In an industry that involves a complex mix of customer segments, distribution channels, and legacy systems and processes, how can insurers put electronic signatures to work?

The answer comes from insurers that have experienced this firsthand. Donegal Insurance Group is a good example. This mid-sized insurer offers personal, commercial, and farm policies in 22 states, through affiliations with approximately 2,500 independent agents.

Like other insurers, Donegal was eager to eliminate paper from its new business processes. Electronic workflows reduce the risk of missing or incomplete documents. Digital platforms increase efficiency, reducing time spent chasing trailing documents – an important advantage to busy agents. By creating a digital portal, Donegal reduced friction at the point of sale, placing itself top of mind among its agents.

For Donegal, adding eSignatures to the agent portal made sense. But to implement electronic signatures, they had to address four key questions. Their answers provide insights that can help any insurer looking to deliver a better experience for customers and agents.

OneSpan has industry knowledge as well as an openness and flexibility to work with us. Every company has unique needs. They worked closely with us to seamlessly integrate e-signatures into our system.

1. Who should take the lead and own the eSignature solution?

Brian Donovan, manager of agency automation at Donegal, recognized the power of eSignatures early on. “We were heavily involved with the use of technology, and we automated many processes that were traditionally manual,” he says. “We saw eSignatures as another opportunity to free up internal resources and give the agent and the customer a better experience when they choose Donegal.”

But who should assume the responsibility for implementation, independent agents or the insurer? Independent agents value their independence. Yet, Donegal chose to take a leadership position on the issue, confident that their agents would see the new convenience as a welcome alternative to the current way of doing business. By taking the lead, Donegal would be taking control of its digital destiny, ultimately accelerating the adoption of eSignatures—an adoption that would be delayed if left to each independent agency.

In addition, by owning the eSignature platform, Donegal gained visibility and control over the workflow and the documentation of their new business. By selecting and adopting a single eSignature solution, Donegal avoided the need to conduct due diligence on the many eSignature services their agents might have chosen.

2. What requirements should we consider when adopting eSignatures?

There are a bewildering number of eSignature vendors and options available. At Donegal, close collaboration with its vendor helped it successfully address and resolve a number of critical issues. “We worked with the OneSpan people as far as how the technology would come together,” Donovan says. “We spent time from the legal perspective to be comfortable with the legality of it all and took a hard look at the audit and review functionality that OneSpan Sign offered.”

For insurance companies considering digital signatures, the most important requirements include:

Branding: Can we customize the UI?

Everything that faces customers and agents should reflect the insurer’s brand, not the electronic signature vendor’s brand. Donegal chose a solution that allowed it to brand every touch point; the underlying eSignature technology is completely transparent.

Connectivity: What will the integration look like?

Signatures are just one part, albeit an important part, of larger business processes. eSignatures need to fit within a broader technology context, such as a policy admin, agency management, or document generation system. Not only did Donegal have a portal to consider, they had an established document generation platform, OpenText Exstream, for producing electronic documents. Fortunately, a connector between OneSpan Sign and OpenText Exstream made that integration tight and easy.

Audit trail: Do we have what we need for security and evidence?

One of the reasons Donegal chose OneSpan Sign was because of its comprehensive audit trail, which tracks who signed, in what order, when, and where with strong identity assurance. OneSpan Sign provides a more robust way of addressing legal risks and demonstrating compliance.

“The ability to track what happened in each signing is important. The audit trail doesn’t leave much up for debate: they can bring it up with agents, see what happened, and figure out what needs to be fixed and what docs need to be signed,” says Donovan.

Industry experience: Can the solution handle the volume and complexity of insurance workflows?

Donegal wanted to get to market quickly with eSignatures. It was important for them to work with a vendor that had deep industry experience and could offer best practices for workflow customization, change management, and customization.

3. How should we roll out the eSignature solution?

Selecting the right technology is just the beginning; building a workable rollout strategy will help minimize potential issues, target areas for improvement, and encourage adoption. In an industry where regulations vary considerably state by state, a staged rollout is essential for smooth implementation. Donegal’s rollout process included:

Pilot program

Success cascades from success. Together, Donegal and OneSpan executed a small pilot program in Pennsylvania, Donegal’s home state, that involved a half-dozen independent agencies to ensure that the portal integration would be seamless. Lessons learned informed the subsequent rollout.

Forms redesign effort

For Donegal, the effort to customize and integrate the electronic signature service was relatively quick and easy. The bigger effort has been the forms redesign. Donegal recognized that rather than simply preparing existing paper forms to receive eSignature, it made more sense to take the opportunity to redesign their existing forms for a fully digital experience.

State by state rollout

Given regulatory variations and the need to ensure forms continued to meet compliance requirements, it made sense to launch the solution state by state. This staggered approach enabled Donegal to start reaping benefits immediately while taking the time needed to migrate forms properly.

4. How to encourage adoption?

Moving off of paper and onto eSignatures represented a change for many of their independent agents. To encourage adoption, carriers need a change management strategy that incorporates agents' feedback in the design, pilot, and rollout phases of the implementation.

Reflecting on Donegal’s plan, Donovan says, “Our independent agency force has an open line of communication. They tell us what they like and don’t like, and we value their opinions. While implementing our eSignature solution, we had territory sales managers and regional vice presidents working with agents, visiting their offices, and walking them through the first time using the system.”

Donegal learned that making it easy was key. With Donegal, eSignatures are built into the portal itself, part of an uninterrupted workflow that doesn’t require opening another program or application.

Are you ready for eSignatures?

In the insurance industry, the question of eSignatures is not how or why, but when. The technology offers too many clear advantages to be ignored. By addressing the four key challenges of ownership, requirements, rollout, and adoption, your company, like Donegal’s, can take advantage of e-signatures to make workflows more efficient, compliance more verifiable, and independent agent relationships more rewarding.