Going "paperless" is so last decade
I had a call with an agent owner recently who said that 2018 was the year his agency was going paperless. It was a big deal for him and he was very proud of it. I was excited for him...soft of.
Many of us stopped using paper a long time ago. For me, when something requires the use of paper, it goes on a todo list until there are at least 5 other things on the list to do. Then I carve out an hour of time and do them all. It could be over a month before I get to it.
Eliminating PDFs is the future
I live my life with three core values...Adventure, Hospitality & Creativity. And while "going paperless" may be creative for some, I have a bigger goal. I want to eliminate PDFs.
For the past year, we've been helping independent agents use the Internet to collect information from clients and generate signed PDFs that can be used to quote and bind coverage. We do that because that's how carriers expect to receive submissions.
But let's be honest...it's a bit ridiculous that you need to generate a signed PDF, so you can attach it to an email, so you can email it to a carrier, so they can type it into their systems.I mean...WTF??!?!?
What's after PDFs?
In the short term, it's web pages. And in our case, beautifully designed, interactive web pages that help you quickly get to the information you need.
In the long term, we won't even need web pages to share information...we'll just send API requests and get the answers we need.
Sound good?
If any of this resonates, have a listen to the podcast I recently recorded with Zack Miller on Tearsheet and hit me up if you have ideas about how we can get rid of PDFs faster!
.svg)
.svg)
