Digital document creation for effective e-voting

  • Streamlined processes
  • Improved member participation
  • Secure & compliant services


Objectives
Over time, the communication constraints for the vote of the Association’s General Assembly had become increasingly burdensome. These challenges were added to by new statutory time limits, leaving less time for the Association to organise the voting. Postal voting, although useful and reliable remains a cumbersome process. The AFER, therefore, wished to use innovative web technologies, hoping to increase voting turnout at the General Assembly. Moreover, it is essential that the votes are made and held securely by eliminating any risk of fraud.

The Pitney Bowes solution
The AFER outsourced their Internet voting processes to Pitney Bowes in partnership with Voxaly, specialist in electronic voting, along with the management of correspondence and mandates of its General Assembly.


Given the inflexibility of postal voting, changes in legislation and the desire to raise the turnout in elections, the solution provided by Pitney Bowes and Voxaly had to be flexible and agile enough to hand all the needs of the Association.

Pitney Bowes provided an innovative document creation service, allowing them to personalise the voting forms rapidly by including relevant data and information, and simplified the design of the communications. Pitney Bowes’ knowledge of multi-channel communications production and electronic scanning expertise allowed them to securely produce almost 100,000 documents, with real-time reporting to provide evidence of each electronic document for compliance purposes.  Voxaly established "e-voting" for the AFER, delivering the technology for digital voting and consolidating the voting results. Finally, to ensure maximum safety and security, the votes were opened and closed simultaneously across all channels.

Results
The integrated services provided by Pitney Bowes and Voxaly meant that an "all in one" offering was delivered, giving the Association a single point of contact.  Pitney Bowes has been working with the AFER now for four years, and has sent 700,000 invitations through mail, in addition to other important communications relating to the work of the General Assembly.


The service providers have been able to handle all the results of the voting, from mail or e-voting, as well as manage anomalies and cases of dispute efficiently in collaboration with the Electoral Commission. 

The new voting systems have seen an increase in overall turnout, with approximately 20% more members taking part than in previous years.  Moreover, Pitney Bowes is able to deliver their services for the General Assembly vote in a secure environment to ensure integrity, confidentiality and regulatory compliance.


Benefits

  • Integrated services provide robust and efficient processes
  • Operational efficiencies allow the Association to focus on its core business to serve its members
  • Provide a secure and confidential solution which allows the Association to meet changing regulatory requirements
  • The AFER has seen a 20% increase in voter turnout
  • Faster voting count times achieved


Nicolas Reliquet, Director of Development and Communication, the AFER
”The integrated solution offered by Pitney Bowes and Voxaly allowed us to anticipate and adapt quickly to new legal obligations. We were able to meet changes in the law that now allows a voter to transmit power to a spouse or a representative member. In addition, traceability of voting and power, made possible by the integrated solution, could be tracked at any time by the Electoral Commission. Finally, computer processing, like the manual recount, has offered safe and immediate results whatever the selected voting channel.”


Client profile
Founded in 1976, the AFER (Association Française d’Epargne et de Retraite) is a leading life assurance organisation in France, providing individuals with a personalised solution to organise their savings accounts and inheritance plans, and to prepare for their retirement.   The Association has revolutionised the life assurance market by launching free payments and withdrawals in the 1980s. Today, it is the leading savings association in Europe with nearly 700,000 members representing funds under management of over €41 billion. 

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