Directors Desk Alliance Trust Case Study

Alliance Trust is an investment and savings business with a 125 year history of building investor wealth. They are the UK’s largest generalist investment trust by market value listed on the London Stock Exchange. As at 31 December 2012 they had net assets of nearly £2.5bn. They offer investors, clients and customers a unique portfolio of products and services which have all been designed with a particular need in mind. From a renowned investment trust to an innovative range of investment strategies and funds and a multi-award winning investment platform where investors can host their ISA, SIPP or investment account.

DIRECTORS DESK SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

Alliance Trust was evolving into a diverse and geographically dispersed board which brought with it issues relating to the distribution of Board materials in the traditional paper format. In addition to the difficulties of distribution the manual assembly of board packs was taking an increasing amount of time and subsequent mailing or courier delivery was expensive and could not be guaranteed. Alliance Trust knew that there had to be a solution out there where they could manage proper due-diligence as well as relieve corporate executives of the paperwork and time involved in keeping their boards informed.

CHALLENGE

Ian Anderson, Assistant Company Secretary and his colleague Karen Lowe, Executive Assistant to Company Secretary, were challenged with reviewing arrangements to find an effective solution to the challenges of providing management information in an efficient, cost effective and secure manner. Having to manage the board book assembly manually, meant late nights at the office putting together all of the materials, having to make last minute edits should content change, high costs related to buying materials and shipping books to members, and lastly the security risk should documents be lost or emailed and by mistake placed in the wrong person’s hands were all elements to be considered.

 

THE SOLUTION

A review online for a board portal solution was undertaken and Directors Desk was one of a number of potential providers identified as possibly being able to provide a solution. One of the factors influencing the decision to go with Directors Desk was the flexibility that it offered and the level of functionality provided. It was also important that it could be accessed at anytime and anywhere in the world, particularly via its iPad application. “The iPad app we saw as important as our board members are often traveling and we knew this would allow them easy and quick access to information”. The web portal and iPad application were seen as intuitive and easy to use which allowed the transition from paper to online to be made relatively easily. Directors Desk would provide an increase in efficiency when making last minute changes to board book materials, the amount of time it took to assemble the books, and the lead time required to distribute board information.

Although there were other contenders, Directors Desk became the preferred choice because of the product offering and the receptive approach from its customer service team. The customer support team was there to present to the Board of Alliance Trust and manage the implementation, provide initial training, and for assistance required when hosting their first board meeting. “The customer support team provided us with high quality service from the start”, says Anderson.
Since implementing Directors Desk, productivity has improved as board book assembly went from 25-30 hours to 2-3 hours a week, freeing up time to work on other tasks that would often take less precedence. “Since implementing Directors Desk, I now have time to work on other initiatives”, says Lowe. Security was increased because there would no longer be a need to email large and private files or the risk of losing a board book sent by mail. Through Directors Desk, Alliance Trusts’ board members could rest assured that confidential information was safely exchanged in a timely manner.