Electronic Signature: A Worthy Replacement for a Handwritten One

How long, on average, do you think it takes a company to sign one contract? 10 days, a week, 5 days? Only 37 minutes. After the introduction of an electronic signature, the average time for signing an agreement decreased from 5 days to 37 minutes, which is more than 190 times faster! Thus, thanks to the electronic signature, you can make hundreds of times more contracts at the same time.

How Does It Work?

The concept of electronic signature technology is not new. It was invented around the middle of the 19th century, but it was not until the beginning of the 21st century that electronic signatures were actively used.

An electronic signature is a method of validating electronic documents. The genuine electronic signature may be used for:

  • identifying the identity of the signatory

  • ensuring the authenticity of the document

  • performing the private encryption function

An e-signing technology is legally regulated by many countries, such as:

  • Australia

  • Canada

  • Costa Rica

  • Czech Republic

  • European Union

  • India

  • Ireland

  • Japan

  • Mexico

  • New Zealand

  • Poland

  • Slovenia Spain

  • Ukraine

  • The UK

In the United States, this technology is officially approved by 5 Federal Acts. The broadest is the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN), and all American e-sign users may submit documents accordingly.

Why Should You Use It?

Paper contracts, agreements, and documents take up a lot of space. And the larger and more successful the company is, the more space is needed to store documentation. An electronic signature helps companies solve some of the problems caused by large volumes of paper. Most of the tasks to improve your company can be solved in no time.

Storage problem. If you have a lot of documents, then, you need to buy folders for them. Over time, you will need office cabinets, and then, you will be forced to rent space for an archive. It will also be necessary to hire one or more workers to monitor and search for documentation. If you transfer documents into electronic format, then all these problems simply disappear. It doesn’t matter how many files you have; you can safely store them all in your computer folders or in the cloud.

Expenditure of funds. A lot of money is spent on buying paper, folders, scanning, and copying documents. It is also necessary to pay for the rent of the storage facility and the salaries of the archive staff. An electronic signature removes all these regular expenses from you.

Lack of time. With the introduction of an electronic signature, you don’t need to spend hours flying to sign a contract in a neighboring state. You don’t even have to wait at the office. It doesn’t matter what type of device you have – a phone, computer, or tablet. Now, you can sign a document with people from anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes.

Where to Get It?

To enrich your company with electronic signature technology, you should pitch upon a quality provider first. SignNow is an awarded company that provides an electronic signature for both small firms and large enterprises. It cooperates with world-famous brands, like

  • Xerox

  • Evotek

  • Colliers international

  • European wax center

  • Optica Ventures LLC

This company is suitable to not only well-known companies but also ordinary customers as the service is at the same high level for everyone. In total, over 2,000 people have left their reviews of the company on revocable platforms such as G2, Trustpilot, and Capterra. For example, the customers of Capterra reviewer ranked SignNow as:

  • Top 20 Digital Signature Software 2020

  • №1 Software app for Enterprise Businesses

So, you may create a secure electronic signature, which will significantly speed up the company`s workflow.

Security First

SignNow greatly concerns about the safety of its customers. It owns an SSL certificate; you may see it by the lock icon near the search bar. It encrypts all the information that you enter. Then, it sends your data to the server in encrypted form so no one can intercept or use them.

Moreover, smart notifications will warn you if someone reads or opens the file with your signature. So, you may be sure of the safety of SignNow.

Useful Features

SignNow offers over 25 different features to satisfy all your needs. Let`s take a look at some:

Templates. You may get used to an unlimited number of templates even in the cheapest pricing plan (the Business). It is very convenient to have a set of templates and not care about creating the same documents every time.

Send in bulk. In the Business Premium and Enterprise plans, you may use the bulk invite feature. It allows you to dispatch any template to many users at the same time. It is useful when you need to share a document within your team or send it to multiple customers at once.

Cloud archiving. You may keep any document in convenient storage. This option is available at all pricing layers.

Request payments. This is an exclusive Enterprise feature. It allows you to add an option to dispatch payments when signing. It significantly saves your and your partner`s time and simplifies the whole payment process.

The prices vary from $8 per one person per month to $30. If you cannot decide for sure which pricing plan to choose – take the 7-day trial. You may try all the features for free.

Conclusion

With the course of global progress, new technologies appear. An electronic signature is one of them. But this is not a technology of the future but a modern reality that can and should be applied. Don’t be afraid to keep up with the times and take full advantage of the upgrades.