Every organization must work within a broad set of rules and frameworks that help it to achieve its objectives. These rules provide direction to the organization and enable it to operate ethically and efficiently. More importantly, it ensures compliance with established laws and regulations.
Corporate governance management encompasses the processes and tools that set the above framework. While there are many governance management tools, Diligent is one of the leading companies in this space.
Read on to learn all about governance management, the features of Diligent, and other governance management tools and Diligent alternatives you can choose from.
What is Governance Management?
In simple words, governance management determines how an organization operates. This framework directs and controls organizations while making them accountable for their actions.
Below are the key components of governance management.
Board Governance
As the name suggests, this aspect focuses on the role of the governing committee or the Board of Directors. It involves rules for setting policies, gaining the approval of other members, passing a resolution, ethical decision-making, accountability, and other aspects that govern their work.
Compliance Management
A key goal of governance management is to check if the organization is following the laws and regulations of the local, state, and national governments. Moreover, it also encourages companies to follow the industry’s best practices.
Risk Management
Governance management enables organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate the possible risks that impact their operations. This risk management is integrated into governance management principles and framework.
Ethics and Responsibilities
A good governance framework will guide organizations to make ethical and responsible decisions that benefit all stakeholders. It should also implement checks to prevent irrational actions and decisions.
Policy and Procedure Management
Besides developing sound policies, the governance framework must also ensure their consistent implementation for improved productivity and efficiency.
All these aspects make governance management a critical function of all organizations. Moreover, it enables the organizations to build trust with all its stakeholders.
To implement this governance management, you need appropriate policies and the right tech platforms that track monitoring, compliance, and support efforts through automation. Diligent is one such platform.
Overview of Diligent
Diligent is a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platform, focusing largely on the Board of Directors and executives. Specifically, they offer features that improve transparency, enable executives to make the right decisions, and meet existing regulations. It also supports risk management and streamlines processes to help the organization achieve its goals.
Source: Diligent
Key Features
Here are Diligent’s key features.
- Streamlines meetings, collaboration, and communications.
- Tracks and maintains corporate records in a single location.
- Supports data-backed decisions.
- Enables cap table accuracy, scenario modeling, and reporting.
- Handles meeting preps for improved efficiency.
- Simplifies board processes.
- Increases director engagement and collaboration.
- Integrates analytics and automation to boost the productivity of board meetings.
Despite these features, Diligent is not for everyone as it can be expensive and often involves a steep learning curve. Also, technical expertise is required to set up this tool and integrate it with your existing systems. Due to these reasons, many organizations are exploring other options.
Diligent Competitors and Alternatives
Many platforms have features that are comparable and similar to Diligent, with some variations. Below are some close Diligent competitors and alternatives to consider.
Azeus Convene
This is a comprehensive board management software that enables the Board of Directors to make informed decisions that align with their organization’s overall goals. With this platform, it’s easier to manage meetings, create reports, and generate minutes, build agendas, and more.
Source: Azeus Convene
Key Features
- It can be accessed through any browser and does not require mandatory downloads.
- Highly accessible for users with disabilities.
- Offers real-time collaboration among directors.
- Enables everyone to access and review meeting documents from anywhere.
- Allows anyone to sign and approve documents electronically.
- Its Page Synchronization feature keeps everyone on the same page.
Comparison with Diligent
When compared to Diligent, Azeus Convene is a more cost-effective option. Also, its interface is sleek and more user-friendly than Diligent. Finally, Azeus Convene is more geared for board meetings, while Diligent is much broader as it encompasses GRC.
OnBoard Meetings
This is a secure web portal for convening and managing board meetings. Its many features like intuitive meeting creation tools, real-time collaboration, and user-friendly design make it a good choice for organizations that need simplicity and security.
Source: OnBoard Meetings
Key Features
- Offers digital voting for quick decisions.
- Provides easy access and secure storage of documents.
- Its AI capabilities can quickly create meeting minutes.
- Integrates with Microsoft 365 for easy collaboration.
- It comes with task management capabilities for easy follow-throughs.
- Provides meeting analytics to improve engagement.
- Manages board roles and terms for better clarity.
Comparison with Diligent
Overall, OnBoard Meetings is an intuitive AI-powered solution that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. On the other hand, Diligent also encompasses risk and compliance into its offerings, making it an integrated option for organizations.
Govenda
Govenda is also a board management software suited for governance teams, directors, administrators, and CEOs. A highlight of this platform is its AI tool called Gabii AI which can simplify committee creation and management. It can also generate transcripts, maintain security and compliance, and even create minutes quickly.
Source: Govenda
Key Features
- Helps maintain a well-informed board.
- Makes it easy to create custom surveys and assessments for annual records.
- Integrates with Microsoft 365 for improved collaboration.
- Prepares attendees for the meetings to make them more productive.
- Offers a ton of tools for meeting preparation and management.
- Supports eSignatures and legally binding votes.
Comparison with Diligent
Though Govenda’s AI capabilities are a big draw, Diligent is more established and has a larger market share. Moreover, Diligent offers complete GRC capabilities, while Govenda focuses more on modern governance and stakeholder engagement.
ContractZen
This is a cloud-based governance tool best suited for legal teams and organizations that prefer a 100% paperless and secure meeting process. This is a comprehensive suite that allows the flexibility to plug-in modules based on your requirements.
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Source: ContractZen
Key Modules
Below are the different modules offered by ContractZen to improve governance management. Based on your requirements, you can add the relevant modules.
- Board Portal – Manages board meetings, from scheduling the date to e-signing the minutes.
- Contract Management – Centralizes and manages the contracts.
- Entity Management – Tracks records to simplify compliance for legal teams.
- SmartIndex – Customizable index models to speed up audit preparation.
- Virtual Data Rooms – A secure and accessible way to store and share documents.
- eSignatures – Integrates eSignatures with OCR, metadata-driven search, and automated reminders to speed up search and operations.
- Ai Assistant – Integrates with Azure OpenAI and can be used for contract analysis, financial regulation, and corporate governance.
Comparison with Diligent
ContractZen is cloud-based and requires no downloads and setups, while Diligent has an elaborate setup process. Also, ContractZen is more affordable, making it ideal for small and medium enterprises. Diligent, on the other hand, caters to large organizations with complex governance needs.
BoardPro
BoardPro simplifies board meetings, document management, and compliance tracking through an easy-to-use interface. It is more suited for small and medium enterprises and nonprofit organizations.
Source: BoardPro
Key Features
- Schedules meetings and creates agendas to make every meeting highly productive.
- Eases many pre-meeting tasks like collecting interest declarations from board members and creating document packs that will help every stakeholder make informed decisions.
- Automates the process of recording and tracking actions during meetings.
- Makes voting easy as directors can cast votes from their devices.
- Generates minutes and sends them to the attendees.
- Offers a decision register to analyze past decisions.
Comparison with Diligent
Besides the difference in the target audience, affordability and the scope are other aspects. Diligent is for large organizations, expensive, has a steep learning curve, and a wider scope, while BoardPro is more affordable and geared for smaller organizations.
Domo
Domo is an advanced platform that provides insights for smarter decisions. It leverages AI-powered intelligence to strengthen accountability and automate tasks. In the process, it also helps manage risks and meet compliance requirements.
Source: Domo
Key Features
- Improves data quality and consistency with tracking and reliable data analysis.
- A cost-effective solution that improves productivity and user experience.
- Enhances security and compliance.
- Highly scalable.
- Builds trust and consistency across your products.
- Supports role-based permissions to ease accessibility and strengthen security.
Comparison with Diligent
At its core, Domo is a Business Intelligence (BI) platform that supports data governance, risk, and compliance while Diligent is a GRC solution focused on board management and corporate compliance. Additionally, Domo is better suited for access control and analytics than comprehensive governance.
Nasdaq Boardvantage
Boardvantage is an advanced platform that helps directors and leadership teams to be better prepared for meetings and improve their contributions and overall productivity. Its AI capabilities ease the process of recording minutes and generating reports.
Source: Nasdaq Boardvantage
Key Features
- Creates efficient meeting workflows and sets the agenda for productive meetings.
- Helps create the necessary pre-meeting documents for attendees.
- Facilitates collaboration in real-time.
- Provides tools to analyze meetings and engagement.
- Integrates well with many tools.
Comparison with Diligent
Boardvantage focuses more on communication and collaboration among board members, while Diligent is a comprehensive GRC platform. Also, Boardvantage is more for startups, SMBs, and mid-market companies while Diligent is well-suited for large organizations.
In all, there are many tools for managing governance, especially board meetings. Each of these tools comes with unique features geared for specific use cases.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, improving governance and meeting compliance requirements require the right tools and processes, and the ones discussed in this article, are comprehensive. Though Diligent has a broader scope as it offers complete GRC, the others are more focused on boosting the efficiency of board meetings and their decisions.
Eventually, the choice depends on what exactly your organization is looking for when it comes to governance management. For example, if you’re looking for extensive AI capabilities, Govenda is a good choice. On the other hand, if the focus is more on meeting compliance and increasing the efficiency of legal teams, ContractZen is ideal. Based on your requirements, pick the appropriate platform.