Over the past year, countless industries have rapidly accelerated their digital transformation practices to keep pace with growing remote work initiatives and improve overall processes. This quickly emerged as an overwhelming necessity for business continuity for both internal and external reasons – such as retaining modern customers in an increasingly digital landscape.
The financial sector – from large institutions, to banks and CPAs – were a part of this wave. One of the more time intensive tasks in the financial sector, or any highly regulated industry, is the filing and processing of documents. With a strong demand for employees to remain compliant with highly sensitive information, ensuring documents are filled out correctly and processed in a reasonable amount of time is a top priority – not only to ensure an efficient workflow process, but to provide a superior customer experience. As a result, the adoption of electronic signature solutions has been on a meteoric rise.
The pandemic increased digital document growth
The use of eSignature isn’t new or groundbreaking, but more businesses have adopted these solutions over the last year as a result of the pandemic. Considering the current tax season, multiple rounds of stimulus investments from the federal government, and an abundance of applications for federal aid like unemployment and business loans, filing documents has been critical during the pandemic. And with the limited in-person interactions, eSignature is having its moment to shine.
Here at airSlate, we found digital IRS form submissions grew 43% year-over-year from 2019 to 2020, compared to 36% year-over-year growth from 2018 to 2019. Even more impactful, our data shows that submitted notarized forms grew by 92% year-over-year from 2019 to 2020. These numbers paint a clear picture of the impact that digitizing document processes and eSignature have had on the financial sector in just the last year alone.
eSignature can be adopted by more than just a traditional bank or accounting practice. Third party solution providers in the financial sector can also enjoy the benefits by integrating solutions within their system. Take the example of TurnKey Lender, a company that provides AI-driven risk assessment, decision management, and digital lending process automation software and services for businesses ranging from lending companies, banks, and credit unions to alternative lenders, healthcare companies, and retailers. TurnKey Lender was able to integrate with an eSignature solution to offer its customers an intuitive eSigning solution within their lending platform. This has resulted in a seamless and flexible digital lending process, enhancing the end-to-end platform with legally-binding eSignatures, delivering a safe and intuitive eSigning experience to lenders and borrowers, and reducing loan approval lifecycles from weeks to hours.
However, the growing necessity for eSignature solutions isn’t restricted to just financial documents. Insurance, healthcare, and other highly regulated industries are also becoming increasingly reliant on these solutions for more efficient document processing. Traditional document processing requires extra work from administrative employees to scan and input information into an internal database. Not only is this an archaic, inefficient process, but it also takes up valuable time that can be spent on more critical tasks.
It’s important to consider eSignature from this angle as well because improvements to a company’s processes, as a whole, have benefits – like reducing time spent on mundane tasks and enhancing collaboration between employees in a remote setting – that outweigh the cost of adopting one of these solutions.
SMBs should consider adopting eSignature now
It can be easier for large organizations in the financial sector to adopt eSignature solutions and embrace digital transformation as they often have greater resources at their disposal. For small- to medium-sized businesses, they may not think they have the resources or demand to justify adopting these solutions, but this is far from the truth. In fact, a recent airSlate survey of 1,000 Americans found that 64% of business owners and 31% of homemakers use eSignature at least once a month. This coincides with the ongoing migration trend to more digital processes, and small companies are looking to cash in.
SMBs aren’t only looking to adopt eSignature, but allow this technology to play a crucial role in their ongoing digital transformation initiatives. A local accounting practice, as an example, needs to remain competitive with popular tools like TurboTax. In order to maintain an edge on their local market, they must be investing in solutions that will improve customer retention. eSignature and workflow automation are key components in ensuring they can not only remain in the game, but lead the industry. By providing customers with a simplified way to submit important documents, and having tools in place to prioritize a positive customer experience, SMBs will give themselves the best chance to remain competitive moving forward.
Improving workflows is critical to success
eSignature and workflow automation tools have seen prolific growth over the last year because of the pandemic, and there are no signs of this slowing down. While the coming year is looking more promising in the U.S. as we begin to return to a sense of normalcy post COVID-19, digital interactions will continue to be a dominant force. Businesses in the financial sector and beyond will need to continue to embrace solutions that improve workflows to create simpler processes, and in turn, result in better customer experiences.
