"Email may be great for communication, but it isn't a good board management solution for our Charity", reported one of our users the other day.

Let's just unpick that statement and work through the reasons why.

In today's digital age, where communication tools abound, email remains an enduring presence across workplaces and organisations. Its ubiquity stems from a straightforward fact: the email address serves as a unique digital identifier for each user, facilitating seamless communication. Even as we explore advanced solutions like private chat tools and business messengers, the email address remains a prerequisite for user authentication.

Moreover, emails continue to be associated with professional and formal exchanges, lending them an air of officialdom that casual messaging apps often lack. This perception is especially pronounced in industries and organisations with deep-rooted hierarchies and formal working environments.

The pitfalls of email-centric Board Management

Despite its merits as a communication tool, email falls woefully short when employed as the primary medium for managing your Board and its key information (it is the most important meeting in your Organisation's diary in terms of expense and skill after all?) Teams that rely heavily on email for project coordination often encounter a plethora of problems that can jeopardise the entire organisation's success, particularly when a key individual leaves.

Opaque board process

Transparency is the cornerstone of effective project management. Teams need to know who is working on what, the estimated time required for each task, and the potential roadblocks that may arise as the project progresses. Only then can adjustments be made to the project plan, and individual participants can prioritise and plan their processes accordingly.

Emails, however, fail to provide this crucial overview. The sheer volume of disparate message threads decentralises critical information, making it challenging to track ongoing processes and important decisions. Even if the workflow and project plan are recorded on a board or Gantt chart, maintaining visibility into all pertinent data and changes becomes an uphill battle.

Challenges in File Collaboration

A significant part of board management is file management. While attaching files to emails may seem like a convenient solution, it often leads to a tangled mess. Collaborating on a file via email makes it nearly impossible to discern the most recent version, as different iterations get scattered across various inboxes. Additionally, discussions about the file may occur in separate email threads, further obfuscating the context and decision-making process.

Barriers to Team Dynamics

The success of a board and its collaboration hinges on the cohesion and effectiveness of the team. Carefully selecting board members, assigning roles, and delineating responsibilities are critical tasks for boards and their chairs. However, team compositions are rarely static, as employees may leave the company or new members may join midway through the project's lifecycle.

When such changes occur, clear procedures and processes are vital to ensure a smooth transition. New team members must be familiarised with the board's current status, processes, and critical information. Accomplishing this seamlessly becomes a daunting task when communication is scattered across multiple email inboxes, increasing the risk of forgetting to forward crucial information.

Onboarding is a challenge for new Trustees

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of a project's status and tracking its processes can be an arduous task for new employees when information is siloed in individual email inboxes. The only recourse is often manual forwarding, which carries a high risk of overlooking important emails or message threads.

Collective mailboxes provide a partial solution, but they too can become disorganised as various message threads emerge for each topic, leading to a decentralised information management system.

Stagnation Due to Employee Absences

Short-term employee absences, such as those due to illness, can bring processes to a grinding halt when project management relies heavily on email. In such situations, it becomes challenging for a substitute to promptly gain an overview of the project's current status, as forwarding important emails and explaining processes in advance is often not feasible due to the unpredictable nature of the absence. This can lead to delays or, in the worst-case scenario, a complete halt in progress.

The need for dedicated board management software

Managing your Board demands a level of transparency that email simply cannot provide. It necessitates a centralised platform that collects and organises all project-related information, making it accessible to everyone involved. A place that offers at-a-glance insights into the project's status, lists individual tasks for those responsible, and keeps all key data and files in one location.

Transparent Processes with Project Views and Tracking Functions

Project management software is designed to visualise what emails make unmanageable: plans, processes, and progress. Solutions like Stackfield's rooms include a Gantt chart that displays the project's entire chronological course, including important dates, milestones, and dependencies, as well as a Kanban board for mapping the individual workflow of the project team.

In contrast to email-based implementations, it is always clear where the project currently stands and where adjustments or optimisations may be necessary. All participants have access to the same information and can easily understand their colleagues' progress at any given moment.

Additionally, dedicated project rooms often include a project overview that clearly reveals relevant data on the project's progress, such as its status, the time spent on it, and the total number of open tasks that need to be completed. This level of transparency is crucial for successful project management.

Functional File Linking for Seamless Collaboration

Effective project management solutions facilitate file management in a way that eliminates ambiguity regarding timeliness and relationships. Tools like Stackfield functionally link all relevant tools, allowing files to be attached directly to associated tasks, upcoming events, or other elements. Simultaneously, these files are automatically added to the file module of the corresponding room, enabling meaningful organisation into folders while remaining accessible where needed.

File exchanges occur directly within the associated file, making it easy to track changes. Users can upload edited files as new versions while retaining access to previous editing statuses. Team members can always see who has worked on a particular file, fostering transparency and accountability.

Streamlined Onboarding for New Team Members

With a centralised project management solution that consolidates all project-related information, changes within the project team no longer pose a significant challenge. New employees can easily gain an overview of the project's goals and processes, and they can directly access the current status of the overall project and individual tasks.

Since all information is centrally stored and readily available where needed, there is no need for the time-consuming compilation of information that employees typically require to take over tasks in the event of short- or long-term absences.

Prioritisation and Content Correlation for Increased Efficiency

When project management takes place within a specialised application, it becomes easier to identify which messages and tasks are important and urgent, and which are not. Tasks and deadlines are stored with dates and priorities, and discussions related to them occur directly within the associated element.

Subtasks can be stored and scheduled individually, automatically appearing in the weekly overview when due. This approach ensures that deadlines are not missed, workflows are not interrupted unnecessarily, and information is readily accessible when needed.

Addressing External Communication Challenges

While email cannot be completely eliminated from project management in all teams, especially when communicating with external partners and stakeholders, there are strategies to mitigate its impact.

Email Integration: Streamlining Inbox Management

If direct communication via email is unavoidable in certain cases, an email integration can help keep inboxes organised and clutter-free. Emails can be seamlessly sent directly to platforms like Stackfield, where they are automatically transformed into tasks, messages, discussions, or comments on specific items, as required.

Destination addresses can be stored in any room, ensuring that emails end up in the appropriate location. Many teams find success by creating a dedicated room as a collective mailbox, from which emails are regularly moved to the corresponding rooms for further processing.

While emails may not have disappeared entirely, their relevance is diminishing considerably in many areas – a necessity driven by the demands of project management. Transparent processes and clear communication channels are prerequisites that email cannot fulfil, but project management software is designed to address.

Cyber Risks and GDPR Concerns

Beyond the operational challenges posed by email-centric project management, there are significant cyber risks and data protection concerns to consider. Emails are susceptible to hacking, phishing, and other malicious activities, potentially exposing sensitive information if not properly secured.

Moreover, the risk of accidentally sending confidential data to the wrong recipient is ever-present, further compounding the security and privacy risks associated with email communication.

In the context of organisations operating within the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adds another layer of complexity. The GDPR imposes stringent requirements for the protection of personal data, and failure to comply can result in substantial fines and legal consequences.

Relying on email for project management and information sharing can increase the risk of non-compliance with GDPR regulations, as emails may contain personal data that is not adequately safeguarded or properly handled in accordance with the regulations.

The case for cloud storage solutions

One potential solution to some of the challenges posed by email-centric project management is the adoption of cloud storage products such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or SharePoint. These platforms offer a centralised location for file storage and collaboration, mitigating the versioning issues and scattered file locations that often plague email-based file sharing.

However, while cloud storage solutions address certain pain points, they do not provide a comprehensive solution to the broader issues outlined above. They lack the robust project management capabilities, task tracking, and communication features that are essential for effective team collaboration and project oversight.

Furthermore, in certain contexts, such as charity boards or organisations with rotating memberships, cloud storage solutions may present their own set of challenges. Access management can become cumbersome, as individuals may need to use personal email accounts or lack access to software licenses required to access the platform. Additionally, concerns about insecure links being exposed to the outside world can arise, heightening security and privacy risks.

The emergence of dedicated Board Portals for smaller Charities

For organisations, particularly charities, where board members and volunteers play a critical role in governance and decision-making, a dedicated board portal can provide a comprehensive solution tailored to their unique needs.

Until recently, board portals were often prohibitively expensive and cumbersome, designed primarily for large corporations and full-time governance teams. This made them inaccessible and impractical for small to medium-sized charities, where volunteers or part-time executive staff manage governance requirements.

However, the launch of Governance360 has disrupted this landscape. Developed by charity trustees for other charity trustees, Governance360 is an affordable and user-friendly board portal that addresses the key challenges email poses in managing board administration.

Simple collaboration creating a single source of truth

Governance360 facilitates seamless collaboration among board members, providing a centralised repository for board papers, policies, and other critical documents. This eliminates the need for email-based file sharing, ensuring that all relevant information is easily accessible and up-to-date.

By serving as a single source of truth, Governance360 mitigates the risks associated with scattered information and outdated document versions, fostering transparency and efficient decision-making within the board.

Streamlined Risk Management

Effective risk management is a crucial aspect of board governance, and Governance360 offers a user-friendly risk register tool that brings this topic to life for all trustees. By providing a centralised platform for identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks, Governance360 empowers board members to proactively address potential threats and ensure organisational resilience.

Affordable and easy to use

Unlike traditional board portals, which were often cost-prohibitive and complex for small to medium-sized charities, Governance360 is designed with affordability and usability in mind. Its intuitive interface and streamlined features ensure a low learning curve, enabling board members and volunteers to quickly adopt and leverage the platform's capabilities.

By addressing the specific challenges faced by charity boards, Governance360 offers a compelling alternative to email-based board management, fostering efficiency, security, and effective governance practices.

Conclusion: email may have had its day for board management and process

While email remains an indispensable communication tool in the modern workplace, its limitations become glaringly apparent when used as a primary medium for management nd information sharing within small Charity boards. The opaque nature of email threads, challenges in file collaboration, barriers to team dynamics, onboarding complexities, and the potential for stagnation during employee absences all underscore the need for dedicated project management solutions.

By embracing purpose-built software platforms like Governance360, organisations can unlock a new level of transparency, efficiency, and collaboration. These tools not only address the operational challenges but also mitigate cyber risks, data protection concerns, and potential non-compliance with regulations like the GDPR.

As organisations strive to optimise their processes and foster effective teamwork, it is crucial to recognise the limitations of email and explore solutions tailored to their specific needs. By doing so, they can harness the power of technology to streamline project management, enhance governance practices, and drive organisational success in an increasingly complex and dynamic landscape.