Today’s speedy digital world is driving businesses and organizations toward electronic signatures for improved contract management. These digital endorsements are secure, legally binding, and much faster than paper signatures.
While they aren’t as big of a deal in some parts of the world, here in the United States, e-signatures have a solid legal basis thanks to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (often shortened to E-SIGN). Since this law was passed in 2000, electronic signatures have been widely adopted by U.S. businesses and other organizations.
Faster Contract Execution
The ability to speed up the execution of contracts is one of the main advantages of digital signatures. When using paper-based contracts, printing, signing, mailing, and, in some cases, scanning back the signed document can lead to holdups that might stretch out over days or even weeks. In contrast, the process can easily be cut down to mere hours when using an electronic signature, with all parties in the world able to sign using a globally-accessible platform.
Time-sensitive agreements are a critical business necessity, and many such agreements can be made between the same set of people or companies multiple times in any given week or month.
Enhanced Security and Compliance
Compared to traditional paper signatures, electronic signatures are a lot more secure. Methods of encryption used are state-of-the-art, advanced, and sometimes even require hardware tokens (special physical devices) for the user to access the document.
These technologies make it almost impossible to forge, for example, a document signed using a token with a strong encryption algorithm. Digital signature solutions don’t just use tokens and encryption, though; they also rely on well-designed computing protocols that keep unauthorized users out of the signing process.
Electronic authorization solutions record the entire signing process and keep it in an event log that doubles as an ordinary audit trail, as well as a security journal.
Improved Workflow and Collaboration
Contract workflows are simplified with the use of e-signatures. This is because they can be integrated not just with cloud storage platforms, but also with contract management software.
What this means for the average user is that contracts can now be sent, signed, and stored within a totally digital environment, reducing the types of manual handling and administrative bottlenecks associated with the traditional signing process.
Reduced Costs and Environmental Footprint
The costs tied up with contract management fall when businesses adopt e-signing. The expenses associated with printing, sending, and storing physical documents can become quite high, especially for companies that engage in a lot of contracting.
And when these businesses go digital, it’s not just that they eliminate a big chunk of those costs; they also contribute to cutting way down on the use of paper and physical resources.
Introducing the Electronic Signature into Your Contract Management Process
Contract management of has changed for the better with the advent of electronic signatures. The reasons are clear: electronic signatures are fast, secure, and cost-effective. For those businesses that have adopted this digital alternative to wet ink and paper, the results have been impressive.
Yet, as with so many other technological changes today, the opportunity to use digital signatures is part of a larger digital and global transformation for organizations in modern business.
