Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (HP FT) has selected eShare’s eMeetings to help manage their board and committee meetings and reduce the associated secretariat burden. eMeetings will provide a centrally accessible and secure workspace for all board and committee members. HP FT was attracted by the SharePoint platform, and by the high level of functionality and capability the eShare solution offers.
Prior to implementing eShare, HP FT meeting administrators spend a large part of their time sending out meeting packs as a mixture of paper and emailed copies for the Non-Executive Directors (NED’s) and Governors that do not have access to the intranet. In addition NED’s and Governors frequently request past papers, as it would be impractical, and insecure, to expect them to maintain their own archive.
eShare eMeetings is delivered as a hosted solution, accessed through a secure internet connection. With eMeetings NED’s and Governors will have full access to all the information they need for their upcoming meetings, along with a full archive of previous papers.
“We could immediately see the benefit of using eMeetings as it supports every aspect of our meeting management: publishing agendas, sending papers, displaying venue information, circulating meeting minutes and managing post-meeting actions” says Barbara Suggitt, Company Secretary/Head of Corporate Affairs. “The administrators and PA’s are looking forward to the new system too. When they saw the demo, they immediately saw the possibility to free up their time from standing in front of a photocopier, to support their managers with more complex tasks such as research and the writing of papers.”
One thing that stood out for HP FT in evaluating the available software solutions was the depth of functionality that the eShare system offered. Barbara highlights the task management feature; “The automated task reminder function means as soon as the post meeting actions have been logged, the eMeetings system will do the rest for us. Our administrators will no longer have to spend time issuing reminders and chasing for updates on post-meeting actions.”
Another key factor is that eMeetings is delivered on the SharePoint platform. HP FT already has SharePoint in place for their Intranet system. However they have chosen to use eMeetings, rather than attempt further in-house development, as Barbara explains: “When we saw eShare we recognised immediately that the solution they have developed in SharePoint is far more comprehensive and intuitive than we could expect to be able to develop in-house. As SharePoint is already a familiar platform for many of the people who will be using eMeetings, deployment and training will be easier.”
Alister Esam, Managing Director, eShare, concludes “We are delighted that HP FT has selected our eMeetings system. Trusts need software to help manage their meetings, reduce the secretariat burden and make cost savings. HP FT are among a growing number of health trusts realising the benefits of governance software to improve the effectiveness of their board assurance processes and at the same time contribute to their cost saving commitments.”
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