Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Own Board Portal

There’s no arguing with the idea that boards of directors need portals for a multitude of reasons.

Namely, it’s a way to keep board members informed, accountable, and prepared for meetings. Portals ensure all the necessary notifications and vital research is compiled in one place.

Furthermore, portals streamline various activities such as voting, recording meeting minutes, and writing an agenda, etc.

Nowadays, there’s an abundance of board portals technology on the market boasting state-of-the-art features that’ll vastly improve governance. However, some boards may struggle to find software that’s catered to the various nuances involved in their procedures and operations.

As a result, many boards think up an ill-advised idea: building their own proprietary portal.

Let’s examine why such a venture is an unwise plan for a board:

It’s Far too Expensive

Think about all the components that go into building custom enterprise software.

There are matters such as 3rd party integrations, implementation, and training to use the software. Oh, and there’s the need to hire a full-time IT expert or a freelance team to build the portal. Of course, it’s possible to charge a current employee with the task, but this is a monumental project that requires a lot of paid hours being spent on proprietary software.

With all of those factors in mind, it should come as no surprise that it costs anywhere from $75,000 to $750,000to build custom enterprise software. Obviously, the size of the company and its range of needs plays a part, but even at the low-end, it’s a hefty price to pay.

Building a Custom Board Portal is Too Time Consuming

To mitigate some of the costs, board members could potentially build the software themselves.

It doesn’t seem like a bad idea a first glance. Unfortunately, when delving more in-depth, it’s an utterly poor choice.

Unless board members are professional developers, they’ve never built anything like this in their life. Sure, directors are driven individuals who display a high level of resourcefulness. Still, even if they’re successful, learning the ins-and-outs of building software, combined with ensuring it’s a viable end-product will take a long time.

Sure, as mentioned in the first section, the company can employ a developer or bring on a freelancer to build a custom board portal. However, it’ll still probably take at least 4 – 9 months to build. The business world has never moved faster, and – frankly – most boards don’t have that kind of time to get their affairs in order with a board portal.

Finding the Right Provider

The need for custom board portals is quite reasonable. All boards function in their own unique manner and would, therefore, require specifically catered solutions.

And while the market might now be filled with enough portal technology to make the process of choosing a bit muddled, the right choice does exist.

There are portal services that can be implemented immediately at a much more affordable rate than building custom enterprise software. Best of all, the service teams for these portal companies will help develop customized tools specific to a given board’s needs.

So, it’s possible to achieve that high-level customization at a fraction of the price of proprietary portals.