What do insurance companies, real estate agents, car dealerships, accountants, auction houses and banks have in common? Well probably a lot, but for the purpose of this blog we’ll just highlight that they are all well known channels for criminals to launder money. 

In our increasingly technical world, we have access to so many options for keeping track of our lives. From how many steps we take, to the real-time location of our family members and friends, to all of our spending habits. 

Onboarding. For companies, a never-ending quest to figure out the best balance between meeting customer expectations and providing a great experience while ensuring that all necessary details are gathered, managed, and stored accurately and securely. Not to mention doing so in a way that can help save employee time and cost.

There’s been a lot of discussion about Artificial Intelligence (AI). From sci-fi movies of robots that are too smart for their own (or humankind’s) good, the reality of advancements in AI technology has had some clear impacts on our lives and is expected to continue to change the way we live and work.

Routine can seem mundane, but in a workplace it can also be a great backbone of productivity. However, with routine can also come some negatives - an over-reliance on how things are done, an attitude that the established ways are the best ways…basically, a resistance to change.

While the legal industry is highly traditional, in previous blog posts we have touched on the fact that there is one area that is experiencing bigger, faster changes when it comes to digital transformation in daily work: legal departments within companies.

In our previous blog article, we took a closer look at why some industries still seem to be lagging behind when it comes to digital transformation. Even following the events of the last few years, which forced most businesses to change the way they operated, some are still clinging to traditional practices and operations. One such industry is: legal.

It would be difficult to argue that digitalization has not had a far-reaching effect on every aspect of our lives as individuals. For businesses, it’s no different. With the rapid changes required when it became clear that the pandemic was not going to be a short-term blip, digital transformation became more than just a future goal but a necessity for surviving a time unlike any we’ve experienced in our lifetimes.

What’s most important in interacting with companies in an online environment? From payment transactions to signing up for a service to accessing an onboarding form, it’s impossible to deny that today, one of the primary concerns for customers and businesses alike is: trust. In this case, digital trust.

If you’re running a business, you’re likely handling sales of one form or another. It could be you personally nurturing leads and bringing in new customers, or it might be an entire department of staff working hard to follow up and secure the sale, moving the customer to the onboarding process.

Taktikal is pleased to announce a new board of directors, consisting of: Íris Arna Jóhannsdóttir, Sigurður Orri Guðmundsson (Chairman of the Board) and Soffía Theódora Tryggvadóttir. 

Building software solutions is not too dissimilar from physical building work…if you don’t take the physical part into account. Otherwise, the right solution - like the right construction project - identifies a need, determines who and what is required to get the job done, and eventually creates a space that meets the needs of those using it - virtually, that is.

For many businesses, before the events of 2020, electronic signature options were rarely necessary. Some companies had already started to adopt e-signing options as part of a general digital transformation plan, while new companies were looking to implement them as part of a process from the start in order to appeal to an increasingly digital target audience.

An electronic seal serves the same purpose as a physical seal: it ensures the integrity of a document. A seal shows that the document is fully finalized and that the contents of that document have not been altered since the time the seal was applied. Electronic seals work in the same way, just in digital form.

Making it easy to sign. It’s a simple answer, right? And yet how many times have businesses taken the time to create, edit, approve, and send out important documentation and then waited for seemingly ages to receive the signed version back from the signee?

It’s the digital equivalent of reading the instructions…when learning how to use new software, how many of us take the time to watch or read tutorials while taking notes and then applying what we’ve learned by diligently following step-by-step? In a world where our attention spans are rapidly decreasing, our guess is: not many.

In a world increasingly connected, even across long distances, there are situations where we find ourselves far from the ability to appear in person to handle requests or deal with formal documentation.

From the onset, Taktikal’s outlook has been that in order to be in the trust service industry, we have to be trustworthy. With that in mind, information security has always played a big part here at Taktikal and our products are designed with a security- and privacy-first mentality.

There are plenty of discussions around the digitalization of workflows - typically on the customer facing side as well as data-driven processes. Everything from new customer forms to insurance claims to bank account applications and more…today there are simple, digital solutions to nearly any document workflow, both internal and external.

Here at Taktikal, we believe in celebrating your wins. In a competitive business environment such as SaaS, this is especially important. With that in mind, we are happy to share that Taktikal was recently acknowledged as a “Fyrirmyndarfyrirtæki í rekstri” - for those still working on their Icelandic, this translates roughly to “Model company in operations”.

Now that Taktikal is embarking on a journey to reach new markets and expand our product offerings we decided it was a good idea to obtain  an ISO 27001 Information Security Standard certification, so that we can show our customers that we take the security of their data seriously. 

We’re proud to share that Taktikal has been awarded the Equality Scale - a recognition of our commitment to reaching gender equality in the workplace given by the Association of Businesswomen in Iceland (FKA - Félag kvenna í atvinnulífinu) to companies exemplifying gender equality by reaching a 40/60 ratio in top management.

The traditional thin metal filing cabinets with a built-in key lock were the standard for businesses looking to keep their paperwork secure. Additional measures could be taken of course - placing those cabinets behind several locked doors, minimizing the number of people with access to keys, or even installing more heavy duty safes for highly confidential documents.

Which companies are making the biggest impact on climate change? The first industries that come to mind are most likely the obvious, high-profile players: those focused on clean energy, sustainable living, and waste reduction. 

The process of Know Your Customer (KYC) is yet another that has not escaped the pull of digital transformation. And would we want it to? The events of recent years have forced companies to quickly adopt more digital solutions faster than previously anticipated. With the increase in digital onboarding and interaction, there was a clear need to implement clear anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC measures in a digital context.

The insurance industry has been widely known as being a central focus for fraud in a digital environment. With all the improvements and the forced transition to fully digital interactions, is that still the case in 2022? 

Certain terms find their way to the forefront of the business world and can quickly get to the point of feeling overused - thrown around at every opportunity to show that a business is current and up-to-date. While many of these are short-lived trends that give mundane tasks or events a short lived spark of attention, some stick around and become part of the vernacular. So what makes these terms different from the brief lifespans of the latest business hype word?

Digital transformation is no longer a nice-to-have, it is instead a necessity for insurance companies if they would like to stay competitive and appealing to new and existing customers. But it’s about more than simply surviving and staying relevant. It’s about making improvements to provide a better employee experience and working environment as well.

In an industry known for well-established, colossal companies that dominate the market, newcomers to the insurance provider field have some distinct advantages when it comes to the implementation of digital solutions. A great example of this is Lemonade that uses AI in the form of chatbots to handle claims and provide insurance policies. Policies can be purchased and claims paid within a few minutes or less. 

Today many of us rely heavily on digital solutions for running our lives, from our daily habits to our finances and our businesses. Companies have access to some truly impressive solutions that enable them to take their processes online and build better workflows, improve efficiency, cut costs, and improve security and compliance.

What does the term ‘time stamping’ bring to mind? For many, it’s likely a small machine that physically stamps a document or a ticket with a particular date and time, validating the paper document for a set period or indicating the finalized version.

Growing up, many of us were instructed not to waste paper - that using too much paper kills trees and harms the environment. Delving into the true statistics behind the state of paper production and use is truly staggering. 

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – 13 January 2022 – Taktikal, a developer of next generation digital trust solutions, announces that Brunnur Ventures had invested $2 million into the company to drive customer acquisition and the international build out of its business strategy. Taktikal provides enterprise-grade electronic signatures solutions to meet the growing need for companies to automate and streamline processes that require identification, authentication, and authorisation. Taktikal leverages deep expertise with the state-level authentication infrastructure of Nordic nation states such as Iceland to offer faster processing, greater efficiency in document management, reduced operational risk and a better customer experience.