Now more than ever, individuals and businesses rely upon a wide variety of technologies in day-to-day life. From two-factor authentication protecting our accounts to chip-and-pin/EMV technology better safeguarding our finances, these revolutions are ever-present in even the most basic of life’s tasks.
Despite these advances, many startups and established businesses in both customer/client interactions and internally are using traditional handwritten signature processes for verification and acknowledgement. Fortunately, electronic signature technology has made it possible for these businesses to disregard old, outdated, and insecure methods of document signing.
As such, here are some examples of how electronic signature is improving the efficiency of startups and corporations alike.
Top 6 Ways Electronic Signature is Improving Day-to-Day Business
1. Time Saved, Efficiency Earned
Historically, businesses and consumers handling various documents took ample amounts of time and presented logistical hurdles; an unavoidable reality. Today, however, businesses and startups can take advantage of electronic signature technology to eliminate this wasted time.
Rather than requiring clients and customers to either manually sign documents in person, bring them to an office or fax them, just a couple of clicks can now take care of it. Likewise, internal business affairs no longer require physical trips between departments. Ultimately, minutes – or even hours, in some cases – can be saved between the time spent by the business and the consumer for each signature process. This is particularly effective for service-based industries, like working as a workers compensation attorney.
2. Better Security, Pure and Simple
Ultimately, the chain of custody for documents is crucial in maintaining security. With traditional forms of documentation, sharing documents becomes a security risk in itself. Thanks to electronic signature tech, encryption is often standard at every step of the process. Utilizing one or more of several encryption protocols, businesses need not worry about the compromise of information. Additionally, specific permissions can be configured for each document to ensure only those who need to see it can see it.
3. Backup Guarantees
In the event of natural disaster or simple accidents, traditional documents can be lost forever. These sudden events can jeopardize customer and client relationships, vendor agreements, and other critical functions of any startup or established business. The risks to your paper documents are too great to ignore.
With electronic signature and document management, businesses no longer have to worry about losing access to their vital contracts, agreements, and signatures. By possessing multiple digital backups in different locations, nobody’s consent stands the risk of being lost to the ravages of mishaps and mayhem.
4. Improved Organization
Maintaining an archive of documents is important for several reasons already mentioned, but just as important as maintaining them is being able to access them. A treasure trove of electronically signed documents is of no more use than a box filled with paper documents if they are not organized properly.
Most electronic signature software integrates fully with document storage and organization solutions that allow for quick and easy search functions to be performed. Whether you need to find a document based on its age, status or signatory, doing so via this digital solution is a prime benefit.
5. Lower Archiving and Storage Costs
While startups may not yet be familiar with storage solutions, established businesses understand that the costs associated with traditional document storage are ridiculous. Given various local and federal laws and regulations that require select documents to be kept for a period of time, it is commonplace for businesses to end up with boxes upon boxes of documents. This is not a viable or sustainable method of operation in day-to-day business.
Electronic signature tech integrated into standard business operations will ensure that your documents are always accessible in more ways than one. Besides being able to back up any and all relevant documents, digital document storage frees up vital space and reduces the chances of misplacing vital contracts, agreements or other forms of data that can easily go missing in a cluttered storage closet or on a shelf.
6. Standardized Formatting
It can be difficult to ensure that documents and content are formatted in a consistent manner across all departments and functions. With traditional documents, each department may need to revise various elements, leading to inconsistencies in formatting and information gathering.
Thanks to electronic signature and document management, businesses and startups no longer have to worry about these inconsistencies. Since each and every document is handled, created and tweaked from a centralized solution, ensuring that the appropriate information is collected in every document is now guaranteed. By requiring answers for critical questions via an internet-based interface, no longer do businesses have to spend time contacting end-users for the information they omitted.
Electronic signatures in today’s world simply make sense for businesses. Whether operating fully in the digital world or seeking to optimize internal operations, electronic signatures and document management can reduce costs, save time, improve security, and help standardize operations in ways that handwritten signatures and document management simply cannot provide.
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