Going paperless is the next big step for insurance companies that haven’t done so already. 

According to Mckinsey, in finance and insurance, about 50% of the overall time in the workforce is devoted to collecting and processing data. 

A fully paperless office may seem impossible, considering how many documents your agencies receive, print, and sign when sending to customers.

But with an electronic document management system, going paperless as an insurance company could be easier than you might think.

With a document management system, you’ll be able to digitally manage each stage of your document lifecycle. This includes steps like:

• Insurance documents creation.
• Editing and indexing for search.
• Sharing or delivering documents to the right person.
• Active use and collaboration with the document.
• Legally compliant archival or deletion.

Below, we’ll be making a business case as to why insurance companies should consider going paperless. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why Go Paperless As An Insurance Company
• Why Insurance Companies Need Automated Document Generation to Go Paperless
• 5 Main Benefits of Automated Document Generation For Insurance Companies
• Legal, Software, And Security Challenges Of Going Paperless As An Insurance Company And How To Overcome Them
• 5 Examples Of Insurance Templates To Use In Document Process Automation

Why Go Paperless As An Insurance Company

As the world continues to move forward with technological advancement and safer environmental practices, going paperless is the future of business management. 

Progressing to a paperless office is the next step for many insurance offices to save money, become more efficient in time management practices, and more. 

Here’s what this means.

What does a paperless insurance office look like

A paperless office is an environment where the use of paper is minimized or eliminated. 

All the processes that involve paper documents are digitized when possible. To do this, a company needs to convert existing documentation to one of the electronic formats (usually PDF) and avoid print in the future.

To aid the paperless process, organizations use digital software to replace paper in their operations. This typically includes tasks and business operations like:

• Electronic invoice and receipt creation.
• Digital note-taking.
• Project management.
• Creating electronic signatures.
• Cloud data storage.
• Digital, internal office communications.
• And more.

Benefits of digital office management  

While there are many benefits of paperless office management, the main pros have to do with saving time and money.

Managing your files digitally will allow you to automate specific processes and save time where manual intervention is required. 

Here are just a few ways insurance companies can benefit from going paperless: 

• Saving digital copies of paperwork: Save your policy statements, quotes, renewals, cancellations, and other documents and access them at any time. With physical storage not being required, you’ll never lose another document with the electronic backup features of each system. 

• Save time during insurance claims: Though insurance claims require many manual reviews, you can save time during the process by digitally managing each case. A document linking feature will allow you to link paperwork together that has the same policy number, such as estimates and legal files. 

• Automated insurance billing: With billing being another process that relies heavily on paperwork, having a system that can automate the process is highly beneficial. With access to authorized documents at all times, customer service representatives will save time by reducing the amount of time spent searching for specific documents in a filing cabinet. 

According to research, most businesses achieve full ROI within 12 months. While 84% of businesses achieved payback in less than 18 months.

Why Insurance Companies Need Automated Document Generation to Go Paperless

One of the best ways to lead the paperless initiative is through automated document generation software.

Data security is another reason to automate insurance document generation. 

Auto insurance generators and insurance web portals handle tons of private data, including:

• First and last names.
• Contact details.
• Contact information.
• Credit score.
• Driving records.
• And other sensitive customer information.

If secure document management and delivery are important to you, then you should consider investing in a secure document management system.

One of the most critical needs for any insurance company has to do with the privacy and security of their documents.

As such, you should check if the document management solution offers you sufficient data loss prevention features like:

• Document control access.
• Audit logs.
• User roles and permission settings.
• Safe AES 256  encryption options.
• Legally compliant document deletion.
• 2FA support.
• SSO support.
• Live document alerts.
• And more.

How does automated document generation work? 

Document automation is the use of document generation software to automatically create, format, store, and deliver electronic documents. 

Although you probably handle many different file formats, PDF is the most common one for your document management and creation.

However, chances are, your user data and information comes from HTML. For example, from website contact forms.

So, with the right automated PDF generation software, you’ll be able to take the source data from HTML and automatically generate a PDF document based on that.

Some of the most common document templates for this use case include:

• Insurance claims.
• Contracts.
• Order Confirmation.
• Proof of delivery.
• Invoices and bills.
• Insurance financial statements.
• And more

Here’s an invoice receipt example by HubSpot, which illustrates what forms would be automatically filled in with user information.

‍With this in mind, here’s what you gain from automating document generation as an insurance company.

5 Main Benefits of Automated Document Generation For Insurance Companies

It’s become clear to many companies that automated document generation and paperless business practices truly pay off in more ways than one. 

Some of the biggest benefits of automated document generation for insurance companies include:

• Improved time management.
• Saving space.
• Saving money.
• Supporting the environment through eco-green operations.
• Improved document security.
• And more.

Let’s take a look at each benefit in detail.

Improved time management

As mentioned briefly already, your employees’ time management is crucial. 

With automated document generation, you can drastically reduce the time spent on filing, organizing, and manually searching for paper documents. With the correct system in place, your employees will spend their time on more productive tasks. 

According to Frevvo:

• 85% of business leaders believe that automation will give them and their employees more time to focus on more productive tasks.
• 73% of IT leaders say that thanks to automation processes, employees are saving between 10% and 50% of their time on doing manual tasks.

Saving space

The management and storage of paper typically take up a lot of space. 

‍Filing cabinets, books, and bookshelves all fill space quickly. Especially when in a small office. 

One of the flaws of being a paper-only office is that paper can quickly pile up faster than it can be properly sorted and organized. With a digital file system, these issues are removed and document organization becomes simple. 

A filing cabinet is a far less convenient way to handle documents than a paper document management system.

And a simple, four-drawer cabinet holds around 11,000 documents. According to Formstack, it costs around $1,500 per year to maintain this.

This brings us to our next point.

Saving money

When you switch to automated processes, you’ll not only find your employees being more productive in the time you pay them for, but you’ll also save money elsewhere. 

Utilizing digital files will reduce money spent on paper, printers, ink, postage, filing, and more. 

Supporting the environment

With today’s generation becoming more eco-conscious, many businesses are implementing more environmentally friendly practices into their workflow. 

With the paper industry soaring, there are negative impacts on the environment such as deforestation, global warming, and more. 

While recycling can have some positive impacts, it’s more beneficial to reduce paper costs altogether. Ink, toners, and other non-renewable substances continue to damage the environment, as well. 

Improved document security

One of the most important benefits of having a paperless office and utilizing automated document generation is improving the security of documents. 

Paper can get lost, misfiled, or destroyed. And according to TotallyPaperless:

• It costs around $20 to file a document.
• $120 to search for a misfiled document.
• And around $250 to recreate a lost document from scratch.

With proper document management software, you will have the ability to grant access to certain documents. This way, you feel secure in knowing you can safely collect electronic signatures, confidential information, create audit trails, and more. 

Legal, Software, And Security Challenges Of Going Paperless As An Insurance Company And How To Overcome Them

When adopting paperless payment processing and document generation, you also need to consider the legal aspects, pick the right software, and ensure the necessary security level. 

Here are some things to consider for legal and compliance purposes: 

Legal challenges of document generation for insurance companies

Although paperless payment processing and communications greatly simplify compliance, you will have to meet regulations anyway, especially since your business requires detailed reporting. 

That’s why local and global regulations remain one of the paperless communication challenges. Global regulations such as the GDPR still apply for paperless payment processing. Local regulations also apply based on your area. 

To make paperless payment processing and paperless communications compliant as an insurance company, you will need to:

1. Speak with local legal counsel to determine which limitations apply to your business
2. Check if your potential document management software is WORM compliant and offers a detailed audit trail. 

It also must have a robust retention policy, role-based security, and support data encryption. 

All other services, including rendering software, must meet the same security standards.

For a more detailed breakdown of all this, see our full guide on legal software and the security challenges of going paperless.

5 Examples Of Insurance Templates To Use In Document Process Automation

If you provide an insurance web portal as a vendor or use it in your company, you need to automate the insurance documentation process. Users then will be able to receive personalized docs with accurate information in real time. 

Here are 5 examples of types of insurance templates that you can utilize in your document process automation. 

1. Insurance request form

Insurance templates of request forms are the primary document type to automate in a web platform. 

Whatever insurance services you provide, health insurance, car insurance, or liability, customers will need to send a request form. 

If you implement insurance templates in your web platform, the software will automatically generate pre-filled request forms for users. They will only accept and sign the document to start using your services. It speeds up the onboarding of new leads and improves customer experience.

2. Data processing consent request

Insurance documents include lots of personal data that users must allow you to process. 

Therefore, data consent is one of the essential insurance templates in a web platform. Since it’s a standard document, automation is easy. Inform consumers how you process their personal information and collect their official approval. It will make the operation of your web insurance portal more transparent and compliant.

3. Car policy insurance templates

These insurance templates are intended for car insurance providers who use web software to offer their services. 

Consumers that look for auto insurance scan many offers and rates before choosing the most suitable one. Therefore, when they visit your web portal, they should be able to download a PDF car insurance policy. You can also fill such insurance templates automatically to email them as marketing materials and engage more leads.

4. Regular insurance communications templates

Apart from official documents, the insurance documentation process includes regular communications. 

Many of them are template-based and allow automation. You can adopt automated document rendering to archive email communications, send welcome messages, deliver notifications, and more. Such communications are not life-critical, but they considerably enhance the quality of customer service.

5. Healthcare and life insurance templates

Healthcare and life insurance dominate the US insurance market. Many Americans join healthcare plans to secure themselves from tremendous financial expenses in case of health issues. 

The market segment is well-established and highly standardized. Hence, there are tons of healthcare insurance templates to adopt. Certificate of long-term care, group health plan coverage, and insurance claims are just a few of them. Hence, if you run a healthcare or life insurance portal, be sure to automate the insurance documentation process for standard docs.

Inkit Render For Automating Insurance Document Generation Process And Going Paperless

Ready to start generating insurance documents automatically and go paperless?

To create a smooth transition to automated document generation and paperless office management, you should have the correct tools in place. 

‍Render is a document generation API that you can integrate with your insurance web portal. It automatically converts HTML to custom PDF files based on personalized templates and real-time triggers. 

For your convenience, you can layer it into your existing insurance software to automate the insurance documentation process, including document creation, retrieval, and archiving. Since Render supports user roles and is regulatory compliant, it’s a perfect fit to process insurance docs with personal data.

Whether you need to generate 10 confidential insurance forms or 100,000 customer statements, Inkit Render makes it possible and secure to do so with a simple API request!