Paper credit card receipts, pens with ink, bills signed into law with flesh and blood pushing the pen — all going by way of the Dodo (you know, the flightless bird that became extinct because it was not able to change with its surroundings)! I recently read an article stating that President Obama has signed several bills into law electronically. Granted, the technology that the President used is not quite exactly what you might be using with your clients, but it does signal an on-going shift to electronic or e-signatures.
E-signatures are continuing to gain momentum every day. Almost everyone has e-signed something at this point. If you don’t think so, take this into consideration: Have you ever signed for a UPS package? Have you ever used the little pen and pad at the store to sign for a credit card purchase and your signature was printed on the receipt? Odds are you said yes, which means you have digitally signed a document. Digital signature capture is not the only way to electronically sign a document, though it does seem to be the way we are most comfortable with today. There are a number of cloud services that allow you to send an electronic document to an individual or group of individuals, allow them to sign the document by verifying their identity and recording their intent to sign the document and then return it to you and no one ever had to pick up a pen. The service providers have various ways of preforming these tasks, but the most important part is that the process is secure. Another way to sign a document is to attach what is known as a digital certificate to it. Think of this as being similar to a scroll bearing the seal of an individual, such as a king or noble in medieval times. This process not only allows the signer to show intent to sign the document, but also provides a way to secure the document so that changes to the document render the signature void, protecting the signer from changes being made after they sign the document.
These methods of signing documents have been tried and tested to hold up in courts all over the world. Government agencies are adopting technologies to sign documents internally and from the public, such as the IRS and your electronically-signed and submitted tax returns. Times are changing, and the world is becoming more digital every day. E-signatures allow a company to be more efficient and to use less paper. If your business uses contracts or any other type of document that requires a signature, now is the perfect time to make the transition to e-signatures.