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Is your organization thinking about transitioning to the use of electronic signatures? Or perhaps you are considering implementing them in your personal workflows?
If the answer to either question is yes, you’re on the verge of experiencing a range of benefits. Electronic signatures enable you to approve, send, track, and manage documents much more efficiently than manual alternatives.
In this article, we’re going to outline several best practices related to the process of digitally signing documents. We’ll also give you some advice about picking an e-signature platform that fits your business needs.
Top 3 Electronic Signature Best Practices
To ensure that electronic signatures are secure and legally binding, you should keep several guidelines in mind.
Here are three best practices that help ensure the validity of digital signatures:
- Opt for an established electronic signature platform – Established electronic signature platforms offer a host of document management, security, and analytics features that enable you to create, track, and store documents in a secure manner. Opting for a well-known brand like PandaDoc, Adobe Sign, or HelloSign will mean that you’ll be fully protected, with easy access to signed documents and a full audit trail if any legal issues arise at a later stage.
- Store online documents securely – One of the main benefits of electronic signatures is that they remove the need to store paper documents manually. However, it is still important to use a secure storage service, especially if contracts, proposals, invoices, and so on contain confidential client information. Document management solutions and e-signature apps tend to provide secure online storage.
- Streamline client-facing e-signature processes – E-signing is far more convenient for clients than hand-signing, which requires printing and scanning. To approve a document, a recipient simply needs to click an email link, add their signature to the document, and return it to the original sender. E-signature apps further streamline this process by including native features in documents that allow recipients to add signatures with just a few clicks.
How to Pick an Electronic Signature Platform
Electronic signature platforms provide an efficient means of signing large volumes of documents. Furthermore, a wide range of solutions is available. Irrespective of your business’ size or the particular features you require, you should be able to find a suitable solution. You should use the best e-sign software.
Here are a few pointers when evaluating e-signature apps:
- Decide between a straightforward e-sign app and a comprehensive document management solution – When it comes to e-signature software, you have two options: a “slimmed down” tool that enables you to sign documents but that provides little extra additional functionality, or a comprehensive document management solution which, along with e-signature features, includes templates, a document editor, analytics, team management tools, and so on.
- Compare pricing, especially for enterprise-level plans – Subscription costs vary significantly between apps. And this is particularly the case for enterprise-level plans, many of which are priced on a custom basis. The amounts charged for lower-level packages tend to be relatively uniform across the market. However, if you are responsible for a larger company, or you are anticipating that your organization will scale in the near future, it is essential to compare packages and opt for the one that provides the most value, especially in regards to ongoing customer support, online storage costs, and integrations.
- Evaluate support and onboarding assistance before purchasing a subscription – Businesses often overlook customer support. And this can lead to easily avoidable problems, including time wasted on resolving technical issues, unhappy clients, and issues with sending documents. Before taking out a subscription, check customer support hours, third-party reviews, and whether or not access to an onboarding assistant and dedicated account manager is available (if you need it).