Itago

Itago, an independent Italian private equity firm, manages a fund focused on investing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Italy. The company sought out a way to organise and streamline its board meetings, agendas and document management processes.

Gloria Pianta, the CFO at Itago, shared her experience and how the company discovered a solution that helps it not only improve its board meetings but also keeps all stakeholders on the same page. As a result, they saw the overall efficiency of the company’s meetings rise immensely.

The challenge

Itago struggled with managing board meeting agendas, distributing documents efficiently and ensuring all board members received accurate and up-to-date information.

Itago’s meeting preparation procedures involved multiple email chains that cluttered stakeholders’ inboxes and made it challenging to find precise pieces of information.

Managing documents and agenda items via Outlook proved to be cumbersome and disorganised, making miscommunication a common occurrence. It became difficult for board members and auditors to find the relevant documents within the system the company had in place.

CFO Gloria Pianta said:

“It was a burdensome task to find the right email and then the right attachment or find the right meeting minutes.”

Furthermore, Itago had specific legal requirements to adhere to under Italian law, which added complexity to the meeting management process.

The solution

iBabs' meeting management software provided Itago with the platform the company needed to create a more intuitive and clear process for handling the entire lifecycle of its board meetings.

Gloria Pianta explains that the software made it easy to create and share agendas, distribute relevant documents in the cloud and keep everyone informed and up-to-date with the most recent version of the board papers.

Some key benefits that iBabs brought to Itago include:

• Easy agenda creation and distribution: iBabs allows Gloria to quickly create and distribute agendas to all meeting participants, ensuring that everyone has access to the latest information. She can also add comments and descriptions to agenda items for further clarity.
• Document management: iBabs makes it simple to upload and organise documents related to specific agenda items. This eliminates the need for lengthy email chains and ensures that everyone has access to the correct documents. The archive search function aids members in finding the information they need with ease.
• Meeting notes and task management: Gloria can add meeting notes directly within iBabs, making it easier to track and manage action items assigned during the meetings. She finds it helpful for creating an outline on which to base her formal meeting minutes, as required by Italian law.
• Improved communication: Since implementing iBabs, board members no longer complain about not receiving important documents or information. The platform keeps everyone on top of communication, ensuring that all participants are well-informed and engaged.
• Better video conferencing: Using iBabs Connect, Itago can run virtual or hybrid meetings without having to use third-party apps. Gloria was particularly happy with the simplicity of being able to implement video conferencing within the company’s meeting platform. In her own words:

“With iBabs Connect it’s just there and it works!”

Conclusion

iBabs has helped Itago streamline its board meeting management process, allowing the board to focus more effectively on the important aspects of steering the business forwards. With iBabs, Itago enjoys improved communication and better document management processes. At a higher level, the platform enables a more organised approach to preparing, running and following up after board meetings that creates a single source of truth about company meetings.