E-signing is becoming increasingly popular in the pension fund sector, offering a secure, convenient, and cost-effective way to manage the document flows. In this article, we will explore the benefits of e-signing for PGB pension funds and how they went from paper intensive to paperless with ValidSign!
About PGB
Pensionfund PGB was founded by employers and employees from the Grafimedia back in 1953. It handles pensions schemes for employees from various sectors, including industry and services. Together with its executive organisation PGB Pension Services, Pension Fund PGB is actively working to keep pensions affordable and to a high standard.
Since 2016, PGB has been working with ValidSign’s digital signature to sign both internal and external documents. And the fund signs lots of documents yearly, hundreds of them! Like pension contracts and prolongations but also internal documents such as declarations, invoices and HR documents are now being signed through the ValidSign platform. And compared to manually signing on paper, this new process has brought many advantages to the pension fund.
“ValidSign’s e- signature allows us to (have) documents signed independent of location and time, this creates a workflow that is easy to manage which saves us a great amount of time in return.” Frans van Veen, Actuary at Pension Fund PGB
From paper intensive to paperless
Previously, all documents were manually signed on paper, which often caused delays in the signing processes. Elske Heringa, who works as Board Secretary at the pension fund, says: “Previously, documents were lost or we had to wait a long time before documents were returned signed and you didn’t know exactly in the signing process the documents were pending. So the e-signing solutions have had a major impact on PGB.”
The e-signature solution was initially planned to be used for only external documents, like pension contracts, approvals etc. But the more the staff worked with the platform, the more convinced they became that it should be used for internal documents as well!
The main benefit is the time savings but also the great overview you receive of the document flow on the e-signing platform.
You can clearly see what documents have been signed and which are pending to be signed, and by whom. It is then possible to send signing reminders to speed up the process further. By using a e-signature platform, documents won’t be lost on their way and you can check the status at any time.
“We often have documents that have eight or more signatories, if this process is done by post, it’s incredibly difficult to know the status of the document. But thanks to the e-signature solution, you can track the status on the dashboard and send reminders if needed,” says Frans van Veen.
The board of PGB meets once every two weeks for their board meeting. Previously, the members spent at least one hour getting all the documents signed. But with the ValidSign platform, they can now send the documents digitally prior to the meeting for review and then sign them all with one click. It is now no longer needed to all be at the same location for reviewing the document or place the signature making the meeting more efficient and interesting for its members!
Yearly signing of documents
Also, PGB Pension Services, the executive organization of PGB Pension Fund, has been using the e-signing solution for years. As PGB manages hundreds of dfferent pension schemes from different employees, there are yearly an extensive amount of documents to be signed. This because of the yearly premiums changes and each time the clients needs to sign off on this.
ValidSign has now optimized this document process: PGB employees can now send the documents in one mail , which the customer can review and sign within minutes. This saves an enormous amount of time and effort for both employees but also for clients, which improves the overall customer service experience.
Safe and compliant signing
For PGB it was of great importance to find a e-signing supplier that was hosting their solution and storing the date withing the Dutch boarders. As KPN is ValidSigns strategic hosting partner, it was the ideal party.
When data is stored withing the Netherlands, the Dutch Bank has “the right to examine/audit”, meaning that the data centre is continuously monitored. In addition to this, ValidSign also complies with all the new data protection regulations in the Netherlands, as well as throughout the EU, by following strict internal procedures.
For the employees at PGB, the new digital way of signing feels a lot safer. “I find a signed secured PDF document much more secure than a scanned PDF with a few signatures on it. You have an audit trail plus the certificate showing that the document has not been tampered with. There is no messing around with the e- signature!” concludes Frans van Veen. An additional level of security is added when using the SMS verification feature, which is also used by the pension fund. This means that in addition to the sign request received by e-mail, the signer also receives and SMS code to be entered to be able to sign.
User-friendly
The ValidSign platform is not only safe, but also very simple and can be used immediately without much further explanation, according to Elske and Frans. The employees of Pension Fund PGB were able to work with the new platform immediately after the implementationas it’s very user-friendly.
E-signing is an ideal solution for PGB, mployees would certainly recommend it to other organizations that still depend on paper-intensive processes.
“Digital signing? Do it immediately!”, says Frans van Veen. “It saves so much time.”
Want to know more about how ValidSign’s e-signing solution can be implemented in your organization’s workflow?
Contact our sales department on: sales@validsign.eu/ +31(0)85303 3676 or request a Free Demo HERE!
