Safeguarding Document Assets:

Recent events have caused the insurance industry to consider and evaluate how document assets are secured. Documents are not just pieces of paper. Documents manifest a companys brand and are at the heart of all insurance relationships. It is the document that makes an insurance product tangible.Safeguarding documents must be a priority for insurance organizations in 2002. Without the security of document assets, businesses may be seriously compromised, interrupted, languish from lost productivity or suffer through exposure to regulatory penalties and legal action. And, in a business where success in this endeavor is tied into policyholders perception of their insurers stability, being able to confidently lay concerns to rest is just good business.Many events can compromise your documents. These events can include equipment failures, hacker activity, and disasters (natural, such as earthquakes and flooding; or man-made, such as terrorist attacks and arson). One of the best ways to protect a physical document is in an off-site, well-secured vault. Paradoxically, this brings security measures into direct conflict with the ever-increasing need to make information available to staff so they can effectively serve customers and other stakeholders.Strategies to eliminate exposure to document loss include deployment of document automation solutions, physical storage systems, and electronic storage supported by multi-level back-ups through which guaranteed recovery of electronic documents can be realized. For virtually all activities involving the document, an electronic copy will be suitable. In many legal or regulatory cases where the physical document is required, the chance of the document being available, and in the expected place, increases dramatically if the original is not physically handled on a day-to-day basis.Document automation solutions secure documents and make your business more efficient. Where document automation is deployed successfully the top-line and bottom-line rewards are very significant.The recent flurry of mergers and acquisitions has intensified the problem of controlling and securing documents. New consolidated organizations may require streamlined operations and access to documents across departments that are not close in proximity. The acquiring companies are often faced with multiple, disparate sources of legacy data and may not know what documents are actually under their stewardship. Managing and protecting these acquired assets often requires an investment in new technologies that best meet their requirements for the storage of mission-critical documents.Another area of exposure is work in progress. If the status, notes, and work files, are brain-, paper-, or hard drive-based, then completing open items may be just about impossible. Incorporating document automation, workflow and project collaboration tools into the workplace ensures that work in progress continues to progress.So where do you start? The first step is to select a vendor that understands the importance of documents to insurance one who has worked with many leading insurance companies. In evaluating vendors, look for a company that takes time to understand your current document processes and takes a diagnose before you prescribe approach.