Doing business means dealing with customers, developing the perfect product, following rules and regulations, and of course signing documents on a daily basis. You probably use tons and reams of paper for all those tasks. That is why there are campaigns to help save the trees and that means going paperless. That would be easy since many transactions can be done through the internet. The only problem is the signature. We are so used to the old school style of signatures that anything other than that is questionable. But digital signatures are legally binding now and acquiring a software for this is a step you have to take to totally go paperless. Here are some pros and cons of digital signature software.
Pros
You’re reading this because you are probably considering getting digital signature tools. And as part of your research you want to know the advantages or pros of getting the said software. So here are some of them:
Easy to use. Usually when you have to sign a document and have your constituents sign it too, it would require lots of dragging that document around. If the person who has to sign is in a different state or country, you would have to courier the document over. It is time consuming and expensive. But when you use digital signatures, this can be fixed easily. The document can be emailed to the person whose signature is needed and they can affix their digital signatures quickly. It makes getting things done easier and faster.
Speed up business. There would be no more need to wait for documents to be signed. No more trying to locate the person you need the signature of. No more shipping documents just to be signed. Everything can be done online. And other eSignature software even allows you to track the activities of a certain document. You will be able to know when it was opened and when it was signed. Other software also allows you to know if the certain person you are looking for is online or not, so you know when you should email the document over for them to sign it. This surely speeds up business.
Improve accuracy. When signing contracts and agreements, a signer needs to sign at least more than one page. It is not just the last one that needs signing. When you have a printed document, most times, one signature is left out or forgotten. This can be solved with the top digital signature tools. The software will show the signer the mandatory fields that he or she has to sign ensuring accuracy of the files. Forgery is the making of false documents to commit fraud. Written signatures are the ones most forged. Because digital signatures are harder to forge, this saves the documents from alterations and ensures accuracy.
Save time and resources. In the office, an employee typically goes through 10,000 sheets of paper every year. That’s about $260 per employee each year. Imagine how much you could save by going paperless. There would also be less time spent on shuffling the paperwork from one person to another. That is another saving on shipping fees if they need to be couriered. Using eSignature tools saves a lot of time and resources for your company. The cost of the software is far less compared to what you can save. And there software that are very affordable. Read digital signature tool reviews to know which application will fit your budget.
Boost customer service. Electronic signature software allows customers to sign any documents anytime, anywhere. They wouldn’t have to visit your office to sign the documents, saving them the hassle. This will help boost customer service and gain repeat customers for your business. There are applications that will even allow the use of mobile devices for digital signatures, making the signing process easier. Not all software vendors might allow the use of phones and tablets so be sure to read reviews of digital signature software to know which ones will allow this.
Flexible authentication. Using digital signature tools may open you up to identity theft of data breach. But this software has an authentication process before a signer uses his or her signature. The identity of the user has to be verified before they can use the digital signature. The ways of verification may vary from vendor to vendor. So read to digital signature tool reviews to know how their authentication process works. When you use the authentication process in your signature tool, you can integrate it with other software like customer relationship management software and the likes to access this authentication information.
Simple integration. Because the software is easy to use, users can understand the whole interface in just a matter of hours. There will be no need for length training sessions and seminars. This also means that users can easily understand how to integrate other programs with this one. Integration means you can bring together different software to use as one. This is necessary especially if you have lots of data and information that is shared with other employees. This will make sharing documents easier and more accessible. With the integration of the signature tool to other software, you can use the digital signature easily to sign documents that are stored in other systems.
Scalability. When you use free signature tools, they might offer you only a few a signature to be saved in their server. There are others paid software that will allow you to save thousands and thousands of signatures per second. If you own a big company with many signatories needed you should go for the paid signature software. But the point here is, this digital signature software is scalable and can handle no matter how many signatures you have.
Data importation. Because it is easily integrated with other systems, it is also easy to import data from one system to another. The digital signature software can also be used to pre-fill forms that need to be signed. This would ensure that nothing is forgotten or left unanswered.
Cons
Every software has cons, but most of the time the positives outweigh the negatives. Here are the cons of digital signature tools.
Limited storage. Depending on the software vendor, some software might only offer limited storage for the digital signatures. While others will require that you store your documents with their servers forever. This poses a concern because usually the documents uploaded contain sensitive and personal information. This is easily remedied though. Just use a software that will hand over the control of the documents to you after the contract has ended. Or choose one that has an unlimited server storage and has tight security over their servers.
Security varies. There are regulations to be followed for digital signatures. Unfortunately, different software vendors will also offer different security measures. This is also easily solved since you just have to choose the top digital signature tools that offers the best security and follows the standard regulations. Read reviews of digital signature software so you know which security is satisfying to the users.
Proprietary software. There are software vendors that use proprietary software. This means that the software is owned by the company or person that developed it. Usually, these kinds of software have many restrictions and can’t be used freely. One of those restrictions is that you would be locked to one vendor only. If you plan to change software down the road, this might not be the software for you. There is a solution to this of course. Choose a software that does not use proprietary software or those that comply with the digital signature standards. This standard rules that the signature will be embedded to the document which mean you can choose another software later on, if you choose to do so.
Identity theft. Because it is your signature and identity in the line, the risk of identity theft is always possible. Although, companies are taking steps to make sure their security is not at risk and that all documents in their storage is safe from data breach.
Fraud. Business that use electronic signatures are more open to fraud since their signatures is online and can be subjected to data breach. This can be solved though by implementing strict security procedure. Like the authentication process. Security over the whole database of signatures should also be strictly implemented to avoid fraud and data breach in the future.
Digital signatures have certainly made the lives of business owners easier. It has also helped the environment by offering the paperless possibility in the offices. Just like everything else in life, there are pros and cons to using digital signature software. There are much more advantages as compared to the disadvantages according to this list. But if you look at the cons, they might be graver. Although there are steps you could take to make sure the risks do not happen to you. Read the article and analyze each pro and con to help you decide if you should get a digital signature software or not.
Thinking about getting digital signature software? Read the reviews and users’ opinions to help sway you in the right direction.
Trevor Price
Latest posts by Trevor Price (see all)
- Why Document Management Software Is a Must for Every Company - January 13, 2017
- What Are the Best Scheduling Software for Your Specific Needs - January 12, 2017
- What Are the Top Features of Membership Management Software - January 10, 2017