Eswatini Sugar Association Goes Paperless in the Boardroom

Executive Summary

The Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) spent copious amounts of time and money compiling, printing and mailing paper board materials prior to each board meeting. After implementing the Govenda board portal software, ESA decreased the time and money spent preparing for board meetings. 

Challenges

The ESA’s dedication to ethical governance meant that they spent countless hours with 4-6 employees working through a manual process to compile, print, and mail physical board materials to each of their board members. 

This process was cumbersome and expensive. The average amount of time spent by their team of 4-6 people to put together and distribute their board materials were often four or more days. This time spent was outside of these employees’ normal duties and could lead to lost business opportunities while their focus was elsewhere.

ESA often experienced issues with last-minute updates not being distributed in time for the board meeting. Their manual process made it impossible to issue amendments once the documents were mailed. They often also experienced issues with deliveries being misplaced or not arriving on time. 

Between mailing, printing, and sometimes reprinting costs, ESA was spending too much time and money preparing for board meetings. 

How Govenda Helped

Within the first 30 days of implementing Govenda, ESA was able to shrink the manpower needed to compile and distribute board materials down to 1 person. The process now takes less than 2 hours to prepare and send out meeting materials. They can now instantly update and amend documents or information for their board members. 

“Members are very excited about the ease of use of the product.  90% were able to go in and navigate without any training.” 

Results and Future Plans

ESA saw a marked improvement in their process of preparing board materials. The process is no longer manual and has eliminated the need for printed and mailed board materials. Govenda streamlined the process and has allowed ESA to decrease their team’s time spent compiling and distributing board materials by 640%. They’ve been able to completely eliminate printing and mailing costs from their board budget. 

“We are now fully compliant with the number of days required for notices.  We know instantly that members have got the packs.  We can also see members that have not logged in and can make a follow up on them.”

ESA plans to continue using Govenda to streamline its governance processes. ESA’s favorite Govenda feature is the ability to track who has been able to log in to view the documents and the virtual RSVP.

About Eswatini Sugar Association

Headquartered in Mbabane, Eswatini, The Eswatini Sugar Association is a member-driven organization of millers and growers of the Eswatini sugar industry. The Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) is committed to consistently meet the requirements and expectations of sugar industry principals, customers, and other stakeholders by providing quality products and services in an efficient, cost-effective and sustainable manner.