An electronic signature or e-signature is an efficient way to sign electronic documents without the need for handwritten signature. E-signatures can efficiently replace manual signatures in any business process, and are suitable for all kinds of documents, including contracts, purchase orders, forms, and agreements. Moreover, they are verifiable, easy to use, and secure.
What are some of the other advantages of electronic signatures? Let’s take a look.
Portable and Versatile
By their very nature, e-signatures are portable and versatile, meaning they can be used on any kind of document and in any process. Many departments use e-signatures to sign their documents. These include sales, marketing, procurement, HR, and IT teams.
E-signatures are also suitable for companies in many industries, including financial services, legal, manufacturing, and healthcare/pharmaceuticals.
Even government and military users can use e-signatures to efficiently sign their digital documents in a secure and scalable manner.
Efficient Processes
When people can e-sign documents, they can finalise more of them and move them along the workflow or process to the final step or end result. It only takes a few minutes to e-sign a contract or agreement, and send it via email. Thus, e-signatures help speed up processes, and make them more efficient and productive.
Cost Savings
With e-signatures, there’s no need to print out papers, or spend money on filing, storing, or couriering them. Companies can also save on the cost of postage or staff to manage and maintain paperwork.
Documents are Machine-readable
When documents are signed electronically, there’s no need to scan the document between signatures. Plus, the text remains machine-readable so it can be read by a screen reading software. This ensures that the document is easily accessible and readable by both humans and machines. These capabilities are particularly useful when the documents are archived and processed.
Secure Transactions
Electronic signatures can be made anywhere, at any time, and by any authorised party. Moreover, they can be digitally saved in a secure location where the relevant people can access them. They thus provide flexibility as well as location-independence – two features that are especially critical for remote or geographically-dispersed teams.
E-signatures are also secure since they comply with multiple security protocols and standards. That’s why electronically signed documents are more trustworthy, allowing parties to conduct and complete transactions with mutual trust.
Minimise Environmental Impact
It’s not just money that makes the world go round. It’s also paper! Companies all over the world generate masses of paperwork every single day. Many of these documents require the signatures of authorised stakeholders. Millions of trees are sacrificed to meet human demand for paper. Plus, discarded documents create a lot of trash which increases the size of landfills. All in all, the more paper that’s generated, the greater the potential for environmental damage.
E-signatures are made electronically so there’s no need to print out paperwork. Anyone can sign an electronic document and share it, knowing that it’s secure and legal. Equally important, they can minimise the environmental impact of paper-based signatures and reduce their carbon footprint.
Legally Binding
In most countries, e-signatures are acceptable and legally binding. For instance, a qualified electronic signature (QES) is legally valid and trusted throughout the entire EU. This means it is indisputable and the signer does not need to provide separate evidence.
