Slides from the March 10, 2016 eSignLive e-Signatures Summit for Insurance Executives. Presentation on Best Practices for E-Signature Adoption By Independent Agents

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Chris Loringer, IT Director, Business Applications and Support,
Erie Insurance
Brian Donavan, AVP Information Services, Agency Automation,
Donegal Group
Best Practices for E-Signature
Adoption By Independent Agents

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THE ERIE STORY

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Erie Insurance Overview
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Who is Erie Insurance?
• Opened doors in 1925
• Our founder is H.O. Hirt, whose ideals and quotes we still stand by today
• Above All in SERvIcE ®
• To provide our Policyholders with as near perfect protection, as near perfect service as is
humanly possible and to do so at the lowest possible cost
• Customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia
• 9,000 independent Agents
• More than 5 million policies in force for auto, home and commercial insurance
• Nearly 5,000 Employees
• Fortune 500
Agent Relationship
• We sell through a network of Independent Insurance Agents

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Erie Insurance Footprint
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12 States & DC
19 Branches
2,200 Agencies

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E-Signature at Erie Insurance
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Project Scope
• Personal Lines, new business
• Auto, Home, Boat, PCL
• 12 states and District of Columbia, 19 Branches, 2,200 Agencies
• Targeted the biggest part of our business
Drivers and Benefits
• Ease of doing business
• Secure and flexible
• Temporary ID Cards
• Eliminate manual processes
• Centralize signatures
• Save time
• Eliminate paper – Go Green!

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Roll Out and Training
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Rollout
• Pilot – began with 20 agencies
• Extended Pilot – 120 agencies
• Full rollout – about 200 agencies every 2-4 weeks, completed Nov, 2015
• Key – during the Pilots, took the time to review process flows and usability, gain
feedback, conducted surveys, then applied enhancements
Training
• Conducted a roll out for training in increments
• First Branch Managers and District Sales Managers
• Followed by targeted agencies
Challenges
• Made system performance improvements in usability and response time

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Adoption
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Adoption Rates
• Initial target was 50%
• Actual Initial adoption was 85%
• Adoption rates rose quickly to 95% and trending up
Adoption Approach
• e-Signature optional to Agents initially
• Became a requirement for Agents and optional for Customers

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THE DONEGAL STORY

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About Donegal Group
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• Personal, Commercial, Farm
• 2500 Independent Agents
• 22 States
• Automation and Ease of Use

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Donegal Group Project
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• Introduced September 2014
• Currently in 12 of 22 states
• Agent web portal has been in place for more than 10 years
• Personal Lines - new business applications and policy changes
• Why eSignatures?
• Agents Requested
• Ease of Doing Business
• Underwriting Resources
• Reduce Risk
• My role in the company and the esignature implementation

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Types of eSignature
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• On Premise vs Cloud
• In Office Signing
• Workflow
• Remote Signing
• Workflow
• Validation

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Roll Out
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Adoption
• Offered in 12/22 states
• Roll out state by state
• 30% average adoption to date; varies state to state
Training/Announcements
• Webinars with agents and territory sales managers
• Updated user manuals with step by step instructions
• Discussions, flyers at regional agency meetings
IT Efforts
• Integration – XML, Front End, Back End
• Document analysis and design
• Dynamic design allowed for rapid implementation
• Ongoing adjustments and bug fixes
FEEDBACK FROM AGENTS…
“your e-signature workflow
is the easiest we’ve
encountered.”

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Results
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• Adoption
• Adoption varies based on region and target audience
• Time and Cost Savings
• Underwriting resources freed up to work on other items
• 10-15 minutes per transaction
• Online agent initiated cancellations with esignature only option
• Overall cost and time savings on resources and materials
• Mail/Processing
• Audit Trail and Risk
• Powerful audit trail and visual history tracks down issues quickly
• Triage resolution
• Risk mitigation for signed documents

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Lessons Learned – Q&A
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Education is key to agent adoption
• On-demand webinars and training material available
• Marketing promotion material sent to agencies
• eSignature offering promoted at annual agent conferences
Initial agent experience is important
• Usage is steady after initial esignature
• Help desk trained to assist agents
• Keeping system up and running error free
Build in time to redesign
• State by state roll out slowed down by forms redesign
• Continually system and workflow tweaks

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Q: Why did you choose to implement e-signatures for your
IAs rather than waiting for agents to do this on their own?

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Q: What strategies did you use to promote the new e-sign
process to your IAs?

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Q: Have you had any agent pushback?