When electronic signatures first started getting popular, they weren’t a widely accepted standard for collecting signatures. Today, however, they are the standard.
Many of the businesses just starting to use e-signatures are crediting much of their success to making the switch. This makes sense considering how long it can take to collect physical signatures from people located across the world.
Although some businesses have yet to start using e-signatures, the time is coming when there won’t be any other option, at least for signing some documents. For instance, many companies request e-signatures and don’t bother with paper documents at all.
Why are e-signatures so popular?
In the tech world, convenience is everything, and it’s easier for everyone when customers and clients sign electronically.
For instance, there’s no wait time for sending and receiving documents through the mail, and electronic signatures can be instantly resubmitted if there’s a mistake.
Also, documents can be amended and signed quicker online than through the mail.
The positive impact of e-signatures
Among the positive benefits of e-signatures are less paper waste, less time wasted, and of course, fewer labor costs to manage a bunch of paperwork. These benefits are just part of why many businesses credit e-signatures for their success.
For example, a South Carolina federal credit union recently switched to a provider that specializes in electronic signatures for financial institutions and credits this move for their increased success.
Not only did this credit union eliminate 22% of their member-facing paperwork, but they also improved their member experience and increased their efficiency as a company.
Since financial institutions are bound by strict regulations for documents and data privacy, moving to electronic signatures hasn’t become standard in this industry. Financial institutions can’t just use any e-signature application – it must adhere to data privacy laws every step of the way. If any part of the process is insecure, or can’t be secured, it won’t work.
How electronic signatures improve efficiency
Companies that switch to e-signatures will see an improvement in efficiency and the sooner they make the switch, the faster they’ll see results. Here are just some of the ways e-signatures can improve a company’s efficiency:
- Reduced paperwork. Employees are known to spend an incredible amount of time preparing, printing, collecting, filing, and searching for paperwork. With electronic signatures, paperwork is reduced, and documents are electronic. This automatically reduces the amount of paperwork a company must deal with across all locations.
- Reduced labor costs. It takes many hours of labor for staff to manage physical paperwork, including gathering signatures by mail. Using electronic signatures will reduce what a company spends on labor. This also frees up employees for more important tasks.
- Better organization. According to Gartner survey data, it takes professionals an average of 18 minutes to find one document. They also spend 50% of their time looking for information. That’s too long in any case.
When documents are signed electronically, they’re also easier to keep organized. Companies that use file sharing applications like Box can apply various tags that make a document searchable by that tag.
For instance, documents can be tagged with a client’s first and last name or some type of category that is meaningful to the business. Then, when that document is needed, employees can simply type the client’s name to pull up all relevant documents.
Businesses that want to improve efficiency should start looking at e-signatures to save time and labor, and add convenience to their employees’ workdays.
E-signatures increase efficiency in any industry
No matter the industry, switching to e-signatures can increase efficiency and support a smoother customer experience. For instance, many businesses in the following industries have already been using electronic signatures with great success:
- Tech companies and tech startups
- Accounting and tax services
- Marketing companies
- Government agencies
- Insurance and healthcare providers
- Information Technology
- Cybersecurity
- Engineering and construction companies
- Real estate companies
- Non-profit organizations
- Attorneys and other legal groups
- Higher education
There’s really no limit to the industries that can benefit from e-signatures. If a business needs to collect signatures, they will benefit from doing so electronically.
E-signatures are a best practice
It’s hard to deny that using e-signatures is a best practice in terms of handling documents like contracts. Every best practice is rooted in efficiency, and you can’t get more efficient than collecting signatures online and filing away digital documents. It’s only a matter of time before all industries adopt electronic signatures as a standard for how they manage documents.
Disclaimer : Above mentioned article is sponsored feature, This article is a sponsored publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of IDPL.
