What is a board portal ?
Discover how to choose the right one for your board and governance team.
A board portal is specialized governance software designed to help boards and leadership teams operate efficiently and securely. It enables company secretaries and governance professionals to compile, distribute, and manage board and committee materials digitally. Board directors and board chairs can access critical information like performance reports, strategic documents, and policies—securely and without paper. The portal also facilitates secure communication and supports compliance responsibilities.
By eliminating the need for paper, email, or generic document storage tools, board portals eliminate logistical burdens and security risks. The right solution can save governance teams significant time and resources while still enhancing board performance.
What can you do with a board portal?
Board portals are a key tool for effective, efficient governance. They serve as a secure, searchable hub where information is available anytime. Board directors and governance professionals acquire the tools they need to fulfill responsibilities, such as signing documents electronically.
Board portal use cases
Board portals support a wide range of board activities, helping streamline operations and strengthen security. These include:
- Document management: Store essential materials like meeting agendas, , minutes, management reports, business case approval papers, policy documents, and reference materials in one secure place.
- Meeting coordination: Simplify planning and managing meetings. Governance teams can build agendas, request documents, and share updates with board members. Directors can easily review materials before and after meetings.
- Approvals: Enable paperless approvals, including electronic document signing.
- Compliance and audit: Board portal software keep secure, trackable records to support internal audits and demonstrate regulatory compliance.
- Communication: Use built-in secure messaging to ask questions or clarify points outside of meetings—so meetings stay focused.
- Task tracking: Assign and monitor action items to ensure accountability and transparency across board activity.
Who are the primary users of board portal software?
Board portals are used across all types of organizations—from publicly traded companies to private firms, government agencies, and nonprofits.
The core users are:
- Board directors: Use the portal to access materials, search for information, communicate, and stay aligned on board responsibilities.
- Corporate secretaries and governance professionals: Use board software to manage meetings, organize and share documents, and help ensure compliance.
- Executive and management teams: Share information with the board and use the portal to run their own meetings and collaborate with each other.
- IT and security teams: Help protect sensitive data, manage access, and support a secure, modern work environment for directors.
What are the key features of board portal software?
Strong board portal software helps streamline how materials are prepared and shared while keeping meetings organized and secure. Key features often include:
- Secure document storage and sharing
- Meeting scheduling and calendar tools
- Agenda building
- Real-time tools like e-signatures, annotations, and messaging
- Task tracking and paper requests
- Secure access with granular access permissions
- Mobile access
- Search across documents and discussions
- Audit trails, reporting, and usage insights
- 24/7 support
How secure is board portal software?
Board portals handle highly sensitive information, so top-tier providers prioritize security and platform resilience.
When choosing a board portal, it's important to look at how your data is encrypted, the infrastructure behind the service, and the provider’s approach to testing, audits, and certifications.
- Encryption: There are two key types. At-rest encryption protects stored data, and in-transit encryption secures data as it's transferred between devices and servers. Look for providers using RSA 4096-bit encryption in transit and AES-256 for data at rest.
- Infrastructure and cloud security: The way your data is hosted matters. Some providers rely on trusted platforms like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS), while others use their own secure data centers.
- Penetration testing: Providers that regularly run penetration tests or ethical hacking show their commitment to their client’s security and actively work to identify and fix vulnerabilities.
- External audits and compliance: Make sure the provider has passed independent security audits that review their policies, controls, and procedures—especially in areas like data privacy, uptime, and system integrity. Check for certifications like ISO 27001, which signals the highest standard of data security.
Additional security features to look for include:
- Two-factor authentication
- Granular permissions
- Remote device wipe
- Biometric access
- Audit trails
- Business continuity and disaster recovery plans
Learn more about how board management software protects sensitive and mission-critical information in our Board Portal Cybersecurity Guide.
How much do board portals cost and what is the pricing structure?
Pricing for board portal software depends on several factors, including the number of users, features, and customization needed.
Most providers offer subscription-based pricing. For mid-sized organizations, annual costs typically start around $12,500, while larger enterprises may pay $60,000 or more per year. Some providers offer tiered plans; others charge per user. Additional fees may apply for premium features or advanced support.
To find the right solution, make sure the provider's pricing structure fits your organization's goal, size, and budget.
What questions should you ask a board portal provider?
When evaluating a board portal provider, consider asking the following questions:
- Security: What protections are in place to keep your data secure?
- Compliance: Does the platform meet relevant US data protection laws (e.g., GLBA or CPRA)?
- Ease of use: Is the portal user friendly for board members and administrators?
- Support: What support is available, and do they offer training for new users?
- Pricing: What’s included in the cost—and what isn’t?
- Audit trails: Does the platform track document access and edits for compliance and transparency?
These questions will help you evaluate how well the portal meets your organization's security, usability and operational needs.
What are the benefits of adopting a board portal?
A board portal makes it easier and faster to plan agendas and compile board materials—saving governance teams time and money. It also helps reduce security risks by giving you more control over who can access and share documents.
For directors, a portal simplifies meeting prep and helps them stay on top of their compliance duties. It also helps meetings run more smoothly.
Take Nationwide, for example. The building society reported a 45% drop in the time spent preparing for board meetings after switching to Board Intelligence. Put simply, a well-designed board portal can free up significant amount of time for your governance team.
How does board portal software improve board efficiency?
Board software improves efficiency in key areas like:
- Preparing for board meetings
- Compiling and distributing board materials
- Accessing documents securely
- Running board meetings
Efficient board meeting preparation
Board portals simplify many of the tasks that usually slow down meeting preparation. For example:
- Create agendas from a template or copy one from a past meeting
- Add, remove, or reorder items using drag-and-drop tools—timings update automatically
- Share details for in-person, virtual, or hybrid meetings in one place
Board Intelligence’s Agenda Planner tool takes this a step further, and builds best practice agenda planning guidance into the meeting preparation process. You can also tag agenda items by stakeholder group and get a single view of where your board is spending its time — data that’s vital for board performance reviews and regulatory reporting.
Board Intelligence’s Agenda Planner adds another layer of support. It includes built-in best practice agenda planning guidance. It lets you tag agenda items by stakeholder, and shows how your board spends its time—insights that are useful for board evaluations and regulatory reporting.
Hassle-free board pack collation and distribution
A board portal can automate much of the work that goes into assembling and sharing board packs. That means less time spent chasing updates and more time focused on what matters. Features include:
- Combine multiple formats—PDFs, slide decks, reports—into a single pack
- Create sections, tabs, and page numbers in just a few clicks
- Distribute final packs securely through the platform
- Notify board members when the pack is ready
- Update or republish last-minute changes without losing notes or questions
Board Intelligence’s Briefing Tool, available within the board portal, helps you create clear, focused briefs for board paper authors from the start. It also lets you manage paper requests in one place, so you don’t have to follow up manually for late or missing submissions.
Secure, pain-free document access
Board members can access key documents, conversations, and links from one secure, easy-to-use platform.
- View board materials on any device—online or offline—anytime, anywhere in the world
- Combine papers into a single pack in the correct order, with consistent page numbers and no version mix-ups
- Set and manage access permissions for entire documents or specific sections
- Get alerts when new documents are uploaded
- Use a fast, intuitive search—even when offline
- Share direct links to specific pages in the board pack with other members
Board meeting productivity
Board portals help meetings run more efficiently and give chairs better tools to manage the conversation. For example:
- Join remote meetings straight from the board pack
- View board materials and your meeting app side-by-side with split-screen mode
- Ask questions or clarify details before the meeting using built-in annotation and messaging tools
- Share comments or discussion points with the chair ahead of time, so they can guide the conversation more effectively
- Use meeting time for discussion, not admin—approve minutes, vote, or sign documents ahead of time (with a clear audit trail)
- Quickly search board materials—even offline
Are there any challenges and concerns with using board portal software?
For teams new to board portals, the biggest challenge is often getting directors and governance staff to change habits and adjust to a new workflow. Like any software, there’s a learning curve, and not everyone will adapt at the same pace.
Security is another common concern. Board materials often include sensitive information, so it’s essential to choose a platform that meets your organization’s data protection needs.
Case studies and customer success stories
Board Intelligence is trusted by over 75,000 directors, executives, and governance professionals around the world—from nonprofits and schools to leading firms like Waystone and Keller, a global engineering company.
See why nearly two-thirds of our business comes from referrals. Explore our client success stories here.
Learn more
How to choose the right board portal for your organisation
These four steps can help you choose the board portal that’s the best fit for your organization:
- Determine how many users you'll need, the level of security required, and the budget available. Map out your internal approval process so you're clear on what it will take to get sign-off.
- Identify which features are essential and which would just be nice to have.
- Research platforms with a user-friendly interface that minimizes training but still delivers strong security and responsive customer support.
Check how scalable the platform is and read what current users say about their experience. - Compare pricing plans to find one that meets both your needs and your budget.
What if you’re switching board portals?
If your current board portal isn’t meeting your needs—whether it lacks features, isn’t performing adequately, or the support isn’t reliable—it may be time to consider switching to a new board portal.
Changing systems might sound complicated, but with the right board portal and support, it can be a smooth process.
Read our guide to switching board portals to see how Board Intelligence can help make the transition easier.
How can you enhance the impact of your board portal?
The best board portals do more than save time; they can help enhance your board effectiveness. Features like board evaluation tools, along with support for agenda planning and board reporting, can make a big difference.
That said, a board portal alone won’t transform board performance. It works best when paired with other tools and services—and when governance teams use the time saved to focus on higher-value work and core processes, like helping leadership deliver stronger board and management papers.
When should you start using board portal software?
Start by thinking about security. Too often, board materials aren’t properly protected and fall prey to threats like a phishing attack or email breach. Any security lapse can damage your company’s reputation and financial standing.
External board members who aren’t part of your company’s IT system pose a risk. That’s why it’s important to have a secure board portal as soon as you form a professional board. A board portal gives you one central, secure space to share, store, and manage sensitive information.
Many directors today expect a board portal to be in place when they join, and regulators and investors increasingly see it as standard practice. If you’re bringing on new board members, preparing for an investment round, or planning to go public, now is the time to implement one.
It shows prospective board members and investors that you take governance and data security seriously— it’s the best way to showcase your professionalism.
What makes Board Intelligence different?
Not all board portals are the same. Board Intelligence is rated the #1 board management software in EMEA by directors and governance professionals* for good reason:
- Get concierge-standard support from BI24, our dedicated support team, 24/7. Whether it’s day or night, we’re here to help you get the most out of your board portal software.
- We’ve spent decades in the boardroom, and it shows. Our tools are built from real experience and real-world insights, with practical features that serve directors and governance teams—without adding unnecessary complexity.
- We rely on top-tier data centers and follow industry-leading security practices to keep your information safe. Learn more about our approach to security.
*According to reviews on software platform G2.
Want to see Board Intelligence’s software tools in action or explore how our board science experts could help to supercharge your board?
Book a demonstrationFrequently asked questions
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Can board members access materials offline using a board portal?
Yes, materials are accessible and searchable offline, once they have been downloaded within your portal app.
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What kind of board portal training and support do you provide?
We provide onboarding and training support for all users and offer round-the-clock, concierge-level service and support. Our BI24 team of product specialists are available 24/7/365.
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How long does it typically take to implement board portal software?
The implementation of board portal software can takes from as little as a few days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the platform and the organization’s specific needs.
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Can board portals be accessed on mobile devices?
Yes. The Board Intelligence board portal is available via apps for Windows 10 and above, MacOS, iPad and iPhone.
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Are board portals suitable for smaller organizations?
Yes, board portals can be suitable for smaller organizations, though it depends on your specific needs and budget. Many board portal providers offer scalable solutions, with basic plans designed for smaller teams or organizations.
What is board effectiveness?
Board effectiveness refers to how well a board of directors fulfils its responsibilities. These responsibilities are set out in company law and supplemented by corporate governance codes and guidelines, which vary by country and sector.
Beyond compliance with relevant laws and regulations, board effectiveness also relates to how well a board performs its supervisory and steering roles.
The board’s supervisory role is focused on monitoring the delivery of short-term performance. When performing this role, directors are seeking assurance and managing risk. They are concerned with the organisation’s near-term outlook and whether the business will deliver its operational and financial goals.
The board’s steering role is focused on enabling sustainable, long-term value creation. The board is in steering mode when considering strategy and making significant investment decisions. When fulfilling this role, directors must be strategic, forward-looking, and consider a wide range of external factors, so that they can shape management's thinking and make high-quality decisions in alignment with the organisation’s purpose and values.
The most effective boards excel in both roles to deliver short-term goals and long-term vision.
Why does board effectiveness matter?
Boards impact the key drivers of organisational performance, from CEO succession planning and financial strategy to sustainability and culture. By setting the organisation’s strategy and goals, they define the parameters within which decisions are made throughout the organisation. This shapes how resources are allocated and outcomes are achieved far beyond the boardroom. They also ensure the organisation maintains its license to operate by proactively monitoring and responding to risks and complying with relevant laws and regulations.
Many academic studies have explored the link between effective boards and successful organisations. The most powerful reminder of the importance of board effectiveness, however, comes from a different source: the government-led inquiries and lawsuits that follow in the wake of corporate scandals. Their conclusions, and the evidence that emerges through them, highlight the importance of an engaged and effective board in preventing corporate failure, with boards having been implicated in high-profile collapses from Enron and Blockbuster in the US to Carillion and BHS in the UK.
As the Institute of Directors found in their analysis of the UK Post Office scandal, “the root causes were failures in human decision-making, organisational culture and business ethics. Post Office governance – and specifically the board of directors – proved unequal to the task of addressing these issues.”
What are the three pillars of board effectiveness?
Effective boards are built on three pillars: individuals, infrastructure, and information. These pillars form the backbone of how a board functions and delivers impact.
Individuals
Having the right people around the table, and ensuring those people behave in the right way — as individuals and as a group — is essential. Boards with diverse skills, relevant experience, and a culture of collaboration are more likely to be able to navigate complexity, think creatively, and make high-quality decisions.
Infrastructure
Having appropriate policies, tools, and processes in place creates a strong framework for ethical and compliant decision-making. It also ensures board operations are efficient, so that the board delivers satisfactory value-add in return for the resources required to support it.
Information
Accurate, timely, and well-presented information ensures directors understand the drivers of performance while enabling them to think creatively and make high-quality decisions. They need information that covers the relevant topics in appropriate detail to enhance their knowledge and stimulate productive discussions.
What do top-quartile boards do differently?
The three pillars of board effectiveness are key to building a well-rounded board that fulfils its various responsibilities. The most successful boards, however, demonstrate two additional characteristics that enable them to deliver even greater value: they are impact-focused and have an “innovation mindset”.
Impact-focused
Highly effective boards actively contribute to organisational strategy, testing the viability of current business models and building alignment at all levels. When boards are focused on impact, they inject momentum and agility into the organisation’s decision-making, enabling it to go further, faster.
Innovation mindset
High-performing boards are future-focused, lean into emerging trends, and invite external perspectives to ensure the organisation stays ahead of the innovation curve. They value disruptive thinking and encourage a culture of rapid experimentation.
What are the key factors affecting board effectiveness?
A wide range of factors can impact board effectiveness. That is, in part, because boards are not homogeneous; the average public company board has between 9 and 11 directors, all of whom bring a different set of skills, experiences, and personality traits into the group.
Some of the key board effectiveness factors to consider include:
- Composition: The board’s performance will be heavily influenced by its size and shape — for example, the number of members, balance of executive and non-executive members, and the knowledge, expertise, and backgrounds of individuals. A more diverse group will analyse situations from a wider range of angles and bring more ideas to the table, and this ultimately drives better outcomes. A 2023 McKinsey study, for example, found that companies in the top quartile for board-gender diversity were 27% more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile.
- Culture: A collaborative, open-minded culture that encourages challenge, debate, and the expression of ideas will enable the organisation to tap into the knowledge and expertise of board members. It will also support the board in understanding performance and shaping robust decisions. Research shows that simply giving people “permission to debate” drives better outcomes.
- Mandate: It’s important that the board is clear on its roles and responsibilities, and that the wider organisation understands its role too. This focus and alignment ensures directors can engage with the right issues in the right way, at the right time, and that its performance can be more easily assessed.
- Strategy: The organisation’s strategy shapes what is required from the board. If the business is pursuing an M&A strategy, its board will need a different set of skills and experiences to shape and execute this strategy compared with a turnaround or restructuring situation, for example.
What are the common challenges affecting board effectiveness?
Only 30% of executives rate their boards as “good” or “excellent”. Meanwhile, 62% of CEOs want to replace one or more of their directors. This research by PwC suggests there is significant room for improvement in how boards operate and that some of the factors listed above can be difficult to influence without appropriate tools and resources.
Common challenges include a lack of diversity, inadequate training, crowded meeting agendas, and limited access to timely information. These issues can hinder the board’s ability to address complex issues and make timely and informed decisions.
For example, research by Board Intelligence shows that fewer than half (48%) of directors and governance professions get value from their board papers and the average agenda item gets only 21 minutes of discussion time.
By offering targeted education and professional development opportunities, taking a strategic approach to agenda planning, and providing best practice report-writing guidance to management, boards can overcome these obstacles and improve their performance.
How do you measure board effectiveness?
Measuring board effectiveness generates valuable insights that can help to improve the board’s performance and enhance its contribution to organisational success.
Through regular board evaluations, whether self-assessments or facilitated external board performance reviews, boards can identify their strengths and weaknesses and benchmark their performance against best practice and regulatory standards. This allows the chair and company secretary to identify gaps and take proactive steps to improve the board’s effectiveness. Technology tools can also gather and analyse data on board processes, activity, and impact, to help the board develop a continuous improvement mindset.
According to research conducted by Board Intelligence in December 2024, only 17% of executives believe their boards are set up to harness the opportunity around AI. To navigate new challenges and risks and exploit emerging opportunities, boards need to regularly reflect on their performance. By identifying gaps, boards can take proactive steps to stay ahead of industry demands and deliver forward-looking guidance that helps their organisations to thrive in the long term.
How can you improve board effectiveness?
Improving board effectiveness is crucial for achieving long-term business success. The most effective boards have optimised their processes and practices in the following ways:
- Board composition and culture: A diverse board with directors who have a wide range of relevant skills, expertise, and experiences can significantly impact board effectiveness. You can strengthen your board by conducting regular skills audits, recruiting for diversity, and offering continuous learning.
- Board collaboration and communication: Effective communication and collaboration are essential for a high-performing board. Planning effective meeting agendas, providing directors with high-quality board reports which include insightful KPI dashboards, and distributing materials early, for example, will ensure that board members are well-informed. This drives more productive discussions and more impactful decisions.
- Board focus and priorities: Having a clear sense of priorities, role, and responsibilities helps boards to invest their time and effort where it’s likely to have greatest impact. You can make it easier for the board to focus on what matters by clarifying the board’s mandate, mapping out individual directors’ roles and responsibilities, and engaging in an annual prioritisation and planning process.
- Meeting management: Effective meetings are the hallmark of effective boards. To improve the productivity of meetings, you should clarify meeting objectives, review materials and ask clarification questions in advance, and use technology tools such as a board portal or agenda planning software to streamline processes.
How do you manage a board effectively?
Managing a board isn’t easy; that’s why the most effective boards are led by highly effective chairs and supported by skilled governance professionals.
Effective board management requires a careful balance of soft and hard skills – from a thorough understanding of the applicable laws and regulations to active listening and delicate diplomacy. It also requires:
- Rules of engagement: The chair and company secretary should set clear expectations for both management and board members — for example, around preparation requirements and meeting behaviour.
- Priorities: Boards have a vast remit and limited time. Understanding what matters, and building agendas and meeting materials around these priorities, is crucial for using board meeting time effectively.
- Accountability: A sense of accountability can be achieved by setting and monitoring appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) for the board that align with its role and responsibilities and the organisation’s overall objectives.
- High-impact reporting: A thorough briefing process for management, a structured approach, high-quality writing and effective data visualisation will ensure board papers are easy to engage with, insightful, and actionable.
- Open communication: Information should be shared with the board on a regular basis. The chair should also encourage an open exchange of information and views by building an inquiring culture and recruiting directors with strong critical thinking
- Continuous improvement: A continuous improvement approach is commonplace in high-performing teams and should also be applied to boards. It’s made easier if the board has a clear mandate, relevant KPIs, and the tools with which to monitor its performance on an ongoing basis.
Delivering these requirements and building a diverse board with relevant skills and experience will enable the board to deliver value consistently and confidently.
Trusted by 70,000+ directors and executives across the Fortune 500, FTSE 100, and OMX 30.
Board evaluations rooted in science, not convention
Board effectiveness reviews that go beyond governance requirements and focus on the value and impact of your board.
- Board performance framework shaped by 20 years’ experience across thousands of boards.
- Analytics, data-driven insights and actionable recommendations.
- Custom reviews for different committees and subsidiaries across all governance structures, from mutuals to listed companies.
Team diagnostics that drive deeper insight
Don’t wait for a formal board or executive team evaluation; get real-time feedback for continuous improvement.
- Digital tools, analytics, and deep-dive assesssments led by our team of experts.
- Evaluate board and executive team performance drivers not typically covered by board evaluations — from agenda analytics and meeting materials to decision-making agility and innovation quotient.
See how your board pack stacks up
Find out if your board information is setting your board up to succeed — or getting in its way.
- Benchmark board and committee materials against best practice and your peers, with a framework shaped by our work on thousands of board packs.
- Identify strengths and opportunities for improvement with expert, data-driven analysis.
- Enhance board pack quality and impact with a bespoke transformation plan.
Put analytics at the heart of board agenda planning & reporting
Expert analysis and benchmarking of board and committee agendas to support effectiveness reviews and stakeholder (and UK s172) reporting.
- Analyse where and how effectively your board spends its time.
- Identify actions you can take to deliver more focused, forward-looking, and strategic board meetings.