The Simple Benefits of Electronic Signatures for Your Business

Every business has long been driven by the desire to be more efficient and faster at whatever they do than their competition. And it is this desire that drove the adoption of personal computing across businesses of all shapes and sizes. In business, anything that minimises delays and gets things happening faster is a plus, and so the shift to digitising more and more aspects of business operations is almost organic.

However, there is one hurdle to digitisation that has existed almost since day one – and is still a problem today. This one workflow anomaly? Signatures. Or rather, the signing of those important documents that need official approval from any number of people. The default behaviour for most people receiving a document that needs their signature is to print it out, sign it, scan it in, file the physical document and email the scanned one back to the sender.

Whether you're a lone certifier, an SMB, or a national building certification company, waiting for physical signatures is far less productive and time-consuming. And this doesn’t even begin to cover the other hassles that come with physical paperwork, such as important documents getting misplaced and damaged, the storage space required, the inherent fire hazard that paper presents, and of course the impact on the environment.

The technology to securely and digitally sign a document online has existed for some time, and various countries have passed legislation that makes them as legally binding as a physical signature. But what benefits do electronic signatures offer your business?

Hassles With Physical Documents Are Reduced

Managing physical paperwork can be a tedious and frustrating task. Sending documents, copying them, filing them and storing them for the legally prescribed period of time – these are just a few of the challenges that come with a physical document. Add in the risk of them being damaged, lost and even forged – and the headache gets 10 times worse.

Digital documents almost completely erase these problems. It is also easier to both archive and retrieve digital paperwork. Add in digital logs and you’ll have the details available whenever you may need it, such as who the document was emailed to, the exact time it was signed, the IP address of the signatory and the document's entire digital fingerprint

e-Signatures Are More Secure

An electronic signature can be protected with both passcodes and biometric authentication. With secure digital signature solutions like Visual e-Sign – which is integrated with the worldwide leader in e-Signature software, DocuSign – every user is given their own unique e-Signature credentials.

Documents requiring a digital signature can only be accessed from the secure account associated with a user’s personal credentials, thus reducing the risk of forged signatures and making digital documents more secure than ordinary paperwork.

Saves Both Time and Money

You might believe paper is cheap. But if you think about it, the costs of physical paperwork can add up – the equipment and supplies needed for scanning and printing paperwork, the delivery and storing of this paperwork, and of course the cost of the paper itself. We won’t even mention the environmental cost of manufacturing and disposing of paper.

The time saved when it comes to the actual ritual of printing, signing and scanning a document is obvious. There’s also the time saved on the filing and storing of those physical documents. Documents can be emailed, digitally signed from any location and at any time, and instantly available to you once signed. That translates into a turnaround time that is about 90% shorter than with traditional paperwork!

Now that you’ve seen the benefits of digitally signed documents for yourself, don’t you think it’s time to make the move? Visual e-Sign is easy to implement and use, and your customers will love the convenience it offers. So contact us today to find out how to get started.