This is part two of our series on document workflow automation. Read part one to learn why e-signatures alone aren’t enough.

One of the most interesting things that emerged at Kinections25 was how broadly financial institutions are applying workflow automation once they have it in place.

It starts with the obvious: lending and account opening. But then it spreads.

Heather Deneault from Denison State Bank shared:

“Our bookkeeping department actually took notice and I was approached by the officer there and she said, hey, do you think we could use this for stop pays? Because she was chasing customers all over to try to get a signature on a stop pay and calling them all the time to try to get them to come into a branch.”

Stop payment requests aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think about digital transformation. But for the department responsible for them, the impact of digital document workflows was immediate and significant:

“It has made a world of difference in the responses that they’ve gotten on those signed documents. I mean, it’s within minutes now. So they’re just thrilled that they’re not having to call and chase customers,” said Heather.

Eric Soya from United Bank described a similar expansion:

“When we started out—it was very much a branch-use, customer-focused intention. But as the other departments were seeing it or hearing about it, we’ve got risk management using it quite a bit. Deposit operations has been sending quite a few things out. HR is now using it.”

The pattern is consistent: once one department demonstrates success with workflow automation, others want in. Risk management. Deposit operations. HR. Wire transfers. Compliance mailings. Beneficial ownership documentation.

Each new use case, on its own, might seem minor.

But the cumulative effect is substantial: hundreds of document processes that previously relied on manual tracking, phone calls, and crossed fingers now flow automatically from initiation to completion.

One use case deserves special attention because it illustrates how workflow automation can address risk in addition to efficiency.

Wire transfer fraud is a growing concern for financial institutions. The standard defenses work well when customers can come into a branch or use online banking. But what about customers who can’t do either?

Eric explained how United Bank addressed this gap:

“We put together a workflow for those wire transfers that has a remote attachment request. So the branch user starts that workflow, enters the wire information, sends it to the customer with that remote attachment request. It requires the customer to attach some additional documentation that gets routed back so that the branch can then finish processing.”

Think about what’s happening here: The workflow creates a secure channel for the customer to provide not just a signature, but supporting documentation. That documentation gets attached to the request and routed automatically. The branch gets everything they need in one place, with an audit trail documenting the entire process.

The result?

“Being able to add that remote attachment really gave us a lot more comfort in continuing to offer those wire transfers as customers are not able to come into a branch.”

This is more than a process improvement; it’s risk mitigation. The workflow creates a documented chain of custody that didn’t exist before.

If there’s ever a question about a wire transfer, the institution has a complete record of who requested it, what documentation was provided, and who approved it at each step.

Here’s something that surprised both institutions: consumers have come to expect eSignatures. They are less willing to tolerate coming into a branch to sign documents.

Heather described the evolution at Denison State Bank:

“We didn’t know how they would react to maybe just sending the documents for them to sign without them coming into the bank and seeing their officer maybe face to face. But they actually have enjoyed it. Now they get to choose when’s the most convenient.”

Denison State Bank is located in rural Kansas, serving an agricultural community where customers’ schedules don’t conform to banker’s hours.

During harvest season, farmers are working from before dawn until after dark. The idea that they’d have to find time during their day to drive to a branch and sit in an office was always friction—they just accepted it because there was no alternative.

Now they sign when it’s convenient for them. And the result:

“We have customers who call and say, you can just send that to me. I’ll just e-sign it, right? And they know that it’s an expectation now from our customers that we have to provide.”

The shift is significant.

Customers aren’t asking “can you send this electronically?”

They’re expecting it.

United Bank saw the same pattern:

“We tell them when you’re learning it, have someone else in your branch send you a couple documents so that you can experience the customer side of it. Then you know how easy it is. So now they have very easily shifted to ‘would you like me to send that to you for an e-signature? Would you like to come into a branch? What’s most convenient for you?'”

When employees experience the process from the customer’s perspective, they become advocates for it.

They understand intuitively that this isn’t about replacing human interaction.

It’s about making the interaction happen where and when the customer wants it.

What starts as a lending efficiency tool becomes infrastructure for the entire institution. Stop payments. Wire transfers. HR documents. Compliance forms.

Each department discovers their own version of the problem: manual processes that rely on human memory and follow-up.

And each department discovers the same solution: let the workflow handle the routing, tracking, and documentation while humans focus on the exceptions and the relationships.

At its core, this is what Intelligent Banking is all about. Technology does what it does best, while people focus on what they do best.