, is Senior Manager for IT Compliance at Ooma, Inc., a leading company in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), helping customers with telecom solutions that are long-term and affordable.

Something Pal and the Ooma team struggled with was the company’s manual, time-consuming, spreadsheet-based compliance processes.

“We used to do user activity access testing for one of our key applications, which has over 600 users,” Pal said. “When it was manually done, this list of 600 users had to be sliced up across 65 managers…. This used to take one of our senior managers almost three weeks of manual work to get all this done.”

A comprehensive GRC solution in a single platform

Data integration from multiple applications for coherent, actionable insights

Scripting capabilities with Python to help engineering staff customize the platform

Implementing Diligent allowed Ooma to reduce this process from three weeks to a mere four hours. And the scalability of the Diligent One Platform has equipped Pal to pursue Ooma’s goals more effectively.

“Our mission is to convert sophisticated technology into elegant and simple communications,” explained Pal. “With the Diligent One platform, we can succeed by rolling out its functionalities one by one, and building them up as we go along, to provide the overall benefit to the organization.”

Ooma cuts IT compliance task time from 3 weeks to 4 hours

In this episode of Inside Today’s Boardrooms, we’re joined by Maureen Ohlhausen, Antitrust & Competition Partner at Wilson Sonsini and former Commissioner of the FTC. She delves into the recent Supreme Court decision that dismantles the long-standing Chevron doctrine. The conversation explores the original 1984 Chevron ruling, the details of the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case, and the implications for corporate governance and regulatory practices.

Inside the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling

Advice for corporate directors in the wake of this decision

The end of the Chevron doctrine

, is the Chief Executive Assistant to the CEO of OrthoVirginia, a statewide orthopedic surgery practice with 156 physicians spread across 36 offices.

After OrthoVirginia experienced a company-wide cyberattack, Wilmoth knew that the organization’s four board members needed a more secure solution for meeting and collaborating with one another.

“By far, BoardEffect...was the most secure [option],” Wilmoth said.

OrthoVirginia also wanted to bring greater efficiency to its paper-based procedures — including voting practices that would sometimes take two or three weeks to complete.

“Everything before was a manual process — with envelopes, and printable affidavits, and wet signatures from every physician,” said Wilmoth.

Powerful cybersecurity protocols including permission-based document access

Digital efficiency that made voting a 24-hour process

The flexibility to post board materials to the portal in advance of the meeting, allowing trustees to be better prepared

Along with these advantages, Wilmoth also reported that board members appreciate BoardEffect not only because it’s a powerful digital platform, but also because it's easy to use — even for less tech-literate board members.

“Partnering with BoardEffect has transformed OrthoVirginia to be more efficient in the extreme — and more confidential,” Wilmoth said.

OrthoVirginia boosts cybersecurity and efficiency with BoardEffect

In today’s evolving technological landscape, generative AI stands out as both a transformative opportunity and a complex risk for businesses. Leaders have taken note that gen AI is not just hype, and now are grappling with how to implement it. Where does this leave the company’s board of directors? Are members to focus on risk, opportunity, a mixture of both? And how can they navigate implementation if they are not fully educated about the technology itself? As AI adoption accelerates, boards must cut through the noise, ask the right questions, and embrace their role in steering organizations toward responsible and effective use of the technology. Fortune and Diligent hosted a virtual event with an esteemed panel to explore the role of the board in gen AI and gather actionable insights for boards as they navigate gen AI’s challenges and possibilities. The panel was moderated by Jeremy Kahn, AI Editor, Fortune, and Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm AI; and featured executives Nithya Das, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, Diligent; Omar Khawaja, CISO, Databricks; Florin Rotar, Chief AI Officer, Avanade; and Fiona Tan, Chief Technology Officer, Wayfair.

Das set the stage by sharing research from Diligent, showing that gen AI is sixth on the list of priorities for boards of directors, behind traditional concerns like growth and financials. She noted that gen AI is now ahead of topics like workforce planning and cybersecurity in terms of focus for boards. The AI focus at the board level is not all about innovation and growth. She relayed that boards are carefully considering risks that the technology brings. In particular, “the biggest risk that directors are seeing is the lack of internal capabilities and knowledge among their leadership teams,” she revealed.

Given the risks, it is important for boards to provide direction for companies. However, guidance has not always been very clear. Khawaja said that he has seen leaders take guidance from boards too literally, which has ended in poor implementation. Instead of simply directing companies to create an AI strategy, he encourages boards to think about a company strategy that is informed by the opportunities of gen AI. “I think it’s important for boards to ask [how we will] leverage AI to de-risk, to accelerate, to expand, to scale our strategy,” he said. Rotar agreed, adding that he thinks it is key for companies to figure out how to derive the greatest value from AI. Currently, he sees that companies are focused on productivity gains, rather than leveraging the technology to drive greater business strategy.

For boards to consider how AI can drive business strategy, though, it is critical to understand the technology. Tan advised that boards begin their AI journey by understanding how gen AI is different from the current AI used in their organization, such as predictive machine learning. Das offered that Diligent has an AI Ethics & Board Oversight course available to board members, and Rotar added Stanford’s “The AI Awakening” course may be useful as well.

Tan noted that, once board members have a foundational understanding of the technology, boards can play a pivotal role. At Wayfair, she described that executives and leaders within the organization typically focus on use cases for gen AI, as they know the nuances of the business and where it will be best applied. The board, on the other hand, can help push AI implementation and bring different perspective, she said. “I think for the board, [the focus] is pushing to ensure we are taking the outside-in approach.” she affirmed.

The panelists on the call agreed that leveraging gen AI to revolutionize business strategy is one of the technology’s greatest opportunities. However, it does not come without challenges and risk. The greatest challenge, they said, is people. Rotar, who has been working with AI for many years, said he spends 85% of his time on people-related topics. “The No. 1 success factor for [gen AI implementation] is people.” He emphasized that organizational readiness and trust in the technology is perhaps the primary challenge. He encouraged companies to help employees see how the technology can help them thrive and become the best version of themselves, which in turn fosters trust, increases wide-scale adoption, and ultimately drives value.

In addition to helping businesses adopt AI, boards have a responsibility to help manage risks in AI. A theme that emerged is the necessity of having a responsible AI framework. Tan suggested, for those who don’t currently have a responsible AI plan, that they take what they already have for technologies like predictive machine learning and augment for the specific risks of gen AI. “I think having [a responsible AI] framework is super important, so you ensure that you don’t have a team that goes rogue and does something you don’t know about.” Khawaja added that it is critical to have a responsible AI framework that is actionable, specifically discussing AI risks and how the company will address and manage those risks.

In closing, Das remarked on the great utility of conversations like these. “We all know that [gen AI] is being used in our organizations” she quipped. Fortune panels, she said, give her an opportunity to discuss these crucial topics and leave with learnings. For example, she said, she will be walking away with new ideas on measuring ROI around gen AI, such as using it to assess such functions as work satisfaction, discussed by Tan.

Diligent

Videos

Ooma cuts IT compliance task time from 3 weeks to 4 hours

The end of the Chevron doctrine

OrthoVirginia boosts cybersecurity and efficiency with BoardEffect

Diligent & Fortune Director Roundtable Series: A Gen AI Playbook for the Board

Solutions

Resources

Company

Your Data Matters

Diligent

Videos

Ooma cuts IT compliance task time from 3 weeks to 4 hours

The end of the Chevron doctrine

OrthoVirginia boosts cybersecurity and efficiency with BoardEffect

Diligent & Fortune Director Roundtable Series: A Gen AI Playbook for the Board

SolutionsSolutions

ResourcesResources

CompanyCompany

Your Data Matters

Solutions

Resources

Company