The need to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase sales are common goals shared by everyone in the life insurance industry. While the shared objectives are the same, when it comes to technology, it is critical that solutions allow for customization in order to support both the unique needs of our industry as well as those of individual companies.

Delivering flexible technology offerings requires strong collaboration between the digital technology provider and the customer. The provider must work with the customer to gain a thorough understanding of their business needs to provide a solution that not only supports current processes, but also enhances operational efficiencies, the user experience, and provides flexibility for future improvements.

To illustrate this type of collaboration, I sat down with Dylan Friedman, SVP and Chief Client Officer at APEXA to discuss a recent project we worked on together utilizing eXpedite, PSG’s e-signature tool, to replace APEXA’s legacy e-signature tool. While eXpedite was designed with a focus on the life insurance industry, APEXA had unique requirements specific to their product offering - and PSG was able customize our tool to meet those needs.

Why did APEXA partner with PSG?

APEXA: PSG’s customizable solution allowed us to create a tool tailored to our specific needs and provided a smooth transition for our customers. We were the first internal integration for our parent company, MIB, who has since adopted the tool for all e-signature-based processes. We were happy to provide suggestions to enhance PSG's e-signature capabilities as they incorporated many of our business requirements into the standard offering, benefiting the entire industry as the tool gains wider adoption.

What were the more complex business requirements you needed eXpedite to accommodate?

APEXA: As a compliance platform focused on advisor contracting and oversight, we facilitate the signing of 120K+ agreements annually, making e-signature capabilities fundamental to our platform. Each of our clients have different contract components and designs, which can add complexity to the document signing aspect of our workflows. It is critical that our platform have an electronic signature process that is easy to use, secure, tamper proof, and time stamped. We must also have the ability to provide a full audit trail upon request.

Additionally, we must be able to support signing progression by multiple signing parties and capture their location information. eXpedite was able to provide both of these needs while also meeting our other requirements.

Lastly, we had some specific requirements that apply to us as a Canadian solution:

• Data hosting needed to be in Canada, and PSG was able to accomplish this.
• Support for both French and English language capabilities (accents, format) to ensure compliance with Quebec French language legislation, which eXpedite also provides.

Did eXpedite meet all of APEXA’s requirements?

APEXA: Since PSG’s solutions are customizable, they were able to accommodate all of our business, regulatory, security, and audit requirements. While some functionality was already in place, they were able to swiftly evaluate, assess, and incorporate new capabilities to the eXpedite product to meet our unique needs. They collaborated with us throughout the process and also post launch to ensure everything was working as needed, providing confidence and comfort to both our team and clients.

What were the benefits of working with PSG?

APEXA: From the business perspective there were many factors that made this the right relationship for us:

• Due to our complex business, we needed a flexible partner that could provide more than an off the shelf solution. PSG took the time to thoroughly understand our process and business requirements to provide a customized solution that could meet those needs.
• Minimizing the impact to our clients was critically important. PSG was able to ensure a smooth transition for our clients by closely replicating the e-signature process that we had in place previously.
• While we needed a system that would work for us today, we also need to be confident that our partner will be able to support any future capabilities and functionality we may require as our business evolves. Since PSG provided a tailored solution specific to our requirements, we are confident that they are the right partner for both now and in the future.
• PSG is very responsive and were able to meet our timelines. Our teams were able to work together so we were able to limit our IT lift, enabling us to keep our teams focused on other critical initiatives.

What has the experience been like?

APEXA: It felt like a collaboration – the PSG team heard us and was able to meet our requirements. They were also able to provide their expertise and suggest things that we may want to consider in the future. Understanding that we had to focus on current functionality, it was beneficial to have them share ideas that might be useful for us down the road. We look forward to collaborating further to explore how PSG can help APEXA advance our platform and enhance our customer experience.

Would you do it again?

APEXA: Yes, absolutely. PSG’s collaborative, custom approach, superior technology and pricing made the move a very easy decision for us.

Developed for life insurance, customizable to your needs

There are a variety of technological solutions available that promise to enhance productivity, including several e-signature tools. However, many of these solutions were originally designed for broad utilization and have been retrofitted for use in life insurance, leaving gaps and inefficiencies. In contrast, Paperless Solutions Group provides digital solutions created specifically to meet the unique needs of the life insurance industry, such as our new electronic signature tool, eXpedite. Never one-size-fits-all, our solutions are customizable to meet our clients’ unique needs.

For more information about eXpedite, visit the Paperless Solutions Group website.