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FormFiler^® Business Uses

Candidate Applications

A significant number of forms, whether paper or electronic, require signatures. Some of these signatures may be required by law. For example, in many states auto insurance customers must sign waivers of certain kinds of coverage. In other cases a signature may not be legally mandated, but may be required as a matter of corporate policy in order to reduce the risk of repudiated transactions. Some of the major transaction types that typically require signatures include: 

Mortgage Applications Brokerage Applications Healthcare & Credentialing Forms Credit Card Applications Insurance Applications Human Resource Forms Proxy Forms

Financial / Loan Applications College Applications Prescription Drug Forms Government Forms Voter Registration Forms Absentee Ballot Applications Legal / Accounting Applications

Presently, what is often done is to collect some key information online (name, address, phone number, etc.), create a signature document containing this information and other data about the desired transaction (e.g., loan amount, terms of insurance coverage offered, etc.), and mail this to the customer, who signs it and mails it back. At this point, the organization has to perform some sort of data entry (manual or via OCR) if there is new data on the signed form, or verify that no changes have been made to data already entered online.

Legal Precedent

While the passage of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign) confirms legislative support for documents that are "signed" electronically, it will be decades before all of the U.S. courts (local, state, and federal) affirm the validity of these laws through enforcement and prosecution of precedent-setting cases. Until that time, many businesses have adopted a wait-and-see position instead of embracing "electronic" signatures, especially for higher value transactions.

Because the actual handwritten wet-ink signature can be part of the process, FormFiler does not push the envelope of legal acceptance for business transactions. You can safely adopt FormFiler today with the knowledge that there is a rich history of legal precedent and little risk regarding rule of law.

A Sample Business Scenario

Mortgage Application:
OmniLoan Mortgage Services is looking to enhance and expedite the mortgage process by providing an online application method. For business reasons, OmniLoan must retain a wet-ink signature for all new applications. OmniLoan already has a significant investment in infrastructure for an existing Web-based application, which offers the end user the ability to obtain an online quote. However, OmniLoan is looking for an alternative to their present procedure, which forces them to mail forms to the end user to obtain the wet-ink signature before the loan can be finalized. Without FormFiler, the customer receives the form several days after contacting OmniLoan and must complete the paper form, sign it, and mail it back to OmniLoan. Once received at OmniLoan, it is routed internally to the data entry department to manually key in the data received on the form and verify that it is the same as that received online for the quote. Finally, their existing loan processing system can approve the application and the transaction is complete. 

OmniLoan has chosen FormFiler to signature-enable their new Web application in order to close transactions more quickly, eliminate data entry and verification as well as mailing costs, and reduce the percentage of abandoned transactions. 

Here's how the FormFiler scenario will work for OmniLoan: 
An end user, Mr. Jones, goes to the OmniLoan Web site and gets a quote for a mortgage. He is happy with the quote he receives and completes the online application in his Web browser. Upon completing the online application, Mr. Jones submits the data electronically to OmniLoan. 

After submission, Mr. Jones receives back in his browser a fully completed mortgage application form, which includes a unique bar-code identifier that binds the form to the electronic transaction. While Mr. Jones is printing the form, signing it, and then mailing or faxing (or scanning and emailing) it back to OmniLoan, OmniLoan begins processing his application. Since he elected to fax the form back, the transaction can be closed in the same day. Mr. Jones is pleased that he was able to receive a quote, complete the application, and retain a copy of the transaction for his records in just one interaction with OmniLoan. 

Upon receipt of the signed form at OmniLoan, the bar code is scanned and the data that was submitted online is matched to the paper without any manual data entry. OmniLoan is pleased because the transaction is completed with minimal cost and incorporated seamlessly into their standard business processes.