A Portal to Fast-Paced Growth: eBay

Sheryl Nance-Nash finds out how the Directors Desk board portal has transformed board practices at online retail giant eBay.

            As eBay morphed from its beginnings in 1995 as primarily a place to buy and sell almost anything into a global behemoth and owner of online brands like PayPal and StubHub, the company's board realized the firm had to upgrade its record-keeping to match its 21st century growth. This year, eBay garnered revenues of $3.9 billion in the second quarter, up 14% compare to the same period in 2012.

            What the retail titan's board needed was a technological solution that would help it keep pace with the increasing demands of the growing company - and there was little argument among directors that the Directors Desk board portal was the right choice.

            "We had been using an organically grown board portal," recalls Tracey Cappellazzo Mastropoalo, legal program manager for the board of directors affairs and office of ethics and compliance at eBay. "We created a little website and posted all our documents there. It was always breaking down, and it was clunky and hard to update."

            Furthermore, she says, their board materials were getting more sophisticated and included videos, WAV and MP3 files and commercials. Uploading these large documents to the website was challenging. The company's calendering system wasn't easy to use - you couldn't just go online and pull it up - so when the board began having more meetings, updating the calendar became an issue. The directors also started drowning in paper. "Directors had to carry around five-inch binders of  paperwork,' says Mastropoalo. "we wanted to get away from creating hard copies of documents."

            Prior to adopting their board portal, Mastropoalo says she and her team would often work until 3 AM printing board books before meetings. That carried a heavy price tag - not just financially, but in terms of physical wear and tear on staff. Soon they had had enough, so Mastropoalo teamed up with the IT department to begin researching a better way to do things.

            "I told IT what we needed,"says Mastropoalo, and together they went to work. They visited about 30 board portal vendor websites to learn what was available, and invited several companies out for demonstration meetings. Mastropoalo quickly weeded out the unsuitable contenders, "Some had good concepts, but they just weren't right for us," she says. "They may have been better suited for banks or healthcare companies."

           MAXIMUM SECURITY: In the end, Directors Desk made the final cut, in part because Mastropoalo believed it was a stellar option in terms of security. `With our high-profile board, security was a big concern,' she explains. 'I have people's addresses and emails, and we don't want those hacked into.' Since eBay's board includes names like Intuit's Scott Cook, William Ford, Richard Schlosberg and Marc Andersen, maintaining their privacy and the confidential information they handle each day was a critical concern.

           Directors Desk has dual authentication - users must enter a password, and there is a scramble keypad. It was a plus for Mastropoalo that the portal is owned by a reputable company like NASDAQ, and she also notes that it is intuitive and user-friendly.

           Mastropoalo got buy-in from eBay's general counsel, and when she told board members they would be transitioning to a new board portal, there was no resistance. 'Our board had become increasingly tech-savvy,' she says. From the early days of researching vendors until implementation, the process took about six months.

           After the final decision to implement the system was made, Mastropoalo met with Directors Desk's design and product teams. They worked to meet eBay's needs, like customizing the archiving system so that eBay could access data from its old website. Directors Desk staff held 30- minute training sessions over the phone with each of the directors and their assistants. Mastropoalo facilitated training for executive staff, directors' attorneys and finance teams, eBay's consultants and their administrative staff. Directors Desk made staff available by phone during the training period to answer questions if needed_; they were also there to make adjustments once things were up and running.

           Mastropoalo says the process of transitioning to the board portal was pretty painless. Perhaps the biggest frustration has been for directors who need access to information quickly, but then forget their passwords. Mastropoalo sends them a new password, keeping the IT department out of day-to-day involvement with the board portal. If there is a more significant issue, such as trouble uploading a particularly large file, board members can call on Directors Desk staff for solutions.

           A TRUE PARTNERSHIP: There's plenty to like about Directors Desk, Mastropoalo says. One popular benefit of the portal is the digital signature feature. "Our CEO can log on and do consents anywhere, anytime," Mastropoalo explains. "We don't have to run around trying to get a signature. The SEC has accepted this, and the signature has the date and time."

           If directors can't attend a board meeting, they can get on their iPad, smartphone or computer and participate that way. There is flexibility such that if some directors should not have access to information, because there may be conflicts of interest or a breach of confidentiality, their permission to access those documents can be removed. All devices that interface with the portal have to be registered so the system knows who is online at all times."I put my on-boarding materials in, and the system will automatically update the information. We have information at our fingertips."

           Throughout, Directors Desk has been more a partner than a vendor, Mastropoalo says. 'If you call at midnight, the staff are there, bending over backward to help you,' she points out. 'For the entire time, they have been really involved. We get white-glove service.'

           Mastropoalo meets formally with Directors Desk staff a couple of times a year to go over the portal design and other matters. `I create a wish list,' she explains. `I want operational excellence. For example, I don't want the user to have to

do a lot of clicking.'

           Overall, Mastropoalo says the board has shared in the fruits of her labor, and the transition to the board portal has made the lives of eBay's directors easier. Think partner, not vendor. 'You want a company that is going to be your partner,' Mastropoalo adds. 'You want someone who is going to make sure your needs are met. Customer service is everything.'

Directors Desk eBay Case Study

ABOUT EBAY INC.

With more than 100 million active users globally eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, where anyone can buy and sell practically anything. Founded in 1995, eBay connects a diverse and passionate community of individual buyers and sellers, as well as small businesses. Their collective impact on ecommerce is staggering; in 2011, the total value of goods sold on eBay was $68.6 billion — more than $2,100 per second. PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online, via mobile devices and in store. The service allows people to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 117 million active accounts in 190 markets and 25 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global commerce. PayPal is an eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) company. PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and its international headquarters is located in Singapore. More information about the company can be found at www.paypal.com.

Acquired by eBay Inc. in 2011, GSI is a leading provider of ecommerce and interactive marketing services for the world’s premier brands and retailers. GSI offers a broad solutions suite designed to power each aspect of a merchant’s online business and effectively integrate with their other channels. GSI’s advanced technology, fulfillment, customer care and interactive marketing services enable its clients to elevate the consumer experience and cost-effectively sustain it over time.

DIRECTORS DESK SITUATION ANALYSIS

Tracey Cappellazzo Mastropoalo, Board of Directors Coordinator at eBay, manages a global board and hosts multiple meetings per month. After a few years of using an internal board portal for meetings, she found herself growing frustrated over the amount of time it took to execute tasks. Aside from the fact that she was using an outdated system, it required extensive human labor to operate and was costly with thousands being spent on board book assembly expenses. Additionally, constant email exchange of large files would often cause computers to crash which meant downtime while waiting for new computers to arrive and be set up. There was also the need to have IT present at all times since the system was not intuitive and required administrative rights to manage. In an environment where changes are frequent, timing is unpredictable and key stakeholders have little to no bandwidth, labor intensive processes are simply not an option.

Overwhelmed, Mastropoalo knew that there had to be an efficient, centralized, and secure board portal out there.

CHALLENGE

Working in a board of directors’ environment, one must be prepared to manage multiple tasks in a timely manner, while ensuring ultimate security to all involved. Managing sensitive information such as company financials, product information, and personal details of board members, one must guarantee that whatever platform is used is capable of meeting each need and requirement.

The existing portal being used was secure in that it was internally hosted but what was often overlooked was the fact that printed materials are susceptible to being picked up by anyone which poses a high risk for confidential, internal information to be comprised. Private and sensitive documents were emailed via unsecured hosted channels, causing another high risk for information theft.

In addition to security, cost was another high level concern. With last minute changes being made to documents, board books would need to be reprinted and bound, leaving the existing ones to be properly discarded. Not only was time and cost an issue on eBay’s part, but it was also an issue for the directors and their assistants as well, as the assistants frequently and regularly printed out and bound the board materials. For those residing in different time zones, timing was a challenge as well since some of the offices would have to work late into the evenings which contributed to additional costs for labor, printing and supplies to ensure their directors received the most current version of the materials for the meetings.

Knowing that her demands were only growing and that time was of essence, Mastropoalo liaised with her IT department to find a new solution.

THE SOLUTION

As part of an extensive due diligence process, Mastropoalo came across NASDAQ OMX Directors Desk online. Knowing that NASDAQ OMX is the world’s largest exchange company, Mastropoalo says she felt “safe” choosing Directors Desk. From her point of view, competitors did not have the technological capability and high level of security that NASDAQ OMX offered.

Additionally, Directors Desk interface was intuitive and adaptable. It had a similar look and feel to the Windows based applications used on a daily basis and would be easy to introduce to board members. It also had an iPad application that would allow board members to participate in meetings wherever and whenever. The iPad application provided streamlined document flow and real time communications, easily allowing board members to stay updated on time sensitive information as well as being able to make notations to materials while reviewing them on their iPad to be later discussed during the meetings.

“WHITE-GLOVE” CUSTOMER SERVICE

We view each customer relationship as a partnership. From the start, Mastropoalo was able to form a strong relationship with the product owner, Kevin Asuncion, and customer service representatives. Together they worked on understanding the needs and requirements to facilitate Mastropoalo’s workload. The implementation process is a tailored and highly customized approach to deploying the Directors Desk solution to the Company and their Board. It can be best summarized in three phases.

PHASE I: Project Planning and System Setup – During this phase, a kick-off call is conducted between the company’s administrators and our Implementation Manager. On this call we discuss the timing of the implementation and gather information in order to create the account.

PHASE II: Administrative Training, Pre-Launch and Content Creation – Once the account has been branded and setup to the company’s specifications, we conduct Administrator training and provide them with in-depth working knowledge of the system.

PHASE III: Board Presentation and Director Training – Director Training is typically done via group web or phone sessions with both Directors and Key Executives. We also offer a Board Presentation if needed to introduce the Board to their portal.

With our highly skilled support teams, we promise to deliver a high quality of service and support to all of our users. Representatives such as Edna Leach and Matt Kenney, engage with customers’ needs whenever they arise.

Ultimate customer service is a key element and driving force in our business model. Our engagement with customers goes far beyond the implementation stage. We aim to be with our customers each step of the way, making their journey ours as well. From Implementation to Support to Product Development, all of these teams work seamlessly to deliver best-in-class Service to all of our clients world-wide.

BULK UPLOAD AND DELETE

Unlike other portals that are used solely for board meetings and often lack a high level of security, Directors Desk allows users to use the portal as a content repository. Users are able to take all historical data and save it for future review in a safe environment. No longer does one have to worry that sensitive documents might be viewed or lost because everything is saved in a cloud environment via Directors Desk. Various users have asked Mastropoalo to make their confidential materials available and secure on Directors Desk, making it easy to locate historical data for future use versus saving paper documents in a filing cabinet.

With the bulk and upload functionality, users are able to create an effective and secure content repository by the click of a button.

THE OUTCOME

Mastropoalo and her team are now able to manage board meetings knowing all documents are stored in a secure environment and meetings can take place remotely, saving time, money and resources. Now board members can log into meetings anywhere in the world, via the Directors Desk iPad app and participate seamlessly. Mastropoalo can check her iPad at any point in time and determine exactly where the meeting is according to the agenda while also relieving the amount of time and paperwork usually involved in managing a board. Documents can be signed from wherever in the world via the digital signature feature. Lastly, Mastropoalo and her team can now have secure and streamlined board meetings, wherever and whenever.