How Sherpany ensures effective board communication at EJOT

The evolution of governance processes has further increased the importance of the role of the corporate secretary in ensuring that the board of directors are supplied with an efficient flow of information. In today’s world, where information is volatile and plentiful, directors must always have access to the most up-to-date material.

Anke Zinkann, corporate secretary in the German firm EJOT, organises board meetings and is in charge of making the right documents available to the company’s directors in due time. Delivering all the documents on time was one of the biggest challenges of her function, she told us.

Over the years, board documents became more and more extensive and required more time. ‘The challenge was to manage this work without wasting too much time on printing out or copying documents.’ In order to modernise its governance processes, EJOT needed to find a file sharing solution that was easy, secure, and efficient. ‘We wanted to make sure our board members could access the boardroom at anytime, from anywhere in the world’, Zinkann said.

From paper to disc to Sherpany’s meeting management software

EJOT tried several approaches to improve the board meeting process in the past. 15 years ago, documents were printed and placed into physical folders, then they were sent to directors by mail. Later, documents were stored on a disk and each member would do its own filling. However, neither of these solutions was fulfilling.

Sherpany’s meeting management software was recommended by the chairman of the board. Zinkann told us that directors learned quickly how to use Sherpany since it is very user-friendly. In the past, other in-house solutions failed precisely due to a lack of practicality. Sherpany quickly became EJOT’s go-to tool to prepare board meetings and share board files.

The intuitive and secure tool to manage leadership meetings

When it comes to evaluating Sherpany’s meeting management software, EJOT’s corporate secretary says they finally found the intuitive and secure tool they were searching for. It allows leaders to study reports and presentations at anytime and anywhere in the world. Sherpany even became a useful channel of communication at EJOT for sharing information around broader topics with directors.

The times when board members received their meeting folders late because they were sent via postal mail, including all the negative impacts, are over. ‘With Sherpany, we were able to avoid these problems’, explained Zinkann.

For the corporate secretary, the digitalisation of formal meetings has allowed a ‘more efficient and interactive’ communication  between different stakeholders. ‘I would certainly recommend Sherpany.’

Keeping a close eye on the future of corporate governance, Ms Zinkann advises her peers: ‘Corporate secretaries should keep themselves informed about digitalisation and its benefits. This will help them to do their work in the most efficient way.’