Navigating Change Management In The Shift From Traditional To Digital Signing

Navigating Change Management in the Shift from Traditional to Digital Signing

January 18th, 2024

As digital transformation becomes a pivotal goal for many organizations, the shift from traditional to digital signing marks a significant evolution. This transition reshapes operational processes, challenges ingrained employee habits, and demands a redefinition of roles and responsibilities. A common hurdle in this journey is overcoming digital adoption fatigue. In this blog, we delve into these aspects of change management and explore how Signority’s Customer Lifecycle Journey can guide organizations towards a successful digital transition, driving business growth and innovation.

Understanding the Change Dynamics

  1. Operational Process Changes
    Transitioning to digital signing represents a shift from manual, paper-based methods to automated digital workflows. This transformation necessitates a thorough reevaluation of existing procedures, paving the way for more efficient, streamlined operations.
  2. Adjusting Employee Habits
    Adopting digital signing requires employees to move away from familiar manual processes to embrace new digital methods. This shift involves not just learning new technologies but also adopting new ways of working.
  3. Evolving Roles and Responsibilities
    With the automation of previously manual tasks, employees find their roles evolving. The focus now shifts towards managing digital systems, presenting opportunities for professional growth and development.
  4. Combating Digital Adoption Fatigue
    The continuous introduction of new technologies can be overwhelming, leading to fatigue or resistance. Effective change management strategies, characterized by empathy and clear communication, are essential to navigate this challenge.

Signority’s Customer-Centric Lifecycle Journey in Change Management

To navigate these changes effectively, Signority has a proven customer-centric onboarding and professional service on demand process provides a structured framework.

To navigate these changes effectively, Signority has a proven customer-centric onboarding and professional service on demand process provides a structured framework.

  1. Preparation and Planning
    The journey towards digital signing with Signority begins with a meticulous preparation phase. It’s crucial to first gain a deep understanding of the existing processes and pinpoint opportunities for digital integration. Our team collaborates closely with customers to identify the best starting point for this transition.

    During this stage, we engage with clients to select a core group of internal champions. These individuals are pivotal in the ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, becoming the knowledge-bearers and advocates for the digital signing process within the organization. We assist in identifying key administrators and users who will play a central role in the rollout of the digital signing system.

    A critical aspect of this phase is defining a tailored adoption roadmap. This involves initiating smaller-scale pilot programs focused on specific use cases. We work with clients to determine the most suitable templates and workflows, ensuring they seamlessly integrate into and enhance existing operational processes. This step includes a careful review of any IT and legal policies that may impact the setup of accounts, templates, and workflows, ensuring compliance and smooth integration.

    An important part of our planning process also involves the transformation of existing paper forms into digital formats. This digitization isn’t just about conversion; it’s about optimization. We help streamline and simplify processes through automation, enabling our clients to concentrate on their core business activities more efficiently. This transformation is not just a technological shift but a strategic move towards operational excellence.

  2. Training and Support: Tailored for Efficiency and Effectiveness
    At Signority, we recognize that the success of any digital transition heavily relies on the confidence and proficiency of the employees using the new tools. To this end, our training and support are designed to be comprehensive yet streamlined, ensuring that your team can quickly adapt to the digital signing tools without feeling overwhelmed.

    Our training approach is use case-based and focused on practical application. Instead of lengthy, generic online tutorials, we offer concise, 30-minute training blocks, each tailored to specific use cases. This method ensures that the learning is relevant, directly applicable, and respectful of your team’s time and existing workload. We understand that our clients are professionals in their fields, not expected to be Signority experts, and our training reflects this philosophy.

    Following each training session, we actively seek feedback from our clients to not only gauge the effectiveness of the training but also to gather insights on product feature requests. This feedback loop is essential in ensuring that our support is aligned with your specific needs and challenges. Additionally, all training sessions are recorded, providing a valuable resource for future reference and review.

    To further enhance the support experience, each enterprise client is assigned a dedicated Account Manager. This personalized approach ensures that you have a consistent point of contact familiar with your organization’s unique needs and preferences. Our online support team is always available, providing an additional layer of assistance. We pride ourselves on our customer-centric support model, where every query is logged and meticulously followed through to ensure complete customer satisfaction. This commitment to support is a cornerstone of our approach, ensuring a smooth and successful transition to digital signing for your organization.

  3. Continuous Engagement and Feedback: Fostering a Collaborative Growth Environment
    At Signority, we believe that the key to successful digital signing implementation lies in ongoing engagement and open channels of feedback with our clients. This continuous interaction is vital for fine-tuning the digital signing process to align perfectly with the unique requirements of each organization.

    We proactively conduct regular focus groups, at least annually, with our enterprise customers. These sessions are more than just check-ins; they’re opportunities for in-depth discussions, allowing us to gather valuable insights directly from the users. This feedback is essential for us to understand how our digital signing solutions are being utilized in real-world scenarios and how they can be improved or adapted to better serve the evolving needs of our clients.

    Monitoring usage patterns forms a crucial part of our engagement strategy. By keeping a close eye on how our solutions are used, we can ensure that adoption is not only taking place but is also effective and efficient. This monitoring allows us to provide timely assistance and support, addressing any challenges as they arise and ensuring a smooth experience for all users.

    Beyond initial adoption, our commitment to our clients continues as we strive for widespread, corporation-wide integration of our digital signing solutions. We work closely with our clients to expand the range of use cases, continuously adapting and expanding the scope of our services. Our professional team is dedicated to creating custom templates and designing workflows that are not just functional but optimized for efficiency. This tailored approach ensures that every aspect of Signority’s offerings is leveraged to its fullest potential, contributing to the seamless digital transformation of your organization.

  4. Long-term Partnership: “We Win Only When You Win First”
    At Signority, our approach to digital signing technologies transcends the typical vendor-client transaction; we embark on a journey of long-term partnership. In a digital landscape that’s constantly evolving, staying ahead of technological trends is imperative for sustained success. Committed to this ethos, we provide ongoing support and frequent updates, ensuring our digital signing solutions are always at the cutting edge.

    Our relationships with clients are rooted in mutual trust and respect, and we treasure the confidence our customers place in us. When they choose Signority, they’re not just selecting a service provider; they’re gaining a partner genuinely invested in their success. This commitment is at the heart of how we interact and grow with our clients.

    The role of our Account Managers is crucial in nurturing these relationships. Through regular, meaningful interactions, they gather valuable insights and feedback, helping us understand how our clients leverage our digital signing solutions in their unique contexts. This feedback is instrumental in continually refining and enhancing our services.

    We’re constantly exploring ways to improve and innovate, whether through upgrading existing features or introducing new ones. Our proactive approach ensures that our partnership with each client is not static but evolves dynamically, in tandem with the fast-paced digital world. With Signority, clients embark on a path of growth and innovation, where their victories are our victories.

    As digital reliance grows, so do the complexities of legal requirements and security concerns. We’re committed to evolving alongside these legal changes, ensuring our solutions meet the highest standards of legality and security. Whether it’s adapting to local regulations like Quebec’s Bill 64 or broader legislative changes, legal compliance is at the core of what we do.

    We take pride in listening to our clients, considering their feedback and requests as integral to our product development roadmap. This customer-centric approach ensures that our solutions are not only advanced but also highly tailored to meet the specific needs of our diverse client base.

    For those transitioning from other eSign vendors, we understand the weight of the trust placed in us. Signority’s customer-centric culture is designed to make this transition seamless and rewarding. We go above and beyond to honor the trust of new members joining our community, ensuring their switch to Signority is met with unparalleled support and a commitment to excellence.

    Join us at Signority, where your growth and success define ours, and experience a partnership that goes beyond the conventional, into a future of digital excellence and mutual triumph.

The shift to digital signing is a transformative step for any organization, bringing efficiencies and modernization to traditional processes. By understanding the challenges of this transition and leveraging the structured approach of the Signority Customer Lifecycle Journey, organizations can ensure a smooth and successful adoption of digital signing. This journey is not just about technology adoption; it’s about reshaping your business practices to thrive in a digital future.

Ready to begin your digital signing journey? Reach out to Signority at sales@signority.com for tailored guidance and support, and set your organization on the path to digital excellence.

Recommended Posts
Signority: A FileCloud Company. Commitment to Canada and Post Acquisitions Plans.
Signority’s Commitment to Canada and Post Acquisition Plans
FileCloud + Signority: Simplifying Secure, End-to-End, Content Workflow Automation
Desktop Screen Open Source
Is AGPL a Scam? How Small Companies Can Maximize Benefits While Remaining Compliant
Shifting Organizational Perspective on eSign

The Anatomy of an Audit Trail: Electronic Signature Simplified

The Anatomy of the Audit Trail and its Electronic Signature Implications

An audit trail can be the deciding factor between a valid and invalid electronic signature document. Going by the actively surging electronic signature adoption rates and growing number of online businesses, there’s no arguing that eSignatures are here to stay.

Since eSignatures are soon to be the new normal, we thought we should discuss what an audit trail is and why it’s an important part of an electronic signature.

You may be familiar with the difference between electronic signatures and digital signatures, in case you’re not, an electronic signature is information in electronic form (can be sound, symbol, process, etc.) that is associated or attached to a document. This means that as long one can demonstrate that the signature is associated with a person and that there was intent to sign, everything is legally binding and accepted.

A digital signature is actually a form of electronic signature that uses an encryption algorithm that helps validate who the signer is. It also ensures that the document cannot be tampered with, as the signature becomes invalid if the document is changed after signing.  You can read about the differences between electronic signatures vs. digital signatures here.

Now that we have covered the basics, let’s get to what an audit trail is and why it plays an integral part in the process of validating of a document.
Technopedia, the IT education site defines an audit trail, in the context of information technology, “as a chain of evidence in the form of hard or electronic business transactions or communications resulting from business processes, functions or programming executions.”

In other words, an audit trail is a detailed list of critical data points, pertaining to the transaction, that are recorded and reported. These data points help verify the validity of the transaction.

In terms of Electronic Signatures, an audit trail helps keep track and reports user data, furthering the validity of the signature process. Most, if not all serious eSignature vendors out there — including Signority — provide an audit trail with every electronic signature transaction.
Below is a list of important components we display in Signority’s audit trail:

  • Unique Document Title
  • Secured seal (Digital Signatures)
  • Email Address Of Signers And Viewers
  • The IP address of the involved parties
  • Documents viewed by each signer
  • Signers consent to terms of service
  • User authentication: SMS and Email
  • Signature creation (by each signer)
  • Party agreement to / acknowledgement of document
  • Document downloads after signing
  • Signer’s Status
  • GUID (or ‘Globally Unique Identifier’)

For the sake of avoiding any form of confusion, let’s go over what these components mean and what value they add to the entire electronic signature validation process.

Unique Document Title

Breaking down the Audit Trail

Unique Document Title

A unique document title is the unique file name of the document that was originally created by the document creator. The unique document name can be found in the first page of Signority’s audit trail.

Secured Seal
Secured seal (Digital Signatures)

The secured seal is native to Signority’s digital signatures audit trail, the Secured Seal is both “Tamper-proof” and “Digitally Encrypted”. Meaning that, if the audit trail document was tampered with or edited in a third-party software such as Adobe’s Photoshop, the seal would immediately break and be considered invalid.

Signority’s Secured Seal is only available with our digital signature plans. In order to make digital signatures available to our customers, we use a Hardware Security Module (HSM) provided by GlobalSign to help store and manage the digital keys used in the digital signing process.  

Want to know more about digital signature? Check out our post on the difference between electronic signature vs. digital signatures to learn more!

 

Email Address Of Signers And Viewers

The audit trail records and displays the email addresses of all parties involved, which can be either signer or viewer.

  • Signer: Signers’ are users who are required to sign a particular document. A signer could be a primary signer or a witness.        
  • Viewer: A viewer is a user with view-only capabilities.

IP address of user
The IP address of the involved parties

According to IP Location, an IP address or Internet Protocol is “A unique address that computing devices such as personal computers, tablets, and smartphones use to identify itself and communicate with other devices in the IP network.”
In terms of Signority’s audit trail, the IP address associated with a particular signer or viewer, at the time of viewing the document is recorded and reported — adding an extra layer of validity to electronic signature documents.


Documents Viewed By Each Signer

The Documents viewed by the signer or viewer is displayed in the name section in the Audit trail. The audit trail also displays the exact time the document was viewed.

GUID (or ‘Globally Unique Identifier’)

GUID’s of Globally Unique Identifiers, are defined by BetterExplained as “Large, enormous numbers that are nearly guaranteed to be unique.”
They usually look like this:
fa06cc7a-8a32-44c2-9e4d-2192818ab076
At Signority, every document created is assigned a Globally Unique Identifier and can be viewed in the audit trail.

Signers consent to terms of service

Signers consent to use terms of service, refers to the signer or viewer agreeing to abide to the rules in order to use services provided by Signority.

User authentication: SMS and Email

Verifying the identity of a user before granting access to secured information is the main intention of the User Authentication feature.
With Signority there are two additional methods that can used to verify signers and viewers — i.e. SMS and email — when email and /or SMS password authentication is turned on by the user, Signority sends a randomly generated unique code to the recipient. The code is required to access the document.
The type of user authentication used is displayed in the “Authentication” section of the Signority’s Audit Trail.

Signature creation (by each signer)

The Signature Creation section is a critical component of the audit trail, it is the original signature of the required parties.
At Signority and most other eSignature providers, a party’s signature can be created by:

  1. Using a touch pad/screen or mouse
  2. Typing their signature using a keyboard
  3. Uploading a scanned copy of their signature

 

Document downloads after signing

Once the document is finalized by all of the signers, all parties involved are notified via email with an attached copy of the finalized document for safe keeping. In addition, the audit trail continues to track document downloads after signing and is updated live.

Signer’s Status

The signer’s status reflect the final action taken by all required signers, the status can be: “Rejected”, “Waiting to Open”, “In Progress”, “Finalized and “Viewed” — depending on the action taken by the signer.

Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.

5 Habits of Highly Effective Insurance Brokers

insurance-brokers-electronic-signatures-digital

Do you use electronic signatures (eSignatures) for insurance?
Do you have the right contacts?
Are you on the right way to be the best insurance broker in the business?
As with any other profession, there are habits and best practices an insurance broker has to acquire in order to be on the top. I developed mine while working in the Canadian insurance industry for over 7 years, and I’d like to share them with you.
We all know that highly effective brokers use certain tactics to inspire confidence in their prospective clients to convince them on their choice. Which of them do you need to make a habit? Let us see!

1. Get yourself a good backup system

Whether it be the company you work for, your assistants or mentors, make sure that you have solid help to fall back on in challenging situations.
If you’re pressed for time, your eSigning service and means of communications should be ready for you. When what you need most is advice, your mentors should be there, and in cases where the key to getting a good deal is contacts and acquaintances then you should know where to go to get it.

2. Stay organized

Albert Einstein once said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
To me a cluttered desk means an organized mind. While this may be true only for a few people, what is most important is that you get a system working for you.
Take your Post-It’s out, get some cheerfully colored highlighters, use bookmarks, red threads and pins, whatever works. Make sure you feel comfortable navigating this system and you’re set. What worked for me was getting all unnecessary items out of the way. I got my office paperless, automated my assistants and did most money transactions online. The time-saving was considerable and infinitely helpful.  

3. Stay up-to-date

If you want to crush the competition, the key is to know it well. Go to trade organizations, keep up with the latest news, know what you’re doing inside and out. Attending industry events will not only give you valuable insights, but also make you friends in the right places, and that is also highly beneficial for business.
Don’t forget to keep notes on what standard practices everyone around you is following. While some of them may end up not being right for you, you can learn from them. If electronic signatures for insurance or TeamViewer is a popular choice, then there might be a reason for this. Conducting meetings over Skype is saving your competitor money? Try it out!

4. Cross-sell

One of the best qualities an insurance agent should have is the ability to cross sell products to customers. Remember that just about everyone needs more than one policy; combining homeowner’s or renter’s insurance with car or life insurance. Getting clients to buy additional products or services is key to maximizing profits and offering your customers a good deal.
Don’t skip on offering a bundle of products instead of just one policy. If they agree on a deal like this then good for you, if they don’t, then you’ve just done some publicity for another of your products.

5. Follow-up

Follow-up.
Your clients will notice, potential buyers and colleagues will appreciate it.
According to Follow Up Success, even though, 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact, nearly 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.
Don’t hesitate on the follow-up. Send your customer or potential a personalized thank you note. Even if you didn’t land the deal at first, keep the interests of your prospective client at heart and drop them a line in case you can fix something up for them, it can become a successful arrangement in the future. Establishing good relationships with clients and colleagues alike can become a good foundation for growing your business.
Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.