COVID-19 forced businesses to evolve. With employees stuck in your own home, many organizations realised they needed access to solutions that enabled them to better streamline internal processes without the capability to meet in-person.
For all of the benefits that flexible working brings, additionally, it introduces complications – because the world discovered this past year. One particular complication comes in the type of tracking workflows. While for many it may not have seemed a significant issue at that time, if this found specific use cases – gaining signatures, approvals or verification of certain documents – tasks began to become blocked.
The signing process had become an element that quickly needed resolving and businesses considered technology to overcome this newfound challenge. Based on research undertaken by KPMG, 74% of companies accelerated the digitisation of operations and also the development of a next-generation operating model by a matter of months or perhaps years during the pandemic. For many, this included the adoption of digital identity services, letting them streamline workflow processes with no need to meet in-person.
Continuing While Remote
In the finance industry, where businesses are approving loans and mortgages, undertaking Know Your Customer checks and with significant sums of money every day, their operations must remain immaculate and precise.
There are robust processes in place that demand specific executives signing off on and approving a significant quantity of important documents. Tying these people right down to a meeting is difficult enough beyond a pandemic. Doing the work all remotely became even more complicated.
Before the pandemic, organisations typically tracked workflows by going desk to desk, attaining internal signatures for sign-off and verifications. Even with the growth of technology, this remained a manual process – forcing businesses to wait days or perhaps weeks before people could meet face-to-face and sign documents personally before tasks could progress.
Through these internal approval processes, a lot of time could be removed from employees. This turns staff into 'postmen' – using the time of lawyers or brokers inefficiently while generating bottlenecks throughout workflows.
Relying on Digital ID
Digital ID services are enabling organisations to significantly improve the efficiency of workflows despite now operating with a hybrid or remote workforce.
With a simple 4 step registration process, very first time verification for any user only takes between 5 and 10 minutes. Whenever after that, logging in, approving items or signing documents is possible by simply utilizing an app on the cell phone. The entire process is streamlined and easy to use.
In comparison to how businesses would operate manually before the pandemic, where users would wait weeks or months to possess documents confirmed, not just is really a significant amount of productive time saved – which greatly improves efficiency – but user satisfaction is also greatly enhanced.
Rather than scheduling and rescheduling meetings to go to someone in-person and verify certain documents face-to-face, users are now able to submit a document through the cloud. Once verified, the user can be issued a qualified electronic signature that can be used to sign documents online. Alternatively, in the case of a KYC verification, the outcome is shared directly using the relevant organisation. In both situations, the entire process becomes streamlined, saving a lot of time for both parties.
A Secure Solution
Online verification and digital signatures are a highly reliable and secure option to traditional processes. Awareness around data privacy has not been higher. Consumers and businesses alike are really tuned directly into their rights and are highly conscious of how their information is used. Naturally, digital identity services deal with highly sensitive information that must be protected at all costs.
In response to this, and also to make sure that sensitive data remains secure, all identity providers or Qualified Trust Service Providers must follow rigorous regulations that uphold international standards for security and knowledge protection. Digital identity services are highly secure and reliable, and all documents provide a easily available paper trail, accessible whenever needed for compliance purposes.
A Long-term Solution
While pandemic recovery is well underway, there is an expectation among many organizations to carry on operating remotely, whether that's on the full-time basis or perhaps in a hybrid approach – splitting time between home and also the office. In either case, it's clear that the working environment for the future is going to be significantly different to the way it was before COVID-19.