Article

Michael Nutley
Michael Nutley 15 March 2021

Digital Enrolment Delivers Benefits Across the Organisation

New research by London Research for Adobe shows that the combination of on-line forms and e-signatures isn't just a way to deliver an improved customer experience. Companies are also using it to increase productivity and efficiency, and improve legal safeguards.

If you hear the term ‘digital enrolment’, you probably think of automating the final step of the sales process, the point where a prospect signs up to become a customer. But, important though that is, it’s just one part of a much bigger picture of how companies are using the combination of online forms and electronic signatures that make up digital enrolment technology.

In fact, according to a survey carried out by London Research for Adobe, more organisations are using online forms and e-signatures for service and work orders, application forms, and proposals, quotes and contracts than for customer onboarding. And they’re looking for greater productivity and efficiency, and better legal safeguards, just as much as they are for a better experience for customers.

The Digital Enrolment Experience report found that the components of digital enrolment are already widely used in the UK and Europe. Almost all the survey respondents (97%) are using some form of online form technology, while more than three-quarters (77%) are using e-signatures. And more than two-thirds (70%) say they’ve integrated the two.

The idea that departments across the business have found use cases for digital enrolment is reinforced by another survey finding; in the majority of cases the responsibility for better digital enrolment falls to either IT (41%) or to the CEO (25%). This supports the idea that the technology is being adopted through a process of land-and-expand, with it being successfully trialled in one department before being rolled out in others.

Enrolling in Digital Transformation

While the report clearly shows the value of digital enrolment across the organisation, the results suggest that it is also crucial in digital transformation. According to the Adobe/Econsultancy 2020 Digital Trends report, this is the elimination of the structural, cultural and technological barriers that prevent most companies from effectively managing data and providing great customer experiences.

Almost all (95%) of the companies surveyed said that improved customer satisfaction, engagement and experience was a priority for them, with half saying it was a top priority.

In this view, offline form-completion and signing is the last analogue link in an otherwise digital chain. Survey respondents recognise the value of digital enrolment across their relationships with new and existing customers, and they’re backing that recognition with budget.

More than four in five companies (85%) agree they’re ‘increasing investment in technology to fully digitise data capture and signature processes’. A similar proportion (80%) say they want to transform the legacy system they currently use to capture data, in order to support omnichannel experiences.

Meeting the Needs of Every User

The fact that companies are taking a strategic view of the technology can also be seen from their shopping-list for a digital enrolment system. Alongside improved efficiency and compliance, features such as a frictionless cross-device experience, analytics, and the ability to integrate with back-end and third-party systems score highly.

But as Rupert Wills, Solution Consulting Manager, Adobe Document Cloud, points out in his foreword, organisations need more than the right technology to build automated experiences that are seamless across devices.

“Whether companies are working on better enrolment for customers, partners or employees, they are destined to fail if these experiences are not carefully engineered according to the needs of both the end-user and the business,” Wills says. “Good design, based on a strong understanding of both the customer’s and the company’s requirements, is of paramount importance.”

The Digital Enrolment Experience report is available to download from Adobe.

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