- December 11, 2018
- Dan Morris, Sr. Solutions Architect
What started with smartphones has evolved to smart watches, smart TVs and smart homes. Today, smart fridges can alert you when your carton of milk is running empty.
Digital documents are not immune to the smart revolution. In fact, Smart PDFs exist. And, if you work with documents on a daily basis, then integrating Smart PDFs into your workflow can streamline the process. This is applicable for all industries, especially the insurance sector.
Why the insurance industry needs Smart PDFs
Insurance agents must handle various hardcopy documents, such as contracts, claims, policies, and more. This is time-consuming and requires significant organizing. Plus, it means a lot of needless printing, copying, and faxing.
The insurance industry is also susceptible to scams and fraudulent behavior. This is especially hard to prevent considering that many scams are inside jobs from rogue and disgruntled employees. This is where a smart PDF solution like ConnectedPDF comes in to help agencies minimize their paper trail.
What is a Smart PDF?
A Smart PDF is a standard PDF with a unique assigned ID. When the document travels within or outside an organization, the ID keeps track of everything that happens to it.
With Smart PDFs, users benefit from:
- Eliminating hardcopy documents
- Preventing misplaced documents
- Sharing and limiting document access to authorized staff
- Access to documents via multiple devices
- Remotely granting, revoking, or modifying viewing/editing privileges
- Archiving documents for safe recordkeeping
Smart PDF’s strength lies in three key attributes: security, collaboration, and insight.
- Security – the document creator has full control over who can view or edit documents.
- Collaboration – authorized viewers can see comments, edits, or other highlights made in real time. Viewers can see updates the minute they’re added and immediately respond.
- Insight – document creators can see who accessed the file, which pages they viewed, what changes they made, etc., giving them full insight into how to refine existing documents and better create new ones.
Does Smart PDF integration actually foster better organization and cut down on downtime? Let’s take a look at a real-world example.
One established insurance company has a massive 130,000-staff and 700,000 sales agents spread over 15,000 branches across the country. Despite a solid workforce, the agency severely lagged behind in the IT department. The company was still relying on over 200 outdated IT systems. Many of these were built on aging customized platforms with insufficient technical support or pathway for timely updates.
Fully aware of this predicament, key stakeholders identified five key crucial areas for long-term success:
- Improve document management practices
- Improve individual and collective staff performance
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Reduce fraudulent claims
- Improve regulatory adherence
The company resolved these issues by integrating Smart PDF as an overlay across its 200+ outdated IT systems. The results? While data gathering takes a bit of time, the numbers reveal positive feedback. Response times improved by 59%. In some instances, responses that normally took 7-8 hours now took as few as 15-20 minutes. Customer satisfaction also increased by 20%.
PDFs eliminate the document deluge that was once a necessary evil in the insurance industry. Today, agents can draft documents digitally, via laptop or mobile device wherever and whenever. Agencies also have a uniform way of archiving data whether documents began as a paper or electronic file.
By adopting Smart PDF as a company standard, you cover the areas of security, collaboration, and insight. Insurance agencies can only gain by transitioning to a user-friendly system like ConnectedPDF.