What's at stake

Above all else, these are the features that create an effective interplay between document management technologies and electronic signatures. These include:

Authentication procedures: Inclusion of a KBA challenge question helps authenticate the digital signature process. This ensures that the party attempting to sign a document is who he or she says she is.
IP address verification: Like most electronic processes, and another reason why insurance companies need electronic signatures and document management, this IP address verification, which is a baseline standard for digital signature applications in most doc management solutions, is an extra layer of verification that can bolster the legitimacy of a signed document if a legal dispute over its authenticity ever arises.
Form fill automation: Additionally, speaking of insurance forms, there are new and exciting ways for agency producers in the insurance industry to automate the form fill process for recurring client-based and document related processes. Zonal OCR makes this possible, eliminating manual processes and reducing document workload to a bare minimum.
Bar code authentication: Although a bar code authentication in an electronic signature should never be a standalone backup for security, it does add an additional layer of legitimacy to the security process. Although seemingly opaque and not very different from the rest, a barcode is a highly unique stamp of individuality that reveals its purpose and origins quite clearly. To speak analogously, a barcode is to a document what DNA is to a human being. If we didn't have DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to verify criminal actions, there would be a lot of criminals on the loose. And if we didn't have barcode authentication for digital signatures, we would have a lot of forged documents on our hands.

One final note

In verifying the authenticity of an electronic signature, and revealing why insurance companies need electronic signatures and document management, it becomes obvious that electronic signatures are more useful if applied through document management technologies, as these technologies ensure documentation is not altered, therein affecting the locution of any specified contract.

Special Reports /

Why insurers need digital signatures, document management

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