The
Organization: The
Enterprise Center, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
The Enterprise Center
(TEC), founded in 1989 by the Wharton
Small Business Development Center,
provides a portfolio of
business-acceleration services designed
to better position minority enterprises
to compete in the local, regional and
global economies. Over the past 18
years, TEC has become recognized in both
for-profit and not-for-profit
communities for its innovative approach
to solving disparities in business
ownership.
Like many non-profits,
TEC is under-resourced and
under-staffed. Demands on staff time are
great and, remaining true to its mission
and constituency, TEC prioritizes
program delivery above all else.
Subsequently, administrative and
managerial duties are difficult to
manage.
To address these
issues, TEC explored technology
solutions designed to decrease the staff
time necessary for administrative tasks.
Among the first tasks TEC sought to trim
were document management, planning, and
communications for TEC’s Board of
Directors. These labor intensive
activities at times demanded the full
attention of both TEC leadership and
administrative staff.
The
Process:
Finding a Better Way
TEC researched
multiple technology solutions, and then
asked BoardEffect® for a demonstration
of its online board portal. TEC’s
initial intent was to explore its use as
a secure storage site for board
information. However, they found that
the depth and breadth of the
BoardEffect® application would allow
them to, not only manage their Board
documents, but to also leverage their
limited resources.
BoardEffect’s
functionality proved to be in line with
TEC’s goals and the organization
subscribed. Now fully implemented,
meetings are scheduled, RSVP’s are
tracked, meeting books are distributed,
and online votes are held – all through
BoardEffect®.
The subsequent savings
in staff time have allowed TEC to
completely re-organize its
administrative staffing structure; board
relations and communications no longer
require a significant portion of any one
staff person’s work portfolio. Further,
direct costs including express delivery
of documents, paper and publishing have
been virtually eliminated. Management
estimated a 660% return on their annual
investment.
The
Results:
Greater than initially projected
expected … and welcome
TEC achieved its
primary goal of reducing staff time
involved in board relations; it also has
found ancillary benefits of online
governance. Among them are:
- Continuity –
staff turnover no longer affects
board relations and communications
as the board has a portal,
not a liaison
- Security –
BoardEffect’s password protected
site allows for more sensitive
document sharing than traditional
electronic mail, and specific
documents can be further protected
and only viewable to selected
committee members
- Timeliness –
members of TEC board are updated
whenever additions and changes are
made to the information housed on
BoardEffect®
Summary: In
Their Own Words
“Basic board
engagement has been reduced to a few
points and clicks of the mouse. When we
now spend time with our board, we can
spend that time on substantive topics
and decision making – not document
review.”
Della
Clark
President, The Enterprise Center
“BoardEffect is
[incredibly] simple to use. Its platform
makes sense, it is easily navigable, and
makes record keeping simple.”
R. Troy
Woolley
Director of Development, The Enterprise
Center
“We’ve seen a real
increase in board activity and
commitment in the last year. We’ve been
doing a lot of things to make that
happen and BoardEffect really
facilitated the increased activity.”
S.
Jonathan Horn
Co-Chair, The Enterprise Center Board of
Directors
Principal, Deloitte Consulting
