Smoother Workflows & Swifter Processes - E-Signatures Make All Your Business Functions Better!
A long time ago, futurists predicted that the world would become automated enough to free humans from the drudgeries of office and manual labor. Yet, astonishingly, we are very near to that era where almost everything is automated, right from households to business processes. As organizations move forward with digitization, we can clearly see the well-established importance of automation everywhere.
Over 75% of organizations are anticipated to implement some level of automation across various processes by 2024.
Businesses are increasingly incorporating automation in their processes and workflows for high-level process optimization and cutting down on operational costs. As a result, a profound shift has been seen in the way businesses operate: a shift away from the exasperatingly rigid business processes of the bygone. Transformation isn’t just about tweaking the same old methods; it’s about rethinking and reshuffling workflows to thrive in the modern business world.
In a nutshell, all your AI-enabled digital workflows now need is an intelligent solution that can be integrated with all the business processes. An electronic signature is one such smart digital solutions that can be integrated with business operations and processes. No matter what industry you operate in or where your company is located, all you need is an apt e-signature platform, a device, and a browser to help your organization work faster, smarter, and better. You may wonder why e-signatures are so crucial for businesses worldwide. The truth is that Americans use about 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year, equalling about 660 pounds per person. This requires 535 million trees and 12 billion gallons of oil.
Businesses spend $8 billion annually on managing paper in the USA.
The numbers speak for themselves, and it is evident that eliminating paper usage from business processes can reduce a large number of costs as well as environmental damage. This can be done by incorporating e-signatures, which not only helps you reduce paper costs but also helps reduce your carbon footprint, printer and scanner costs, fuel costs, and so on. However, businesses have to deal with various security measures, legality concerns, and confidentiality. So how would you know using electronic signatures won’t harm your brand image or reputation? Here are the requirements for an e-signature to be legally valid:
- Consent:
When two parties get together in a contract or an agreement, they both must agree to the terms and conditions applied. Most e-signature platforms explicitly ask for the signatory’s consent before acquiring a signature.
- Intent:
Electronic signatures are valid if both parties intend to sign. This can be inferred from the signer’s approval of the reason for signing the electronic record.
- Verification:
Verification is another requirement to demonstrate the legal validity of e-signatures. Electronic signatures confirm the signer’s identity with the help of in-built verifications and authentication mechanisms such as OTP verification of two-factor authentications to ensure only the authorized person signs the document.
- Auditability:
Audit trails are referred to as the final aspect of validating the process of e-signing. Audit trails help the signatories or legal entities track and gain visibility into each step of the e-signing process.
Also Read: Digital Signatures: Bolstering the Business Game for Start-ups
What Benefits Do E-Signatures Bring To Your Business Functions?
- Sales and marketing:
The sales and marketing department acts as a matchmaking website. First, the marketing team creates plans and campaigns to generate new leads, the sales team drives the efforts to contact and convince the customer, and then the relationship happens – customer relationship. But in most cases, it doesn’t go as smoothly as planned. There are several obstacles that come with manual signing processes. Marketing teams may get delayed in running campaigns due to the time spent taking approvals and sending the content ahead. Sales teams may lose a lead in the process of communicating and sending documents back and forth for review and signing. This is where e-signatures come to your rescue. Integrating electronic signatures in your sales and marketing processes helps:
- Spark the conversations with prompt responses
- Boost lead conversion with quicker and secure e-signing
- Improve customer experience and satisfaction
- Makes it easier to onboard new customers with a smoother agreement signing
- Customer service:
Like sales and marketing, customer support strives to deliver the best customer experience. The customer service process helps people gain more information about the product or service and feel confident that they are getting the best for their investments. While solving consumer issues, acknowledging their concerns, and making their journey a fruitful experience is impressive, businesses can’t afford to have any black holes in the process. Moreover, receiving feedback and customer reviews is a must-have for businesses, and manual processes tend to leave a bad impression. Integrating e-signature solutions into the customer service process helps businesses deliver the best experience possible with prompt responses, hassle-free signing, and quicker customer feedback. Moreover, digital documents can be stored electronically to avoid storage costs and human errors, making future transactions foolproof.
- Finance department:
Budget approvals, invoices, customer contracts, and forecasts: every document requires prior sign-offs. It is of profound importance, especially in finance departments, to do a double verification before sending the money to a third party. All of this makes the finance department the most paper-heavy section, with a large number of documents passing through daily. Moreover, every document, agreement, or contract requires thorough review, approval, and transfer back to the concerned person before being archived for forthcoming references, accounting, and audit purposes. This process takes away precious person-hours, not to mention costs millions in time and money. Keeping track of the documents and the signing progress can be challenging with wet signatures and physical documents. E-signatures, on the other hand, help finance teams:
- Sign confidential documents within minutes.
- Track real-time status of internal and external financial documents.
- Get vendor contracts and quotations signed with ease and security.
- Reduce paperwork – save cost and time and improve efficiency.
- Make agreements and contracts legally binding with adherence to laws and security certificates.
- Human Resources:
While the whole organization drives efforts toward generating leads and getting new customers, human resource strives to find the right talent for the company. It is challenging to find, onboard, and retain talented employees in today’s competitive market. Organizational culture, nature of the job, employee benefits, insurance, and so on; numerous things come into consideration while onboarding any new employee or retaining existing ones. Moreover, human resource teams have to deal with overwhelming data, hiring documents, joining letters, bonus certificates, and many more. Manually sending and receiving every document back and forth to each employee can take unimaginable time and effort. This can easily be managed using e-signatures. Using electronic signatures in their processes, human resource teams can:
- Send out offer letters with ease.
- Manage hiring documents and get them signed timely.
- Roll out insurance and other benefits with ease.
- Manage employee documents and history efficiently for future reference.
- Onboard new employees with ease.
- Relieve employees’ off-duty without any disruptions.
Start DrySigning!
DrySign e-signatures help keep your business processes running smoothly and swiftly. DrySign provides an intelligent platform that completely transforms your signing experience and helps you thrive in the modern business world. You can sign, share, and store any document with end-to-end security. In addition, it complies with the e-signature laws that differ according to the country, making your cross-country transactions legal and secure. All you need is to define your specific business requirements and get a suitable e-signature solution. The change it drives is noticeable. DrySign provides features such as audit trails, a smart dashboard, group signs that allows you to invite one or more signatories to sign the document, real-time notifications, and many more! Integrating DrySign into business processes helps organizations score numerous benefits:
- Enhanced security
- Greater savings
- Workflow efficiency
- Greater flexibility
- Improved customer satisfaction
DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.
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