eSign Documents Online: Faster And Easier
Electronic communication is overtaking communication methods and has been used overwhelmingly since the pandemic. With the need for contactless business processes, e-signatures have risen in popularity as more companies lean towards modernizing and digitalizing their operations.
Also, read Easily Create an e Signature Word Document
This article tells you everything you need to know about electronic signatures and their usage in business.
What is an e-signature?
Electronically receiving and sending documents has existed ever since the advent of email. It is the most common way of sending and receiving files without having to print them out. Nowadays, important business deals have started to take place in the electronic realm, and what this has led to is the rise of the e-signature.
To determine the legitimacy of a sensitive or confidential document, the best way is to verify the signature of the individuals who have signed it. Electronically, this is done by determining the trail of the signatories and how many individuals have viewed the document.
When signing a document electronically, several safeguards ensure that the document is not accessed by any unauthorized persons or leaked by accident. This is completed through the following methods:
- Verify the email ID from which the document was sent
- Sending the document from a corporate ID
- Password protection
- Confidential PIN sent to the phone numbers of signer’s
This way, only those authorized can open the document, view its content, and change anything. In large corporations, it is often difficult to gather everyone needed to get something done, so a better way would be to send the document requiring approval through an email, and it is circulated through the chain of command. Only those authorized to view it may do so, and thus the contents of the document are kept safe.
Most e signature providers also provide additional protection by offering a certificate from a Trust Service Provider (TSP), like a Certificate Authority (CA), allowing users to authenticate the senders and signers’ ID. Each digital signature is bound by encryption, which cannot be hacked into. This encryption key or an encryption bit is unique for each signatory, and e signature providers have shown that this encryption is enough proof of authenticity.
Why use e signatures?
The easiest answer is the ease of doing business. E signatures make it easier to get approval for projects or work without having to wait for the person to be physically present to sign the document. It also allows workers to esign documents online and get them approved online as well. Thus without having to print out the document, they can make changes required electronically and only print the final draft if necessary.
Most businesses are going paper-free, and environment-friendly companies are the ones sought out by investors. A paper-free workplace not only reduces clutter in the office, or protects the environment, it also makes it easier for higher-ups to sign and retrieve documents from any device, anywhere. The cost of printing documents, the ink and paper required all can be eliminated by simply streaming your signatures to electronic versions.
E signatures are also more secure as they come with methods of authentication that are difficult to break or forge. Trusted e signature providers provide certificates of Authority that have encryption-embedded e signatures. These are the most secure form of communication.
E signatures are the future. As businesses move towards environment-friendly procedures and the uses of electronic means proliferate, it is a lot easier and budget-friendly for companies to move to electronic means. The security of e signatures is unmatched, and the physical need to be present for signing a document is a rudimentary and time-consuming process.
