Founded in 1927, The Exeter is one of the largest friendly societies in the UK and offers a range of insurance products including income protection, private medical insurance, cash plans, and life insurance. As a mutual association, The Exeter is owned by its members, meaning it can reinvest its profits to benefit its customers.
The Exeter board of directors consists of 11 members spread across the UK, who meet several times a year for in-person and virtual meetings. The board utilizes board portal software for administrators to prepare and conduct meetings, deliver induction materials to new members, and keep sensitive documents secure.
After an in-house assessment, the Company Secretary noted that spending on board software was markedly high. However, it was important to not compromise on quality, which led The Exeter to search for a board portal that came in at a more affordable price.
Given that The Exeter was of the view that the fees charged by the previous board portal provider were rather high, the main area that the Company Secretary looked at when comparing new board solutions was price. However, various other factors played a role in BoardWorks being chosen as the newest board portal for The Exeter.
Cost-saving is of utmost importance to The Exeter. As a mutual organisation, it is important that the society can optimize costs which their members can benefit from. When evaluating different board software providers, The Exeter’s Company Secretary found that BoardWorks was “the best solution for the best price and couldn’t be beaten” by the other options. When comparing the cost of BoardWorks to The Exeter’s previous board solution, BoardWorks was “substantially less.”
During contract discussions, “Everything was delivered as expected and really clear”. BoardWorks’ clarity surrounding pricing ensures customers can trust that they are working with a vendor that puts client needs, not profits, at the center of its services.
One of the main reasons boards opt for virtual board management software is to improve security surrounding data sharing and delivery of papers.
“The security elements were rated quite highly, and we were very pleased with what BoardWorks was offering from that side of things.”
- The Exeter representative.
Computershare’s ongoing commitment to security is reflected in its substantial investments in virtual security each year. BoardWorks has many features to protect sensitive data including two-factor authentication, biometric logins, and automatically logging users out of the portal after sessions time out to protect data from being exposed to third parties.
Onboarding is an essential part of switching to new board portal software, and BoardWorks works hard to accommodate clients to ensure this process is as streamlined as possible. “The onboarding was very quick and very simple. Computershare and our IT team engaged very well and very efficiently.”
The Exeter’s Company Secretary adds the training sessions are “really comprehensive. All our directors and admin users attended the training which went very well, and all our questions were answered.” There were also follow-up sessions offered, in which users could ask specific questions regarding the software.
Since switching to BoardWorks, The Exeter has enjoyed substantial savings regarding board portal spending. Alongside cutting costs, The Exeter has seen other improvements such as data security and time-saving processes. With the previous board portal, the Company Secretary experienced slow software which led to long nights preparing board books. However, she can now easily make last-minute changes to board books using BoardWorks’ drag-and-drop functionality, which saves a lot of time.
“The system is just really quick and very straightforward. I think there’s been a lot of time efficiency with (creating) the board packs.”
- The Exeter representative.
The Exeter has also found that support from the BoardWorks team has continued after the onboarding process.
“We’ve got some really good contacts within BoardWorks. We’ve got the 24-hour service which is really helpful.”
- The Exeter representative.
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