In the modern world, businesses are conducted in a different way than they used to in the last. Take any business operation, be it accounting, marketing, HR, legal, Sales, or even supply chain, every business operation has found a modern way of managing and conducting a workflow.
Technology integration in the traditional business process has made revolutionary changes in the business.
However, throughout this change, one thing that has not changed is the importance of signatures in finalizing any decision or transaction. Earlier, people used to rely on wet signatures or handwritten signatures to give their consent to something and it used to (and still holds) a legal value.
Every signature used to be unique and connected directly to the signer. But, now, especially in the post-pandemic world, people will demand more and more contactless services.
In the age of smartphones and mobile devices supported by robust internet, people prefer to do everything online. They no longer wish to wait in a long line or wait for days for the arrival of a document.
They want things to be completed quickly, in real-time if possible and that too with complete accuracy.
People are also more environmentally friendly and do not wish to use fuel, paper, plastic and other hazardous materials unnecessarily.
As a result of all such reasons, e signature software has started gaining popularity and acceptance in the market. However, just because some technology is trending does not mean you know everything about it.
Let us explore more about electronic signature software. It is important to know all the details of the solution irrespective of the sector, and size.
The first thing to know is there are two versions of document signing software, one is free sign software and the other is the paid one.
1. Is the signature real or just an image?
In today's world most of the e signature software capture a digital copy of the signature and paste it on a concerns file or content as a signature. In short, here, your intent of signature is shown.
As per the ESIGN Act, 2000 passed in the USA, a person makes signatures in different ways using digital signature software. You can use yiur finger and draw your signature on the screen if your computing device just the way it is done in traditional, handwritten signature; you can think on the right checkbox, etc.
The act states to use the technology of a technique that can easily verify the signer's identity and establish a connection between the signature and the signer. A reliable e signature software with a value in the court of law would use cryptographic techniques to make signatures more reliable.
2. Does it need a 3rd party security certificate?
If you're using a free version of electronic signature software, the software does not help you to perform signature in the most secured way. Here, you might need a third party to validate the signature and most of the times, such solutions use just an image of the handwritten signatures.
However, it is not true in the case of professional document signing software. Here, the software uses cryptographic encryption to ensure that the right person has signed in the document.
The verification of the profile is possible during and even after the completion of the signing process. This makes advanced digital signatures legally valid in a court of law.
Does the solution gather any other data along with the signature?
In today's world, people are more aware and various online things. They especially worry about the security of their data that is put online for one or other reason.
Plus, recently many big names from the IT sector like Yahoo, Facebook, Google, etc have faced security breaches and data theft issues. About the question, if you are using a professional and paid version, some extra information is collected like the time, name of the person, location, etc.
All this data is securely stored for signer verification and other safety and legal purposes. Business must ask the vendor every little detail about the software, how it operates, where it stores all the data, how to access it, etc.
Is there an audit trail?
An audit trail is one of the core features of any professional electronic signature software. Every digital signature software must offer audit trail features.
As the name suggests, it lets the user track and monitor every activity that takes place on document eight from the beginning. Without an audit trail, a user cannot prove in the court of law that the document he is talking about is the actual document and every party attached to the document was right.
Aditi trail also helps in maintaining transparency among the signatories. Every concert person attached to the person in one way or other is assured that the signing process was conducted in a secured environment and the document now has valid legal status in the court of law.
A business must go for software that uses advanced techniques like blockchain and cryptography to perform this action.
What if you have to go to court way ahead in the future?
Nobody wants to walk down this aisle, but sometimes it happens that after year's of signing a document, for one reason or other, parties has to present themselves in court. In the traditional signing process, there is no proof except the made signatures showing that the right people were invited for the signing process and they have signed it.
But, in the digital signing process, each party can be confident that the document is valid and will stand every legal test. Hence, it is important to use a reliable paid version of the software.
The court may ask you to share the name of the software you used to perform signatures if it is reliable software, you do not have to worry.
Apart from the above question, you must also know all the answers to the following questions:
What are the proofs the software offers to ensure the solution is tamper-proof?
How can you know the right party has signed the document?
How the documents are kept safe and verified? etc.
Installing reliable, professional e signature software is hence important.
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