued features by directors using the Board Intelligence board portal.

For more guidance on how directors can make the most of their preparation time, see our blogs on how high-performing directors prepare for board meetings with AI and four steps to better board meeting preparation.

Our report, 'The state of board effectiveness', shows that only 36% of directors feel their board materials support good governance. The issue is not volume but clarity. AI can contribute to longer, denser packs, yet it can also help directors cut through noise and reach the insight that matters. For a comprehensive overview, see our guide to AI for the board pack.

Advanced AI-powered tools for boards can help summarise complex papers, compare versions, highlight risks, and pull-out recurring themes across reporting cycles.

• Our AI-powered Insight Driver, for example, analyses papers against a proven board reporting framework (the Question-Driven Insight Principle). It looks at a paper's content, context, and consistency, checks for the "What" and "How" behind great reporting, and flags what requires attention. For example:
• Has the paper presented a balanced view of the positive and negatives?
• Did the paper consider a range of options and apply a consistent framework to each of them to support its recommendations?
• Did the paper assess the potential impact of a decision on key stakeholders?

Spotting gaps in data or rationale, and surfacing the asks being made of the board, helps board members arrive at meetings fully prepared, able to ask sharper questions, and confident they haven't missed something important.

Most challenges are human, not technical. They relate to confidence, change, and habits. Good tools and strong support remove these barriers.

A staged rollout helps. Start with a pilot group and offer reassurance that printed copies are available first.

Board Intelligence has built its business, processes and products from the ground up with security as the number one priority. We are ISO 27001- and ISO 14001-certified and operate at the vanguard of best practice for information security and data privacy. We are repeatedly selected as the preferred supplier to many of the most security-conscious organisations in the world.

Read more about how our board portal secures your information and how our AI is held to the same high security and privacy bar.