Blog
Real-world use case demonstrations for the insurance industry
By Mary-Ellen Power on May 10th, 2012
At the upcoming 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance in NYC on May 31, Silanis will present two practical 30-minute demonstrations, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, to walk through best practices for in-person and remote e-signing, as well as for managing e-transactions.
Use Case Demonstration #1
Best practices for in-person and remote e-signing
With so many options for electronic signatures, how do you choose the right approach? While there is no universal “best” or “most legal” type of electronic signature, there are best practices that can help you create an optimal e-sign process to ensure high adoption. This demonstration will feature two scenarios – a proposed insured who meets in-person with an agent (mediated) and an applicant who is remote (unmediated), accessing the transaction via the web. These use cases will highlight the options for authenticating signers, presenting documents, capturing signatures and distributing signed documents in a real-world scenario.
Use Case Demonstration #2
Best practices for managing e-transactions
Whether online or on paper, agents, representatives and other business users need visibility, access and control over customer transactions in order to keep processes moving forward and to gain insight into the business. This use case demonstration will show how an agent can use an e-transaction dashboard to initiate, monitor or update in-flight transactions. Equally important, compliance and legal professionals need to have access to electronic evidence after an e-signature transaction is completed. We will take a look behind the scenes at how a carrier can leverage the comprehensive evidence captured during the online signing process.
To learn more, consult the agenda and register for this free one-day summit.
Categories: In the News, Industry Insights, Silanis Events
Tags: 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance, e-signatures, e-transactions, electronic signatures, Events, in-person signing, Insurance, remote signing, use case demonstrations
How can insurers get independent agents to adopt e-signatures?
By Mary-Ellen Power on May 9th, 2012
Should carriers build electronic applications and signatures into agent portals? Does it make more sense to rely on industry service providers to connect carriers and agents? Or should agents be free to adopt the technology and processes of their choice, provided it meets specified standards?
At the upcoming 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance in NYC on May 31, an industry panel will have a frank discussion of the pros and cons of each of these three approaches to independent agent adoption. The panel will feature:
Steven Leigh, Principal Analyst, Insurance, Gartner
Mr. Leigh has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. He started his career as an insurance broker and then spent 10 years in an insurance company home office deploying new technology, managing vendor relationships, creating data strategies and interfaces, re-engineering workflows, and fulfilling a wide range of management and leadership roles. Most recently, Mr. Leigh spent six years in selling and supporting front-office vendor solutions for life insurers. His career has been focused on the intersection between technology and business.
Roy Goodart, Senior Vice President Marketing, Aplifi
Roy Goodart has spent the last 15 years helping design systems that drive efficiencies for distributors and better selling practices for their producers. Over the years he has spent countless hours meeting with groups learning the secrets of the industry’s most successful producers. In 2003, Roy co-founded Prospect9, which put these principles into an automated CRM and ePolicy delivery platform.
Marcia Berner, Director Implementation P&C, ACORD
Marcia Berner works directly with standards implementers, to establish, enhance and improve implementations of the ACORD Standards. She works very closely with ACORD’s 2020 Committee, which focuses on implementations, metrics and identifying future standards efforts and strategic initiatives. With more than 30 years of experience in insurance automation, Marcia has an extensive background in data transformation, training, support, business analysis and project management.
To learn more, consult the agenda and register for this free one-day summit.
Categories: In the News, Industry Insights, Silanis Events
Tags: 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance, ACORD, Aplify, e-signatures, electronic signatures, Events, Gartner, Insurance
Country Financial and 21st Century Insurance: “How e-signatures changed our businesses”
By Mary-Ellen Power on May 8th, 2012
Electronic signature technology is being used today across all insurance distribution channels for a myriad of financial products. At the upcoming 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance in NYC on May 31, you have the opportunity to benefit from the experience, strategies and lessons learned by leading carriers Country Financial and 21st Century.
These carriers found the path to sell and service customers faster and more efficiently, in ways that meet consumer expectations and provide an optimal service experience. As such, they know first hand the benefits, challenges and effort involved in automating customer transactions with e-signatures and will share their experiences during this free summit.
Mark Streitmatter, ITS Director Application Development, will explain how Country Financial, which serves more than one million households and businesses throughout the US, achieved impressive e-signature and e-app adoption rates (95%+) among its 2,200 captive agents though a comprehensive change management program.
Country Financial first began using Silanis e-signatures in 2009. Their electronic process has significantly reduced write-backs – a leading cause of delays and frustration – by ensuring that all necessary questions are answered. If one answer prompts a request for additional information, the system automatically adds a new line of questioning to the process. The company has seen 15-20 percent improvements in cycle times, and they expect those numbers to increase. Country Financial also enjoys greater control over the process, which results in higher quality applications and less risk. Further, the electronic evidence captured by Silanis e-Sign Enterprise™ during the execution of the documents has helped strengthen the company’s compliance and legal position.
Alan Ciaverelli, Vice President, Call Center, 21st Century will explain how e-signatures have helped this carrier complete new business transactions in minutes instead of weeks. 21st Century Insurance, part of the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies®, has been using Silanis electronic signatures in its call center and online operations since 2008.
To learn more, consult the agenda and register for this free one-day summit.
Categories: In the News, Industry Insights, Silanis Events
Tags: 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance, 21st Century Insurance, Country Financial, e-signatures, electronic signatures, Insurance, Silanis
Hear legal experts present on insurance and e-signatures in NYC
By Mary-Ellen Power on May 7th, 2012
The complicated calculations and formulas used by actuaries to set insurance premiums build in the cost of penalties, litigation and settlements. If you are looking to lower your risk and avoid these expensive legal fees and fines, you should attend the two following presentations at the 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance on May 31. The two legal presentations will take place in the morning:
May 31, 2012 at 10:45 a.m.
E-Signature Legislation and Case Law Review, Lorde Lock LLP
Locke Lord LLP is a leading e-commerce law firm with deep expertise in insurance. In this session, partners Pat Hatfield and Greg Casamento will conduct a review of the US electronic signature law and share lessons learned from recent case law. The presentation will also feature a six-point framework Locke Lord LLP developed to help mitigate legal risk when implementing electronic processes. Looking closely at issues of fraud, repudiation, admissibility and compliance, summit attendees will learn how a well-designed process, supported by the right technology, can actually reduce risk and increase the enforceability of e-transactions compared to paper processes.
May 31, 2012 at 11:30 a.m.
Preparing and Defending E-Signatures in Court, Shutts and Bowen LLP
Ensuring your processes and records comply with laws and regulations alone will not keep you out of court, nor guarantee a positive outcome in the event of a legal dispute. The electronic evidence must be reliable and presented in a persuasive manner. Frank Zacherl, Partner at Shutts and Bowen LLP, knows firsthand the importance of preparing in advance for a legal dispute involving electronic transactions, based on his experience representing a top online auto insurance carrier. First, he will outline how e-transaction evidence should be presented to third parties and the court during a legal dispute. Second, he will share how the electronic process has changed the way companies respond to disputes, including the pre-suit protocol that has helped avoid costly litigation.
To learn more, consult the agenda and register for this free one-day summit.
Categories: In the News, Industry Insights, Silanis Events
Tags: 2012 E-Signature Summit for Insurance, e-signatures, electronic signatures, Events, Insurance, Legal Counsel, Lorde Lock LLP, Shutts and Bowen LLP, Silanis
One of the Fastest Growing IT Companies
By Mary-Ellen Power on April 24th, 2012
Branham Group, a leading technology analyst firm, today ranked Silanis among the top 10 fastest growing IT companies in Canada according to the 2012 Edition of the Branham300, the definitive listing of Canada’s top tech companies.
In 2011, Silanis increased revenues by 116 percent over the previous year. There is a reason why electronic signature adoption is accelerating so rapidly right now. While we’ve provided a summary in the blog below, you can get more details here:
- Branham’s podcast interview with Silanis CEO Tommy Petrogiannis
- The full executive interview
- The Silanis profile on branhamgroup.com
- The Silanis press release
The past few years have marked the biggest recession of our lifetime. It has been challenging, but about two years ago Silanis saw a real tipping point in the adoption of e-signatures. The reality for many organizations was that when the recession struck they had to cut back on investing and adopting new technology. Once the markets got healthier, companies started focusing on transforming their business and investing in e-signatures, driven by three factors:
- Tightening regulatory oversight
- The need to create real differentiation by transforming customer experience
- Pressure to improve the bottom line
It’s no secret that regulations in the financial services industry have changed the way business is carried out. One of the benefits of an enterprise e-signature solution like ours is that you can automate transactions with workflow rules to be sure that every aspect of a transaction meets or exceeds regulatory requirements. And with comprehensive electronic evidence of every action that occurs during a customer transaction, businesses can quickly reproduce that evidence to prove exactly what took place. This has tremendous value to organizations automating high-value or high-risk transactions.
As well, the convergence of mobility, the web and customer expectations is pushing rapid adoption of e-signature technology. Not surprisingly, customers want the convenience of transacting over the web and electronic signatures are a key part of that. E-Signatures bring together the ability to carry out legally binding decisions online, as easily from a mobile device on a commuter train as from a home PC. E-Signing is convenient, secure, cost-efficient, green and modern. People want to be serviced from anywhere and at anytime, and the traditional way of doing things where you have to physically go into a retail storefront or branch, Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., is gone. Sales and service channels are now becoming whatever the customer wants them to be. That’s what it means when we talk about e-signatures transforming customer experience.
Finally, e-signatures take a lot of costs out of operations. Not just direct paper costs like printers and courier services. It’s more about eliminating all the manual, back office work needed to handle, sort, verify, ship and scan paper. When you compound that for hundreds and even thousands of locations, it becomes millions of dollars worth of potential savings.
Many organizations are now turning to e-signatures as a real solution. As a result, Silanis has experienced strong growth over the last 12-18 months and has a very positive outlook for the future. It’s an exciting time for e-signature technology.
Categories: In the News
Tags: Branham 300, Branham Group, e-Sign Enterprise, e-signatures, electronic signatures, Silanis
