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An advanced electronic signature offers a number of benefits:
- It significantly reduces transport and storage costs as there is no need to store paper
- It increases legal compliance compared to a simple declaration of intent and a scanned signature
- Contract processing processes are accelerated as the usual printing, scanning and sending are no longer necessary.
- Further processing is made easier as the latest state of negotiations can be easily incorporated into subsequent processes
- Electronic signatures make digitization tangible.
The 5 benefits of using electronic signatures
1. Reduce costs and increase savings
The most obvious advantage of introducing electronic signatures is that the costs associated with traditional signatures can be significantly reduced in the long term. Starting from Market research reports from Technavio companies can expect an increase in their overall savings of up to 78.62% if they switch to an eSignature process.
The use of digital signatures is advantageous wherever the transport costs, usually postage or forwarding costs, of signed documents are reduced or where signed documents are to be archived in the long term.
Based on a signed paper document, in the worst case scenario, special spaces must be created for long-term archiving, especially when a company enters into many contracts. These must then be stored and stored in ever larger document archives. In addition to the costs of safekeeping, the costs of transporting the documents must also be considered. In addition to actual postage and freight forwarding costs, opportunity costs up to the legally secure conclusion of the contract also play a major role.
If electronic archiving is used, special security measures must be taken against the alteration and exchange of documents or parts of documents. In addition, high infrastructure costs are necessary, as complex fire protection measures, burglary and access controls are necessary. These investments are also usually necessary when storing paper documents.
In the case of electronic signatures, these fall Storage costs are almost completely gone. Protection against document modification is not necessary here, as subsequent changes are immediately visible to an auditor via a unique document hash. In fact, there is no transport, as shipping is carried out exclusively via electronic media.
2. Increase legal liability
With an advanced electronic signature, agreements are more binding than is possible with a simple electronic signature or with documents exchanged by e-mail. In contrast to the use of the established process of simple electronic signature, advanced electronic signatures clearly link the signer to the signature and a subsequent change in the signed documents can be recognized. This results in a higher legal obligation compared to a simple electronic signature.
3. Speed up processes
Laut Statista and various other sources Global transactions involving electronic signatures are increasing rapidly and it is expected that this will continue to be the case.
The reasons for this are no surprise: With the help of advanced electronic signatures, Significantly accelerate process flowsbecause the document can be delivered electronically and therefore directly to the recipient and the usual printing and rescanning of the documents is no longer necessary. Experience has shown that contracts are also more likely to be signed, as the time for potential concerns to arise is extremely reduced.
And finally, compared to the traditional process — printing, signing, scanning and sending by post in duplicate — paper costs can of course be significantly reduced across the entire company.
4. Facilitate further processing
Furthermore, an electronically transmitted document makes further processing easier, e.g. the transfer of accounting data to your own accounting department. The advantage is even more obvious for internationally active companies, even for companies with multiple locations. Access to contracts in writing is sometimes even impossible, as documents can usually only be physically stored in one location. If you access documents with a simple electronic signature, or documents without a signature, it is not clear to the processing in case of doubt whether the contract data is up to date or whether the contract situation has changed in further rounds of negotiations.
5. Experience digitization
Signing contracts and documents is an important part of everyday business life. The use of electronic signatures can be an important step towards a paperless office and act as a lighthouse project with high appeal that brings digitization in everyday office life to your own employees and colleagues without having to shoulder additional costs for employee training and infrastructure.
Are there also disadvantages to electronic signatures?
A proper and secure eSignature implementation does not come free of charge. Companies usually need a contract management solution that also supports secure electronic signatures. The process of selecting the most suitable solution and integrating it into an existing business process involves some effort and costs.
However, when you weigh the time and money spent on an appropriate eSignature solution against the significant benefits that come with it, it's very difficult to argue against using electronic signatures in your contract life cycle.
