At this age and time, most businesses have already felt the urge to move towards paperless solutions for their operations. It is still quite not clear whether the concept of totally paperless offices will ever come to fruition, but we are edging closer to this being reality. Despite it not being the best moment to totally eliminate paper from offices, maybe in future businesses can completely do away with pen and paper and adopt electronic signatures. Electronic signatures refer to electronic data that gets logically associated with other electronic data and is used by signatories when signing. Electronic signatures are no different to handwritten signatures with regard to legal standing, so long as they conform to specifications of the particular regulation they were created under. Generally, the purpose of electronic signatures is typically authentication documents containing uniquely identifiable marks that don’t require pen and paper. Despite some obvious security concerns, electronic signatures are broadly used in legal dealings, as a part of official government documents, private affairs and business transactions. Before giving serious consideration to the use of E-signatures, it is imperative to understand its advantages.
Firstly, electronic signatures happen to be both simple and intuitive. This relative ease is arguably their greatest advantage, since there are various online solutions that provide systems which enable users to upload documents, declare signers and recipients then deliver secure links to respective recipients. The process is quite simple since all the recipient is required to do is only sign the document and the process gets completed. In a nutshell, it is that easy, since anyone capable of opening a link and clicking a button can use electronic signatures.
Despite it being hard to believe, electronic signatures happen to be way safer insecure in comparison to traditional paper documents. Besides containing signatures, they also happen to have traceable information such as; the person that signed the document, when they signed the document and the location they signed it from. In comparison to traditional paper-based transactions, this prevents a stronger, more enforceable alternative.
Electronic signatures are very convenient, especially when you consider the extent of geographical dispersion in today’s business world. Nowadays, even the smallest of businesses transact with various customers, partners and suppliers different cities and countries. Electronic signatures therefore offer greater convenience with regard to remote authentication, in comparison to other methods such as mailing, printing and scanning.
The greater convenience provided by electronic signatures carries over to significantly faster turnarounds. Instead of going through the tedious process of sending a document to a single party, waiting for them to print, sign and scan the document, all involved parties can sign off the document in a matter of seconds.
