Valued opinions make BoardPro the first choice
The insight for a change in board management software at Sport Waitākere sparked from Irina Lyanguzova’s work as board chair at the Meadowood Community Centre in Unsworth Heights on Auckland’s North Shore.
The Centre was managing its board on disparate platforms, with information spread across email, spreadsheets, and documents, and across personal and work accounts.
“It was a mess and also imposed quite significant risks for the organisation — it was really suboptimal.”
Irina’s focus was on finding a board management solution to build strong governance systems for the charity. To do this, she asked for referrals from other governance professionals whose opinion she valued.
“A large proportion of them recommended BoardPro, saying that it’s New Zealand-made, fit-for-purpose, and reasonably priced.”
Following a successful demo, Irina was confident BoardPro would be an effective solution for the Meadwood Community Centre and meet its governance needs.
“Then I thought, why not use it for Sport Waitākere as well?”
Purpose-built solution for board management
While the Sport Waitākere board was already managing its work using a software solution, it wasn’t designed for board management.
“I wasn’t really happy with the software we were using,” says Irina. “The board wasn’t pleased either, but no one wanted to make a big change. The system we were using wasn’t actually a board management system — it was a library system with a few tweaks.”
The system was often disconnected and unreliable. It required at least a 30-minute onboarding session, and wasn’t user-friendly or intuitive. It was also overpriced for the board’s needs.
“It’s generally assumed that the more expensive the product, the more advanced the features are. But this is not always the case. The library system we were using was more expensive than BoardPro, but, to us, it had no features that were worth the extra cost.”
Irina compiled a business case for Sport Waitākere board, comparing three board management software products, and the board selected BoardPro. Many of the board members had prior experience with the BoardPro board portal through their work as CEOs and CFOs at larger organisations, so they already had confidence in the software and understood its value.
Change management enables seamless adoption
For Sport Waitākere, the adoption of BoardPro was about improving the board’s documents management processes.
“Sport Waitākere has always had a very robust governance system overall and was awarded the prestigious Sport New Zealand ‘Governance Mark’ in 2024,” explains Irina. “So BoardPro builds on that and makes the execution of good board management easier for us as administrators, giving us time back for other important tasks.”
The transition to BoardPro was a streamlined process because Irina and the board implemented the standard change-management approach of running two systems in parallel for a few cycles, before switching to the new system.
“It was a bit of a challenge to run the old and new systems together, but it made for a smooth transition to BoardPro.”
BoardPro’s intuitive, logical structure made adoption and onboarding easy. For example, even when the role of minute-taking rotates between people, the process stays consistent. And the action list, a favourite feature of Irina’s, distinguishes new actions from previous ones, assigns ownership, and keeps the whole board and management aligned.
“The action list is really smart and easy to use,” says Irina. “With our previous software, it was always a bit arbitrary to decide who was doing what. With BoardPro, people mentioned in the action list can easily communicate any delays with just a few notes. With BoardPro, everyone is on the same page at the same time.”
The innovative use of BoardPro’s committee feature
The board of Sport Waitākere enlists a bit of creativity when using BoardPro to manage the distribution of Tū Manuwa funds as one of the Regional Sport Trusts in New Zealand.
“We distribute the funds among a whole range of West Auckland communities involved in providing opportunities for active recreation and cultural activities so people can live happy, healthy lives,” says Irina. “A panel of assessors convenes regularly to make recommendations on which community groups receive the funding. It’s a huge responsibility, and it needs to be transparent.”
To do this, Sport Waitākere use BoardPro’s committee feature to maintain compliance, detail the interest register, track decisions, record minutes and outcomes, and collect e-signatures. The bonus is BoardPro’s transparent one-way access, which allows the board to view committee information, but not vice versa.
“It’s very easy and time-efficient to have all the administration in one place in BoardPro. We can send all the documents to the board for approval without relying on emails or SharePoint to ensure greater data security. Everything is also ready at any time for a review or audit — and it’s also very cost-effective.”
In the non-profit sector, word-of-mouth referrals carry real weight — trusted peers narrow the shortlist. At Sport Waitākere, the board and management were able to enjoy efficient onboarding and smooth adoption, which helped to realise the value of BoardPro sooner.
