Fiduciaria Mega: The strategic value of investing in meeting management
Challenge
Printed meeting materials were sent by post. Not only was this inefficient, it also meant that directors had to physically protect their confidentiality.
How we help
With Sherpany, directors can access documents securely and digitally. This removes the need to post documents, saving 30-50% on time spent organising meetings.
The preparation of a board of directors’ meeting can be a demanding and sometimes even intense task, for both the person who is in charge of organising the meeting and for its participants.
Concerning the organisation of the meeting itself, it is fundamental to ensure that all the needed documents are prepared and ready to be shared with the board members with days or even weeks in advance. In the participants’ perspective, it is crucial to have all the information timely updated and accurate, as only this allows them to give their best contribution to the meeting.
Three years ago, at Fiduciaria Mega, this process was handled in a very traditional manner, relying mostly on paper. This meant that meeting documents were photocopied and sent to each board member by post and every meeting participant had to keep their own physical file in a closed cupboard, to protect the confidentiality of the information. As a result, ‘the document searching and comparison was quite inefficient’ explained Managing Partner, Riccardo Biaggi, and a significant time was wasted while performing these tasks.
The essential role of people in the digitisation of meeting
When an experienced board member recommended Sherpany, the interest for a meeting management solution was consolidated, as well as the willingness to ‘keep up with times’ by digitising meetings.
The principal requirements - security, a high degree of data protection, and the possibility of accessing board papers in a short period of time were all covered by Sherpany’s software.
A quick access to any board paper is particularly important for all the professionals who have to dig through a great number of documents, and to analyse and interpret their data. Generally leaders, like board members or c-level executives, face the challenge of ‘information overload’ and seek to find the relevant information that will allow them to make a positive contribution to the board meeting, in spite of the large amounts of data. Quoting the American author John Naisbitt: ‘we are drowning in information but starved for knowledge’, perhaps, there is a way out of this paradox.
Moving to a new digital meeting culture requires changing habits and routines, which is not an easy task also for a well-established company, as Fiduciaria Mega - with 50 years of experience in the business. So, what was the key element for making this digital transition smooth and successful? People.
I would say that this transition relies above all on open minds.
Riccardo Biaggi’s assistant, Fiduciaria Mega’s IT specialists and Sherpany's customer success management team all contributed for a ‘quite easy’ implementation of the meeting management software and, after two board meetings, the tool and its basic features were completely under the control of all board members.
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The key results of implementing a meeting management solution
Board members of Fiduciaria Mega, always referred to as ‘partners’ in the words of the company’s Managing Partner, Riccardo Biaggi, started using Sherpany in their board meetings, which occur 4-6 times a year and also as a digital library, to store important board papers. Thus, they successfully eliminated the necessity of keeping a cupboard with documents and can now easily find and consult documents.
Besides the results mentioned above, one of the most notable changes for Fiduciaria Mega was the time saved in the organisation of board meetings, which is estimated to be between 30% to 50%. In the distribution of board materials only, previously printed and sent by post, time savings reached around 60% and the overall process became more flexible, allowing for last minute updates, if needed.
One of the big gains of digitalisation is the possibility for companies to decrease their paper consumption, without sacrificing access to information. In this field, this experience has revealed itself to be very positive as well and paper savings are estimated to be high - between 70% to 80%. The additional advantage is to benefit from a higher degree of data protection, ‘no papers are left around or can get lost’, as Riccardo Biaggi highlighted.
Today the 11 board members, or better said partners of Fiduciaria Mega, are more satisfied with the way board meetings are prepared and conducted. They have access to their documents anytime, with no limitations due to localisation and this has made them more efficient.
The 11 Partners (of Fiduciaria Mega) could not imagine to stop using Sherpany.
In the perspective of the Managing Partner, Riccardo Biaggi, a strategic value lies on the adoption of digital tools to handle formal meetings. ‘Nowadays, a modern Board management, which is state of the art, in my view cannot be achieved without an appropriate digital tool. This should also be the case for family owned companies and not only for stock listed companies or big institutions' he concludes. These results, achieved with Sherpany’s meeting management solution, led Riccardo to consider using it with other teams, namely committees, who can also strongly benefit from a meeting management solution.
Are you facing the same challenges in your company? We can help.
About Fiduciaria Mega
Fiduciaria Mega is a Swiss company, founded in 1969, specialised in national and international consultancy services in the fields of tax, human resources administration, accounting, and auditing. ‘Share and solve’ is the motto of its 70 employees.
We were pleased to discuss with Riccardo Biaggi, The Managing Partner of Fiduciaria Mega, their experience with Sherpany’s meeting management software.
