Category: Uncategorized

The Paperless Trail

On January 9, 2023

In this new digital age where vehicles can be purchased online and delivered in as little as days, it begs the questions: why does processing registrations and titles for those vehicles still take so long and why are these documents still issued as paper when digital solutions are available?

These questions and others have filled the mind of Shane McRann Bigelow, CEO and co-Founder of CHAMPtitles, an Ohio-based technology startup. CHAMP is revolutionizing the historically paper-based titling industry with a first-of-its-kind SaaS software, Digital Title & Registration Suite (DTRS), that completely digitizes the title and registration process for state agencies. Similarly, these questions are on the dockets of state government officials. In West Virginia, they answered the call by rolling out Champ’s DTRS solution in 2022. Discussing the solution at a recent press conference, West Virginia’s Governor Jim Justice stated, “it is more secure, much faster, good for the environment, and it puts our citizens first, getting them out of line at the DMV.” According to Governor Justice, “The result is wildly improved efficiency for our citizens and our state.”

“The truth is today’s vehicle titling systems are antiquated and are in desperate need of a digital overhaul, one that would speed up the process of acquiring, transferring and updating vehicle titles and also do wonders for saving paper,” Bigelow said.

Global consumption of pulp and paper is expected to double from 2010 to 2060. And, as paper production increases, societies are putting more pressure on forests, which are already in a desperate state due to deforestation and manmade climate disasters. As it specifically relates to vehicle titling, an estimated average of 15 million sheets of paper are used annually at each state’s motor vehicle department for titling alone! Digital solutions, however, would eliminate waste and provide efficiencies for them by allowing the transfer of ownership of titles across the US in just days.

Powered by a security-first platform, CHAMP’s software is the first e-titling solution to address the entire ecosystem of vehicle titling. Some companies have tried their hands at deploying and implementing e-title programs and have had some success in addressing the paper waste and inefficiency problems, but they have only scratched the surface of the potential of a digital solution.

“By intentionally serving the entire title transaction ecosystem, our solution tracks the titling process, from a vehicle’s cradle to its grave, eliminating numerous touchpoints and paper documents while providing efficiencies in the system that include faster cycle times, lower exception rates and lower operational costs,” Bigelow said. “Our software ultimately aims to

2 / 3

digitize the transfer of ownership of any movable asset throughout the world, creating an easier, more efficient, and ecofriendly experience for everyone.”

Beyond the waste of individual sheets of paper, there is a cost to managing paper and filing documents. Paperless software significantly reduces those expenses, which would inevitably translate to savings for states, vehicle dealerships, fleet operators, insurance providers and individuals involved with the vehicle titling process.

More importantly, software that truly reduces paper consumption also reduces the carbon footprint of all parties involved. While most people think of paper’s effect on forests, many do not realize the other negative environmental consequences associated with paper use. Paper represents 26% of waste dumped in landfills and when it degrades, it becomes toxic and emits methane gas. Paper that does not currently occupy landfills, still takes up valuable real estate when it sits in filing cabinets or is stored throughout offices. Further, cars that are waiting to be recycled in salvage yards leak fluids and destroy the earth, all because they sit and wait for a paper title to arrive so the cars can be sold.

CHAMP’s solution solves the paper waste issue that is so prevalent in the vehicle titling process, and it increases productivity by addressing the fragmented nature of vehicle titling from state to state where different laws and practices in each create significant complexity. The Champ DTRS solution is purpose-built to digitize and expedite title and registration systems without modifying existing government processes or increasing software operating costs. That said, the one process it does change is that it eliminates the need for consumers to have to drive to and then line up at DMVs to process paper titles and registrations – that can all move online, saving time for consumers and further reducing the carbon cost of title and registration.

Industries that deal with vehicles and their titles are also seeing big wins for their customers and their bottom lines. “CHAMP makes it easier to work with government systems. By digitizing a formerly paper process, we have seen material, time, and monetary savings,” Gary Thompson, Director of ENCOVA Insurance, said.

The state of West Virginia was an adopter of this innovative titling technology. “The improvements we have seen in the quality and efficiency of the DMV’s services to the dealers in West Virginia has been nothing short of amazing. The ability to digitally submit transactions and communicate with DMV title clerks in real time has allowed them to cut costs, decrease the use of paper, and receive titles in record time,” said Jared Wyrick, President of the West Virginia Auto Dealers Association.

“We need to reduce the time tax that each consumer pays as they wait in line to process paper and deal with DMVs. Because each state has unique systems, laws and procedures, a solution that can work with legacy systems but provide a powerful, flexible, and most important digital system of record is needed.” Bigelow said.

3 / 3

“The solution is clear: Champ’s DTRS. Yet most states still have a manual, paper-based process for registering, transferring and issuing titles,” Bigelow said. “And as long as the process remains manual, states will continue to see more waste in the form of paper, costs and overhead.”

To learn more about how CHAMP’s leading title technology supports sustainability through digitization, visit champtitles.com.

Digitizing the Titling Process, Safely and Efficiently

By CHAMPtitles

On November 14, 2022

In Consumers, Government, Uncategorized

Henry Ford shook the automobile industry with the introduction of his Ford Model T back in 1908. By turning the current business model at that time upside down, he created a path forward for every consumer and family to own their own vehicle. Now, just over 100 years later, we’re witnessing a new automotive transformation, powered by the likes of Tesla, CarMax, Carvana and Vroom, strengthened by a global pandemic and solidified by consumer demand: the digitization of car buying.

Online car purchases represent about 11% of all car sales. That’s expected to grow considerably—over 50% in the coming 4-5 years—and along with this new frontier, other aspects of the process are following suit. Vehicle titling, for example, has long been a time-consuming process for state governments and their motor vehicle constituents, in addition to being prone to errors, expensive and susceptible to fraud. That could soon change as states begin to adopt a digital solution that can effectively serve today’s unique challenges.

Prior to the digital age, vehicle records were kept via paper and filing cabinets. The process was intensive, and the information wasn’t available to anyone outside of the physical location where the records were kept. Along came expensive back-up systems, then computers and finally e-titling. While all seemed well, a bigger, more dangerous problem emerged: cyber threats. The rise of malicious attacks and other potential cyber threats made it difficult to manage the data safely. Even still today, the e-titling process remains fragmented, with each state having their own system, leaving the door open for fraud and driving up costs while lowering productivity.

“Titling is complicated, involving numerous stakeholders, and it’s getting more difficult to manage in a digital world where the average online car sale is purchased from someone living 900+ miles from the dealership and across state lines,” said Shane Bigelow, CEO of CHAMPtitles (“CHAMP”), a Cleveland, Ohio-based technology startup. “For companies buying and selling vehicles throughout the country, this issue is much more prevalent, often leading to even longer delays and more opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of the system.”

CHAMP is revolutionizing the vehicle titling and registration process with a first-of-its-kind Digital Titling, Registration and Lien Management SaaS software. Not only does it modernize DMV title and registration management, but CHAMP’s new Digital Title and Registration Services (DTRS) also offers NSA-level security protections against fraud.

“Our security-first titling, registration, and lien management platform is secured by a three-pronged approach that includes a segmented and segregated network; encryption of data in transit and at rest, using elliptic curve cryptography; and the utilization of private-public key infrastructure. In short, aggregate government is waking up to the risks of not using today’s best thinking in technology, and we are excited to be part of the solutions they seek,” Bigelow said.

The state of West Virginia was an early adopter of this innovative titling technology. “We are proud to be the first state to allow this groundbreaking technology to be a reality for all members of our community. We do believe that enabling blockchain based vehicle titling will offer significant benefits for our auto dealers, lenders, insurance companies, all of their service providers, and most importantly, our citizens,” said Everett Frazier, Commissioner of West Virginia’s Division of Motor Vehicles. “Since the launch, the benefits have been abundant for those who have onboarded to our dealer submission service or our electronic lien and title service, with lots more to come thanks to the forward-thinking design of the DTRS solution from CHAMP. Realizing benefits incrementally has really been great for West Virginia and all who are enjoying these improved ways of transacting, not least of which is the DMV.”

People often do not think of the consequences of poor record keeping, but it can and does cause major financial or legal problems, as well as the potential for data to be corrupted by bad actors. These consequences can be multiplied in the vehicle titling space, where there are so many stakeholders involved in every transaction, each represented by their state’s own unique government procedures and regulations. Paper processes create incredible costs and slow the pace of commerce, while limiting innovation and providing the easiest path for fraud. Digital processes solve these concerns but require extensive knowledge of cyber security protocols to keep information secure.

“Many of the legacy systems still in use today don’t have the ability to effectively and safely process the thousands of transactions per day and store or transfer the millions of files that otherwise become printed pieces of paper,” Bigelow said. “And when the systems go down, no one knows how to fix them because those who understand the outdated technology are no longer in the industry.”

CHAMP is on a mission to make these problems relics of the past. Its online solution creates legal, verified digital car titles that enable transferability between state governments, insurance carriers, financial institutions, auto dealers and consumers.

The patented software digitizes title and registration processes for states as well as their constituents in the title and registration process – vehicle dealers, lenders, service providers, salvers, and insurance carriers to name a few. Further, the technology allows the transfer of ownership of titles to occur in minutes instead of the weeks that most states and their constituents endure today. Other companies have offered their versions of online titling and registration but not to the extent of CHAMP’s, and none have successfully built their platforms with DTRS and limited the change management burden for states—and that’s a major differentiator. DTRS offers a proven method for encryption that certifies corrupt-free data, reducing the risk of fraud and cyber threats, while offering the fastest modernization available in the industry today.

As the world continues to move toward the digital landscape, partners in the title ecosystem are awakening to the security benefits of this digitized titling and registration process. And now that states, banks, vehicle retailers, insurance companies and many others can quantify the savings and benefits, consumers will soon benefit greatly from the adoption of this technology by government.

CHAMP’s end-to-end vehicle titling and registration solution is rapidly becoming the go-to answer for states to modernize their title, registration and lien management capabilities.

To learn more about CHAMP and its revolutionary encryption titling and registration software, please visit champtitles.com.

Good Data In, Good Data Out

By CHAMPtitles

On November 27, 2021

In Uncategorized

By Joanna Allegretti, CHAMPtitles

The old adage goes, “What you put into things is what you get out of them.”. It turns out this is not just guidance for personal effort. In fact, it holds true for technology too. More data is being collected and stored than ever before so the quality of that data as the input must be the highest priority, and no business can claim functionality when data is bad.

The bad news is that bad data is a reality. A Harvard Business Review from 2017 found that “on average, 47% of newly-created data records have at least one critical (e.g., work-impacting) error.” But what is the reality of bad data?

In a best-case scenario, bad data out means a redo, which is still not necessarily a quick and easy fix. Opportunities, time, money, resources, and potentially customers are lost when the process must be repeated to correct the mistake. Clarifying bad information that was entered, troubleshooting the problems that result from delivering on the bad data, and responding to dissatisfied clients who did not get the outcome they were looking for is inefficient.

In a worst-case scenario, bad data out could mean an incorrect medical diagnosis, assets titled in the wrong name, money missing from a bank account, and the list goes on. Imagine any undesirable outcome and know that it could result from bad data. In addition to the harm done to the end user, it is hard for any company to come back from a data blunder. A company’s reputation is at risk if they become known for getting it wrong.

Do you recall NASA’s launch of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1998? It was designed to study the Martian climate and atmosphere. Communication with the spacecraft was lost because the probe went off track and disintegrated in the atmosphere of Mars. The navigation error was due to a measurement mismatch; the software failed to convert data from English units to metric, a mistake in standardization that cost $193 million.

Another example of a bad data input was the design of the Citicorp Center in 1978. An architecture student who was writing her senior thesis on the 59-story Manhattan skyscraper, which was unique because of its raised base and diagonal bracing, uncovered a structural flaw: the potential wind loads for the building were incorrectly computed by the chief architect. Her calculation of the building’s stresses led to a welding repair process that secured the building and saved it from toppling.

We can agree that we need good data. There is no question that it has to be accurate, reliable, relevant, consistent, and complete. Even the most innovative technology will not revolutionize the world if it operates on bad data.

We can ensure the quality of data in a number of ways. It starts with improving data collection. How is it collected? Who is collecting it? What are the sources? The next step is improving data organization. Once you have it, what is the method for storing and managing it? Then, the data needs to be standardized. How can multiple sources be made consistent? What is the standard for “good”? After that, it is about data entry. If it is done by machine, are there broken paths? If it is done by humans, are there bad actors or is attention to detail lacking? Does training need to improve?

According to some projections, 74 zettabytes (that is 74 trillion gigabytes!) of data will be created in 2021! That quantity of data is huge, but the quality of data is hugely important. The good news is that those companies who are able to master good data will have a competitive edge and be poised for success in the future.

Realizing the Value of Digital through Digitalization

By CHAMPtitles

On April 22, 2021

In Uncategorized

By Jason Galloway and Jessica Athavale, KPMG

In today’s rapidly transforming environment, organizations are pressured to accelerate their investments in the creation and conversion of content, assets, and data to scale services and products across a multitude of digital channels. Despite the move towards digital, many organizations continue to operate using 20th century, analog processes and capabilities. So, while the final asset or experience might be digital, many companies have yet to become truly digitally enabled enterprises. To become a truly digital, companies must embrace three changes. First, companies must actualize digitalization; the adoption and integration of technologies, processes, data and analytics designed for digital work. Second, companies must take advantage of digitization opportunities by converting physical assets into digital assets. Third, companies must normalize around the development of content, assets, data, and information in a digital format.

Digitalization is the adoption and integration of the technologies, processes / workflows, and data / analytics required to optimize value from being digital.

Digitization is the process of converting a physical asset into a digital version so a computer can store, process and transmit its information.

Digital commonly describes content, data, information, or systems that are created, managed, or stored electronically on a computerized database.

Marketing organizations are notably prone to pursuing digital output using 20th century, analog processes. We see marketers face significant operating and performance challenges today due to manual and disconnected ways of working, common of physical world processes. Some examples of this include planning and budgeting across multiple spreadsheets, or intaking content requests via email communications or manually generating data insights across disparate systems. In particular, digital content is an area that creates the major challenge for marketers as the processes used for creation and management are decidedly physical world. As integral as content marketing is to the success of marketing today, many firms have yet to embrace digitalization of the content value chain.

Digitalization of Your Content Value Chain

Marketers tend to believe the development of digital content, by default, means they have a digitally enabled content value chain. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. At the highest level, the digitalization of your content value chain must occur across each of the six value chain stages.

The Content Value Chain

Frequently, the creation, distribution and management processes marketers use for digital content is eerily similar to processes used for physical content. So, while the final content is digitally formatted and stored, the process activities, inputs and outputs are not. Some key characteristics of the physical content processes include:

Content is developed from scratch for one-time use in a dedicated channel, with limited opportunities for customization or localization
Lengthy content development cycle times due to manual review and approval workflows and need for extensive agency involvement
Lack of coordination and clear pipeline visibility between marketers and agencies, resulting in the creation of duplicative content
Push distribution of content to users regardless of content’s relevancy and consumer’s need/ability to utilize which results from analog’s inability to provide timely, contextual data to guide content distribution
Limited accessibility or findability of content as it is stored in unrelated storage systems across different marketing groups and agencies

Physical-world content processes lack the frameworks and capabilities for organizations to automate, scale, measure, and govern required to be competitive in today’s digital marketplace. Marketing organizations that prioritize the digitalization of their content value chain are able to both improve the effectiveness of their digital content, while driving efficiencies in operating cost and time.

For successful digitalization of the content value chain, marketers must:

Leverage new digital asset management technology

Adopting a digital asset management (DAM) system is critical to access, manage, and store digital content. It centralizes and maintains digital assets in their complete and component parts, reducing the need to recreate net new and instances of duplication. A DAM system allows marketers to quickly access, find, and update digital assets by enriching assets with custom metadata and tags. Marketing organizations that prioritize the digitalization of their content value chain integrate the use of their digital asset management (DAM) technology across the organization, allowing for greater time and cost efficiencies through automation and self-service solutions.

Improve existing processes and workflows

Moving existing processes managed across manual documents (e.g. Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoints) into digital workflow management tools enables efficient, streamlined processes and data transparency. A workflow management tool allows for the real-time visibility, orchestration, and automation of the entire content process across the value chain. Automated, digital workflows can achieve cross-functional alignment, faster cycle times and approvals, streamlined tracking, and reduced risk. A workflow management tool can be leveraged to centralize tasks, reviews, and automate alerts to allow for the transparent and seamless communication of content feedback and approval across stakeholder groups.

Effectively leverage digitized data to measure performance

Existing content processes and performance can be enhanced by integrating and leveraging digitized data in reporting tools. The process of digitizing your content assets means that information and data associated with those assets will also be digitally stored. Building a digital foundation for managing digitized data enables the capabilities to automatically capture key information and insights to more effectively distribute and measure digital content. Establishing a solid digital data foundation starts with identifying the right KPIs and consolidating the right data to measure content effectiveness and operational performance. It also requires that data be ported into established reporting mechanisms to allow for marketers to integrate and generate data into comprehensive reports and insights.

Adopt new ways of operating and digital-first mindsets

As marketing organizations start establishing digital processes and capabilities across the content value chain, they must embrace the shift in how work is getting done, how technology is utilized, and how data is captured and reported. Marketing organizations must solidify digital foundational structures, adopt new ways of operating, and instill digital-first cultural mindsets. A digital-first cultural mindset: seeks opportunities for digitization; shifts from prioritizing the creation of net new to, encouraging the coordination, re-creation, transcreation, and repurposing of content; makes full use of power digitalization has brought to content value chain processes. These mind shifts, ultimately, improve utilization and cost value of content across the organization. Without a solid operating framework in place and a shift in mindset and behaviors, organizations will face challenges in full digitalization of content processes.

While taking these four key actions may seem considerable, the benefits realized are more than worth the effort. The chart below illustrates how digitalization across the content value chain can come to life and some of the benefits realized.

Step	Hallmarks of Digitalization	Benefits Realized
Plan	-Centralized, automated calendaring capabilities to improve pipeline visibility and coordinate alignment on priorities	-Integrated operations -Increased flexibility and organizational alignment
Procure	-Digital assets with metadata tags which are easily searchable in a centralized repository for reuse -Digitally signed agency agreements ease onboarding and management across the content lifecycle	-Reduction in marketing spend -Increase in content reuse
Develop	-Centralized markup and annotation functionality to easily accommodate asset changes and versioning -Online coauthoring capabilities facilitate collaboration -Content translation is automated and localized for various regions -Content creation is automated through the use of templates and modularization	-Increased capacity / throughput -Reduction in errors -Reduction in direct labor costs -Faster response times
Distribute	-Automated content distribution capabilities to scale campaigns to targeted audiences and testing strategies across multiple channels	-Reduction in waste (unused content)
Manage	-Digitized assets are archived and governed in a single, central digital asset repository making archiving, managing and governing assets easy -Automated content categorization to scale content management and recognition	-Content reuse -Improved content findability / accessibility
Measure	-Centralized cross-channel data is updated real-time to provide accurate and reliable insights on content performance	-Increase effectiveness -Improved data transparency

Getting Started with Content Operations Digitalization

Producing digital assets / content does not mean your organization has fully embraced being digital.

Marketing, organizations need to strategize and plan for a future that adopts digitalization, if they wish to realize the full value of digital content. KPMG’s Marketing Consulting team can help you identify the opportunities for digitization and build the capabilities and technical solutions for true content digitalization. If you are interested in transforming your content operating model, KPMG is interested in partnering with you. Let’s start the conversation.

Jason Galloway, Principle, Marketing Consulting Practice Lead, [email protected]

Jessica Athavale, Senior Associate, Marketing Consulting, [email protected]