eSignature solutions have changed the way that companies approve documents and sign agreements.
In 1999, the European Union enacted the eSignature Directive. One year later, the United States adopted the ESIGN Act. These laws provided individuals and companies with new ways of signing a document. Rather than a handwritten signature, electronic signatures became valid, legal ways to sign documents. And yet, nearly 20 years later, many businesses are still doing things the hard way by running around their offices searching for handwritten signatures, costing their organizations time, money, and paper.
Most business relationships depend on agreements being completed in a timely manner. Waiting for the ink of a physical signature can be painful, and let’s hope your office no longer has a fax machine. These antiquated processes hardly allow a company to compete in the increasingly fast-moving digital economy. With eSignature solutions, the signing process doesn’t need to be time-consuming. A person can simply submit a legally binding signature through their web browser or via a mobile app on their smartphone.
Benefits of eSignature solutions
Electronic signatures can be used by every person in every industry and department. For example, you could find yourself using eSignatures to sign:
- Employee agreements, like background check authorizations and terms of employment
- Supplier and distribution contracts
- Agreements with third-party firms
- Customer service agreements
Using an eSignature solution is relatively simple. While it depends on the solution that you’re using, the process usually requires you to click on a “sign” or “signature” button and type your name to sign the document.
Let's say that you want to hire an external accounting firm to help manage your books. Rather than emailing documents back and forth or having to go to their office in person to the sign the contract, an eSignature solutions lets you do it all online. All that you need to do is open the contract on your laptop, click the signature field, type in your name, approve the automatically generated signature, and you’re done. After signing the contract from the comfort of your office, you can easily email it to the accounting firm for their counter-signature using the eSignature solution. Leveraging eSignatures allows you to scale your operations, save time and money, and improve the user experience while staying compliant with industry regulations.
Limitations of eSignature solutions
Still, digital transformation is about more than electronic signatures. To move your business forward, increase efficiency, and save money, you need to integrate your eSignature solution with your business applications to create seamless digital workflows that automate your processes.
Even when using eSignature solutions, many companies find that internal approval processes and inefficient routing often delay the signing of agreements. When companies depend on human-managed data entry and contract management, processes become more error-prone, inefficient, and costly. Automating these processes is key.
Moreover, the user experience provided by your enterprise software is becoming more and more important when it comes to hiring and retaining employees. Millennials have come to expect user-friendly enterprise software. Standalone eSignature solutions will leave your employees frustrated at the amount of manual work they still have to do.
AODocs and eSignatures: Integration is the key to process automation
Wouldn't it be great not to just automate signatures, but have the entire process seamlessly embedded into your daily work routines? That's where business application platforms and content services platforms like AODocs come in.
AODocs is the only document management platform built on Google Drive’s collaborative, user-friendly platform. It allows organizations from any industry to manage documents and workflows, ensure compliance, and build agile, secure business applications.
We realize the importance of integrating eSignatures into business processes and workflows. That’s why we built the AODocs eSign Connector. The eSign Connector currently integrates with two cloud-based eSignature tools, Adobe Sign and DocuSign, providing a comprehensive solution for managing confidential information—from creation and validation to approval and retention. The AODocs eSign Connector allows you to easily sign important documents and finish the processes that they’re part of so your company has more time to concentrate on its business. As your organization continues to grow, the eSign Connector will continue to grow with it.
Tags: Document Management, Compliance
