Board communication and meeting management challenges in medium-sized companies and institutions/organizations

netfiles GmbH, one of the leading providers of virtual data rooms in Germany, has presented the results of its latest trend study "Board communication and meeting management challenges in medium-sized companies and institutions/organizations".

The aim of the trend study was to find out what role board communication and meeting management play in medium-sized companies and institutions/organizations in Germany. The focus was on the legal requirements with regard to data security and data protection in these areas, the effects of the Corona pandemic, and the tools used for these areas.

The results of the survey (available only in German), in which almost one hundred specialists and managers from medium-sized companies or institutions/organizations in Germany took part, can be downloaded now at https://www.netfiles.de/downloads/netfiles-GremienkommunikationTrendstudie.pdf.

Thomas Krempl, founder and managing director of netfiles GmbH, explains the results of the survey: "In recent years, we have noticed that our data room solution is increasingly being used for board communication and meeting management. With this in mind, we simply wanted to learn more about this market."

netfiles trend study: The three most important findings

The most important findings that can be derived from the trend study are:

1. Board communication and meeting management in SMEs: digital infrastructure with regard to data security and data protection is in great need of development

Understanding of the challenges of digitization with regard to data security and data privacy in the areas of board communication and meeting management still has a lot of room for improvement in German SMEs. For some of the IT managers surveyed, the two topics had not yet been prioritized at all in terms of IT technology. Yet 80 percent of the companies surveyed have to comply with legal and/or regulatory requirements when conducting board meetings.

2. E-mail and office solutions are dominating tools

Most companies rely on Microsoft Office solutions for the online provision and archiving of board meeting documents. In most cases (81%), the documents required for meetings are sent unsecured as e-mail attachments. Only just under one in ten companies (9%) currently uses a special software solution for board collaboration.

3. Hybrid meetings are the future - even after Corona

Two-thirds of respondents (66%) said they use a hybrid meeting format - consisting of both faceto-face and online meetings - regardless of Corona.

Thomas Krempl, comments: "Data protection, data security and, at the same time, high flexibility in accessing data are topics of outstanding importance in the area of board communication and meeting management. Medium-sized companies must also face up to these challenges and adapt their digital infrastructure accordingly. We believe that our netfiles data room solutions can support small and medium-sized businesses in particular, as our products are very easy to use, meet the highest data protection requirements and can be used flexibly for a wide range of use cases."

The results of the netfiles trend study "Board communication and meeting management challenges in medium-sized companies and institutions/organizations" are now available for download at https://www.netfiles.de/downloads/netfiles-Gremienkommunikation-Trendstudie.pdf.

About netfiles

With more than 20 years' experience to its name, netfiles GmbH is one of the first and leading European providers of virtual data rooms. netfiles data rooms are used primarily in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), due diligence audits and secure data exchange across internal and external company boundaries. Leading-edge software, encryption and security technology ensures that confidential data in netfiles is reliably protected against unauthorized access and data losses. Granular access rights permit precise control of who can view, edit or download what documents. More than half a million users in over 140 countries around the globe have already discovered that netfiles is exceptionally easy to use.

If you would like to know more, sign up to try out the netfiles data room and data exchange 
solutions free of charge for 14 days, with no obligations: https://www.netfiles.com/en/free-trial