the electronic boardroom

Filed in archive Technology on September 15, 2003

or the hardest pitch I can imagine. A silicon valley software company called "Boardvantage" has found a niche for new software. The WSJ Europe runs a good article about. The business concept aims to bring boardrooms to 'cyberspace'. The software is basically an enterprise portal with the most important internal company data and the necessary briefing papers for board meetings and an independent email system. This is quite far from rocket science, but convincing Directors even in the valley to use a web solution for their board discussion is like selling sand in the Sahara.
On the other hand enabling directors more electronically is a powerful tool. The software functionalities are there for quite some time, but it's getting rebundeled and sold with a much stronger added value. As you can imagine "...directors expect concierge-level services.. ". So according to the article, these guys fly in technicians to directors homes to fix the "serious" issues (like dial-ups, or Wi-FI routing). It sounds like a good margin business...
I really like the concept although I wouldn't love to sell the product :-)