Company Secretary and “Microsoft Lync Online”

I am company secretary by profession and write blogs as a passion. This was my dream profession, when I started my study to be a company secretary and still is. I love to look into not only law of lands affecting my clients but products which can help me professionally.

Recent time, there is a lot of talk about corporate governance and therefore board meeting to be conducted electronically (general meetings as well of course). Section 173 (2) clearly say, “the participation of directors in a meeting of the Board may be either in person or through video conferencing or other audio-visual means, as may be prescribed, which are capable of recording and recognising the participation of the directors and of recording and storing the proceedings of such meetings along with date and time.”

As a professional dealing with board meetings and general meetings, I have interest in online services which may connect me with all board members sitting all over world and be able to conduct a legally valid board meeting electronically. While, fine prints of this law will be available soon after approval from parliament; we may look for some available options.

In a recent meeting with officials of Microsoft in a bloggers meet in Delhi. I learnt about Microsoft Office 365, which is a subscription based online service. I learnt here, a software/service called “Microsoft Lync online”. This is what I have interest most.

This service is based on cloud computing, means you need no installed software in your computer but subscription and have to be logged in from anywhere through any device using any browser. Lync provides a consistent, single client experience for presence, instant messaging, voice, video and a great meeting experience. Lync enables instant messaging (IM) and voice calling with the hundreds of millions of people around the world who use Skype. Organizations can buy Lync Online as a standalone service from Microsoft Office 365 or as part of an Office 365.

This service claims these features:

• Get real-time presence information.
• Make voice calls through your computer to other Lync or Skype users.
• Create, moderate, and join pre-planned and on-the-fly audio, video, and web meetings with people inside and outside your organization.
• Enhance online presentations with screen-sharing and virtual whiteboards.

Here are some features related to online meeting:

See up to five meeting participants simultaneously with new multiparty HD video support. The Lync Web App allows PC and Mac users to join a Lync Meeting from a browser and delivers a full online meeting experience including IM, voice, multiparty video, data collaboration and sharing.

I see a limitation, we may connect with up to five participants but our board size may differ from two persons to more than twelve persons. This will be very good service for we professionals where boards size is not bigger, very active and more focused fine details about dissection. Facility of screen sharing and whiteboard may supplement a health board room discussion.

Further, we company secretaries are knowledge professionals. We need detailed and deep discussions on complicated matters of finance and law with client, usually top level management executive or more often a director. It is a huge cost saving, when, we plan an electronic meeting rather physical presence of all participant. We may use valuable productive time from wasting stuck – up in traffic of a capital city.

I hope, other companies are also offering competitive services.