{"id":9660,"date":"2016-09-05T18:11:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T14:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=9660"},"modified":"2016-09-05T18:11:58","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T14:11:58","slug":"south-african-lonmin-chooses-diligent-for-board-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2016\/09\/05\/south-african-lonmin-chooses-diligent-for-board-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Lonmin chooses Diligent for board communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lonmin<\/a> is one of the world\u2019s largest primary producers of platinum, operating in South Africa with its corporate headquarters in London. Lonmin\u2019s board of directors attend six scheduled meetings a year, two of which are held in South Africa. Depending on the needs of the business, additional meetings are often required. Orchestrating these gatherings is Rob Bellhouse, Lonmin\u2019s Company Secretary. Bellhouse is also responsible for observing the regulatory responsibilities surrounding the company\u2019s listings on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.<\/p>\n

Lonmin\u2019s board of directors reside in numerous jurisdictions: half are in South Africa; others are located in the United Kingdom and one in Spain. All of the board members maintain hectic travel schedules and this made it difficult for Bellhouse\u2019s staff to produce traditional paper-based boardroom materials in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel schedules plus global locations worked against us. In the end, with paper, we just simply could not get information to people on time,\u201d says Bellhouse.<\/p>\n

The effort needed to produce board materials occupied as many as six people with photocopying, hole punching, binding and collating \u2013 in what Bellhouse referred to as a nightmare process. On the user side, the situation was equally unmanageable. Board packs ran at up to 300 pages each. And when an exceptional issue arose, like approving a prospectus or reviewing an annual report, that number doubled or even tripled so that reports at times ballooned to 850+ pages. Add in papers for committee sessions held alongside the board meeting, and directors often travelled with lever arch files full of paper.<\/p>\n

Security was also an issue when it came to paper copies. Couriered packs could be left outside someone\u2019s home, unattended. Then there was the problem of disposing of old copies. Some directors returned them to the company for proper disposal, but others would store these in their home offices and the company could lose track of what happened to them. Over time, it became clear that paper board packs were no longer a sustainable option for Lonmin\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

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