With every passing day, Organizations around the world are replacing paper and moving to electronic processes. While most of the processes are now electronic, Organizations are still printing documents for approvals. Many Organizations hesitate in implementing digital signing at their end as they think digital signing solutions are expensive and difficult to implement and use. Most of us are not aware that digital signatures actually save money, efforts and are easy to implement.
There are several direct and indirect advantages of adopting digital signatures within an Organization irrespective of the size or type of business it is involved in:
Direct costs saved:
- Costs saved on paper, printing, transportation costs: With digital signing, Organizations are able to take their processes completely electronic, thereby avoiding printing of documents. This saves costs related to paper, ink, printers, maintenance of printers etc. Physical documents need to be delivered physically or through fax. This involves costs and considerable amount of time that can be saved by switching to e-mailing of digitally signed documents. Finally, there are costs related to storage and disposal of paper documents too, which can be done away with, using electronic files.
Indirect costs saved:
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Faster transactions; efficient processes: Signing physical documents and then transferring them physically takes a lot of time. With digital signing you can sign multiple documents in a single click and transfer them to the recipients immediately. This saves a lot of time that would have been wasted in the physical process.
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Reduced human efforts: Processing physical documents not just involves lot of time and costs but also involves a lot of effort. Printing, signing, transferring and storing the physical documents needs lot of human efforts. All these processes can be automated using digital signatures. The reduced human involvement and efforts help organizations save related costs.
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Enhance security: Handwritten signatures can be forged or signed physical documents can be edited later. This can lead to significant losses due fraudulent activity leading to hefty legal costs. Unlike the handwritten signature, the digital signature is based on unique algorithms and hence cannot be forged. After signing a document digitally, digital fingerprint remains permanently embedded within a document. It detects if the document gets tampered or altered after signing, invalidating the digital signature.
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Easy storage and retrieval: Physical documents have to be filed with care in order to retrieve them when needed in future. The storage of physical documents needs space and it takes efforts to retrieve the required files when needed. The space and efforts needed for physical storage involves costs. The electronic documents can be stored with ease and retrieved without any efforts whenever needed in future. They can be backed up easily.
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Enhance customer relations: In today’s world, everybody wants to get things done immediately without having to wait. With digital signing the documents can be exchanged faster without any delays and dependencies on external factors. Efficient online process and lower turnaround time enhances customer satisfaction. More customers can be catered to in same amount of time due to faster processes. It also enhances customer relations and improves business.
These are various ways Organizations can save on direct and indirect costs related to physical signatures and processes by replacing them with digital signing.
