Techblog
Want to reduce cost and increase security? Use e-signatures
Forget all the paper work and sending documents back and forth between your business and clients. E-signatures are the way to go. Not only are they paperless and efficient, e-signatures are also secure and it can also help your business reduce cost.
E-signatures are quickly changing how transactions are approved. It is not only a cost-efficient digital solution but it also has the same legal status as handwritten signatures according to the US ‘e-signature bill’ or Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) passed in 2000. E-signatures are also recognised under the Singapore law since 2010.
With this legislation, many companies are reviewing their processes and it is predicted that 65 percent of enterprises will replace paper-based processes with those based on Digital Transaction Management (DTM) by the end of 2017, according to advisory and research firm Aragon Research.
DTM processes are an important function that is served well by e-signatures. With the right platform, businesses can now send, track and sign important documents anytime and anywhere on any device, reducing time spent on manual paper-based processes.
Within the broader category of e-signatures is a digital signature. A digital signature is like an electronic ‘fingerprint’, but in the form of a coded message. It securely associates a signer with a document in a recorded transaction.
Are e-signatures secure?
Like its handwritten counterpart, a digital signature is unique to each signer and cannot be forged. Digital signature providers, such as DocuSign, apply a specific protocol called Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which is a set of requirements that allow the creation of digital signatures.
PKI requires the provider to use a mathematical algorithm to generate so-called ‘keys’, basically two long strings of numbers. One key is public, the other is private.
To illustrate with an example,
-
Company A signs a contract agreeing to sell a particular product using its private key.
-
Buyer company B receives the document and a copy of company A’s public key.
-
If the public key cannot decrypt the signature, the signature is not company A’s, or has been changed since it was signed.
-
Unlike a handwritten signature, the e-signature is then considered invalid. PKI therefore provides the highest level of security for e-signatures.
Save time with e-signatures
By using a platform such as DocuSign, companies can securely complete approvals and agreements in hours instead of days. Some companies that can benefit from using e-signatures include accounting, legal services, finance, healthcare and insurance among others. These industries will benefit as e-signatures save time while ensuring the legality of the documents.
DocuSign can also help businesses enhance their relationship with their customers. Companies can benefit from modernising the last step – the signature – in their operations. This helps with business relations as the digital signature make the process fast and easy so time can be better spent on more important aspects of the relationship. Clients will also be better off knowing that the documents are more secure.
Companies using DocuSign will also be able to track their sent documents, putting an end to questions of whether the documents have arrived.
While many organisations implement e-signatures in a specific department or function, the reality is that broadening the scope of a company’s DTM activities can add value to many parts of the business.
DocuSign is a trusted and secured digital transaction management platform used by enterprises. Empowering over 225,000 companies with 85 million users worldwide, DocuSign lets companies send, track and sign documents anytime, anywhere on any device, reducing time spent on manual paper-based process of approving documents. Find out more about DocuSign here.