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E-SIGNATURES
Sign of the times
Qualified approval
New research suggests consumer demand is driving the uptake of digital signatures
A separate survey by Adobe shows growing interest in digital signatures,
despite some reservations
Digital methods of doing business are
no longer viewed as a ‘nice to have’ by
consumers or business professionals
but as an absolute prerequisite, with
almost 90% of consumers wanting
the option to complete transactions
digitally.
This is one of the main findings of new
research commissioned by DocuSign,
the eSignature and Digital Transaction
Management (DTM) company. The
research, available in the eBook What
do your customers expect?
,
also reveals
that more than 60% of C-level executives
expect businesses to offer digital options
for completing transactions.
Scott Olrich, chief strategy and
marketing officer at DocuSign, said: “If
companies aren’t already going digital to
accelerate the process of doing business
internally, they need to do so for their
customers. Today’s consumers demand
the ease, speed and convenience of
doing business digitally, and if your
organisation doesn’t, they will find a
modern business that does.”
The research reveals growing
dissatisfaction amongst consumers for
traditional communication methods and
for businesses that rely on them:
n
62%
of consumers don’t feel
comfortable sending important or
sensitive paper documents through the
post; two in five have had a document
lost in the post in the last 12 months;
n
59%
of consumers believe that
organisations using legacy processes,
such as paper forms, are outdated
compared to their peers that are digital;
and
n
57%
of consumers would choose to
interact with companies that offer digital
methods of completing transactions
over those that stick to paper-based
processes.
While executives lag behind consumers
in the move to digital, they are starting
to recognise its importance to their
own customers and the future of their
businesses, with 85% citing digital
transformation as a top priority for their
organisations.
The top three areas of business that
C-level executives aim to improve by
going digital are all customer-centric:
n
52%
are looking to digital to
improve their Customer Relationship
Management (CRM);
n
51%
are focused on enhancing
customer service through digital means;
and
n
46%
are aiming to improve client
satisfaction/their client experience with
digital technologies.
Despite their intentions many
businesses still face obstacles to
digital adoption, including lack of
funding (46%) and the need to modify
infrastructure before implementation
(54%).
There is also evidence of poor
planning and collaboration, with 44%
of senior decision-makers undertaking
digital projects without consulting their
IT departments. Only 29% of business
leaders have had a digital project
proceed without red tape from another
department.
Almost all executives (92%) agree
that their organisation could be doing
more to go digital and, as a result,
more and more organisations are
creating chief digital officer roles to
drive collaboration and success across
departments.
Despite the abundance of new
technologies at our disposal and the
frustrations of traditional paper-based
processes, Brits still have an emotional
attachment to handwritten signatures.
In a recent survey of 2,002 UK
consumers by Adobe Document Cloud,
86% claimed that physically signing
documents is still important to them
especially when it involves giving their
consent or proving their identity.
However, there are signs that people are
becoming more open to the use of digital
signatures, with 49% saying they would be
comfortable using digital or e-signatures in
the future.
Of those who said they would be open
to using e-signatures:
34%
say using e-signatures is less time
consuming;
31%
like the convenience of not needing to
find a pen;
29%
think e-signatures will help them
approve things on any device; and
28%
think e-signatures will help them
approve things on the move, across
multiple devices.
Over a quarter of respondents think
e-signatures could be good for signing
contracts and official work documents
(28%), with a further 27% saying they
could be used to give another level of
authentication on the goods they purchase.
A further 16% said that using e-signatures
could save money.
Even so, Adobe’s survey shows that
people still have reservations about using
e-signatures:
38%
feel e-signatures can be easily
copied;
36%
don’t think they are secure; and
26%
say they are untrustworthy because
people don’t check them properly.
These findings support another recent
European study from Adobe Document
Cloud which highlighted the fact that office
workers are currently spending significant
time on office admin, with almost one day
a week being devoted to everyday tasks
(average 6.8 hours). More than six out
of ten European workers (61%) said that
chasing signatures was adding to their
frustrations.
Three quarters (77%) of UK workers say
that the technology is extremely valuable in
helping to achieve higher productivity and
freeing up time.
More than six billion digital and
electronic signature transactions are
processed through Document Cloud each
year, using Adobe Sign to electronically
sign and send documents from any
device.
