As digitization has been introduced into the surety industry in construction, digital bonding has become more commonly accepted as the standard. This process has been accelerated by the pandemic, but there is still room for advancement across industries as the need for global infrastructure development increases.

The pandemic highlighted the necessity of digital bonding and expedited its acceptance among the industry, federal governments and states nationwide. Calls for electronic signatures ramped up in response to slowdowns and other problems created by the pandemic. The surety industry looked to the quote “necessity is the mother of invention” for inspiration and while it wasn’t exactly an invention—electronic bonding has existed for a few years now—it was clear that the construction industry needed a fresh approach to ensure that contracts were signed, sealed and delivered. This digitization has now laid the foundation for the future of technology in construction and has many executives wondering what to look for in a carrier that is equipped to succeed in a 21st-century environment.

Building is booming globally. Consider that the world needs to spend approximately $57 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to keep pace with GDP growth, according to a report from McKinsey and Company. For construction to keep pace with this growing demand, the industry will need to use digital surety solutions to transform their project organization from inception to delivery. For firms juggling a variety of private and public projects, there are many factors to consider, including cost controls, supply chain disruptions, risk management, strategic partnerships, new markets and more. Business leaders will benefit from increased contract precision as data only needs to be entered into the system one time instead of exchanging information several different times across emails, phone calls and even mailed contracts. By working with a trusted surety partner who uses cloud-based software, companies can better organize their diverse portfolio of projects in a single location: online.

The construction industry has long had a reputation for being reluctant to embrace ebonding, largely because of regulations that required old-fashioned wet signatures. For companies that are using technology to help streamline their surety processing business is happening at a more-efficient pace. Firms can minimize or eliminate time-consuming offline work like bidding and approving contracts. Tedious data entry is a chore of the past. The software allows carriers, producers and others to benefit from features like workflow management, automated underwriting and document functions. This frees up valuable time to instead focus on business management, marketing and industry forecasting. Using a digital software platform allows contractors to organize all of their important contracts and paperwork in one cloud-based location keeping it available to businesses and insureds, and grants the ability to connect with brokers in real time.

With the right tools and security, even skeptical principals and obligees are embracing the digital transformation of the surety process. Construction executives should look for carriers who use technology tools that offer custom-tailored solutions to get exactly what executives need for each unique project, along with digital security and data integration. They’ll benefit by working with carriers that can execute bonds and send them to the client within minutes of entering information into the system. The future of surety is on the cloud—construction execs need to have fast, responsive access to projects from anywhere.

Even with the introduction of technology to the surety business, it’s certain that one aspect will always remain the same—and that’s trust. It’s imperative that surety business carriers trust their agents and brokers, that agents and brokers trust their clients and all of them trust in the technology solutions that allow work to happen efficiently. Technology in the surety industry will continue to evolve and influence the way construction companies work—ideally introducing efficiencies and time-saving features that will improve the bottom line on all projects, public and private, for years to come.