Many of the best technological innovations take an existing need and make that need more easily fulfilled. This is definitely true of electronic signatures. They have taken the old pen-and-ink signing process and improved it significantly.
The list of digital signature advantages is long. From reducing wait time after sending out documents for signing to opening the door for automation in workflows across your business and more, transitioning to the right eSignature solution can give you a spectacular ROI sooner than you may expect.
By understanding the differences between types of electronic signatures and how selecting the right solution can benefit you, you create an opportunity to eliminate all of the little costs of paper documents that add up over time to cut into your bottom line.
Before you can begin reaping the benefits of electronic signature solutions, you need to understand the differences between a simple eSignature and a digital signature. They seem like they should be the same thing, but they are not.
An eSignature is any electronic representation of your signature. They are legally binding and easy to use. They can be done remotely via mobile devices or desktop computers. The only thing they have in common is that they are electronic stand-ins for a traditional pen-and-ink signature.
A digital signature is a bit different. All digital signatures are electronic signatures, but not all electronic signatures are digital signatures. That might seem confusing, but when you dig in a bit deeper, it all makes sense.
Digital signature advantages include greater encryption than a basic eSignature as well as extra verifications to ensure the identity of a signatory as well as ensuring that the signed document is not altered after the fact.
Both regular eSignatures and more robust digital signatures allow for secure, remote document signing. The difference is that digital signatures are more secure—even from mobile devices. And they are built to both bolster and seamlessly incorporate into your existing security framework.
Speaking of interfacing with your security protocols, there are people out there who aren’t totally convinced that electronic signatures are actually secure. But with a digital signature solution, your documents can actually be more secure than they would be as physical copies.
Security is actually one of the biggest digital signature advantages. First, there are the steps you can take to ensure the identity of a signatory. This can include methods such as multi-point identity verification or biometrics.
Digital signature solutions also help establish an electronic audit trail. This allows you to track everyone who has accessed a document, made a change to the document, signed the document, or attempted to fraudulently alter that document after the fact.
By making an electronic audit trail possible, digital signatures make it far more difficult to commit fraud on important contracts and documents than it is on hard copies.
Encryption and fraud prevention aren’t the only security benefits of digital signatures, though. There is also the security of the document itself. You don’t run the risk of a courier or postman losing an important contract in the course of delivery because your documents are all digital.
Cutting hard copies out of your workflows and processes also ensures that you don’t need to worry about a fire or natural disaster wiping out your important document storage. Digital signatures as part of a greater enterprise document management system allows you to bring your content into a secure cloud storage system — keeping your key documents safe from physical harm.
Beyond security, the benefits of electronic signature solutions are numerous. Incorporating digital signatures into your workflows can positively affect practically every aspect of your business.
Waiting for signatures stops your team from accomplishing their tasks and hitting performance goals. Think about how much wait time accrues over the course of a month or a year when your team sends out documents to be signed with pen and ink.
Consider how much more work your team members can get done if, instead of waiting for physical documents to reach a signatory and arrive back at your office, the signatory gets a notification of the document arriving in their inbox and signs that document right away.
Instead of bouncing from task-to-task as they wait for important signatures, your team will be able to remain focused on what they are doing until that task is done before moving to the next thing.
With a powerful solution like Dropbox Sign, your digital signature software can also help your team stay focused. The way that Dropbox Sign integrates with your enterprise document management system allows you to incorporate fields for signatures without hopping from app to app or window to window.
It doesn’t seem like much on the surface, but reducing the need to shift from screen to screen tends to require a moment to recalibrate your focus. On their own, these moments don’t amount to much — but over time, they accumulate into hours of lost productivity.
This helps your team stay focused and improve their efficiency. By avoiding long wait times, you allow your team to make the most of their time.
Another of the benefits of digital signatures is the ability to defend against human error. Even the best, most competent people make mistakes here and there. By incorporating electronic signing technology into your processes, you protect yourself from those slip-ups.
Common mistakes that pop up when processing documents and contracts can include sending the document to the wrong address or failing to identify and fill out every field requiring a signature.
Digital documents with electronic signatures don’t need to be sent physically, so making a mistake filling out an address is not a factor that you need to worry about. In fact, many enterprise document management systems have portals that allow internal and external stakeholders to be notified of a new document and sign that document without the need for an email, let alone sending a physical copy.
And you can’t talk about digital signature advantages without pointing out that electronic documents can prevent submission if all relevant fields have not been signed.
With many important documents, signatures from multiple stakeholders are required before the processing of that document is complete. With digital signatures, that chain of possession can be automated.
When a document is submitted after signing, the next signatory can be automatically notified. This keeps the document moving through your system quickly and efficiently. And with the audit trails that were mentioned previously, it is easy to track where in the chain of signatures your document is.
Digital signature advantages also include allowing for automated document generation. eSignature programs often allow you to save templates for frequently used documents such as employment contracts or invoices.
With saved templates, you can enter the key information necessary for your new document and your application will automatically populate that information in your document while identifying all fields requiring signatures.
Paper costs money. From the ink and toner required to print out hard copies of key documents to the cabinets you have to buy to store your documents to the actual paper itself, the costs of analog documentation pile up quickly.
The amount you save on paper and ink and storage by shifting away from paper-and-ink documentation is one of the greatest digital signature advantages. But that isn’t the only way electronic signature solutions save you money.
Automatic document generation and the time saved waiting for paperwork to be sent out, signed, and returned means that your team is able to work more efficiently, ensuring you are getting the most out of the money you put into your payroll.
Any business that has paperwork that requires signatures can benefit from using digital signatures. As an example, let’s look at the construction industry.
Construction projects cost a lot of money and require a wide range of documentation. There are bids from contractors, regulatory permissions, budgets, payroll, hiring contracts for general contractors and subcontractors, inspections, and on and on.
The remote document signing functionality of eSignature technology means that every one of those important documents can be addressed from anywhere — including from the jobsite. That means that, if changes need to be made to a plan, you don’t have a crew standing around waiting for permissions to get to work for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Digital signature advantages over traditional pen-and-ink signing are too numerous for any business in the modern world to ignore. Transitioning to the use of electronic signatures just makes sense.
From the security and process efficiency improvements that the adoption of a digital signature solution affords you to the financial savings, there isn’t a good reason to not at least look into how your business could benefit from incorporating eSignature technology to your business.
And digital signatures can help ensure that your document management processes are scalable. Think about how the costs of paper would increase as your business expands. With digital signatures, that rise in costs will not be a factor for you.
So how do you find the right digital signature solution for your document management system? The best strategy is to work with people who have experience with all things content management.
TEAM IM has assembled a group of experts that can help you optimize your document management and ensure that your implementation of your digital signature technology is seamless and efficient.
With our experience, we can ensure your business gets all of the digital signature advantages possible. We will help you optimize your processes and help you transition into a better, more efficient company.
By transitioning to digital signatures, you open the door for a more profitable business. You make your team’s day-to-day work simpler, and you improve your security and protect yourself from potential human error.
Find out how digital signatures can benefit your organization by reaching out to TEAM IM today. Your bottom line will thank you.
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