As more businesses leverage online tools and cloud computing capabilities as a means to improve operational efficiencies and reduce or eliminate dependency on paper, there is one overlooked piece of the puzzle…Electronic Signatures. More often than not contracts or agreements are created in a digital format, however once terms or conditions are agreed upon, many businesses rely on resource intensive paper-based processes. The process of printing, shipping, faxing and filing, is resource intensive, expensive and slow.
If most of your operations are already taken online, why not close the loop with electronic signatures. By utilizing an end-to-end electronic signature solution like eOriginal’s SmartSign Web, businesses are able to compliment existing applications to create a completely streamlined process from origination → to signing → to storing and managing documents throughout their entire lifecycle. Electronic signatures really are designed to simplify business operations. Documents are sent out for signature via email, the ID of signers can be validated through multiple layers of verification (if necessary), and documents can be signed through any number of ways including text signatures, signature pads, and using mobile devices (Smart phones, iPads, tablets, etc) for access anytime anywhere.
A few key benefits include:
Reduce sales-cycles closing more deals faster having documents signed in minutes, not days or weeks.
Track user activity throughout the entire document management process with automated alerts. Alerts can notify key members of your team for newly closed deals, contract extensions, and who has and hasn’t signed.
Eliminate errors and missing or incomplete documents. The signing process can not be completed without all proper information being provided.
Reduce costs associated with printing, faxing, and filing paper documents.
Go Green — eliminating paper based systems minimizes your organizations impact on the environment.
Electronic signatures may not fit the bill for every organization or for every process and each provider offers a few different options and solutions, so it is important to take a look at what your business is doing. But, if you are looking to close the gap and eliminate the “paper-chase”, electronic signatures are probably your best bet to grow and go paperless.
One of the benefits of using eOriginal is the ability for documents to be marked as eSigned and secured in the eCore vault. What about those signed paper documents?
Can those documents be converted from a signed paper original to a secure Electronic Original® Document?
eOriginal now introduces a Paper In process that allows our customers to accomplish this goal. Paper In is a controlled action that enables you to convert a paper original to an Electronic Original Document (Authoritative Copy). The document, once the process is complete, will contain the electronic signature of the user you designated to confirm the destruction of the paper original.
The Paper In process is an asynchronous process involving the following steps:
the document is converted to an electronic document (typically through a scanning process)
the electronic document is uploaded to the eCore vault in a locked status
the source paper and its copies are destroyed
the destruction is confirmed through the Paper In approval.
This process requires specific eCore configurations and your overall process should be reviewed with an eOriginal support representative prior to attempting any Paper In.
Take some time to view a presentation on how eOriginal’s Paper In process can help your organization convert paper originals to Electronic Original documents.
We all know how important it is to make every customer feel like they are your most important customer. One great way to do this is to customize each signers experience so that each signer not only experiences exactly what they need to see and do, but they do and see it in the manor you want them to do it.
No matter how simple or complex your companies workflow (or each signers workflow) is eOriginal SmartSign can easily and effortlessly help you brand each workflow for you businesses’ needs. SmartSign Web has always allowed your organize to brand and customize the signing experience your signers see. Now SmartSign allows you to take it one step further. With eOriginal Transaction Types and eOriginal Role Based branding options, you may simply group like documents for your online repository into one grouping. This grouping allows you to set the default order each document will be shown to your signers, as well as which documents are required or optional by default.
SmartSign then takes this one step further to allow you to customize any and all branding and workflow options to that specific Transaction Type and even each specific signer.
If you want one logo and set of colors for Transaction Type A and another logo and set of colors for Transaction Type B, that is easy as a click of the mouse.
If you have a set of four documents and want to show documents 1 and 2 to Signer A, but documents 2 and 4 to Signer Two, just as easy.
If you want notification emails to go to different distribution lists or want to use SmartSign’s push service to update different system based on the Transaction Type, even easier.
If you want each set of customizable instructions to be different for each signer, because you just customized the documents each signer would see…you guessed it, simple as pie.
With SmartSign’s interactive dashboard you may quickly and easily create a transaction with any of your Transaction Types with just 1 click! If you would like to learn more about the use of SmartSign’s Transaction Types, Role Based Sort Order, and/or any other branding options please contact your customer support representative.
With the use of electronic signatures becoming more prevalent in today’s office atmosphere, businesses are quickly recognizing the value and benefits that come along with adopting electronic processes. I spend a considerable amount of my time speaking with these businesses, and discussing the best ways to incorporate eOriginal’s SmartSign electronic signature solution into their workflow. A common question that I am frequently asked is “what is the difference between Electronic and Digital signatures”?
U.S. legislation (ESIGN/UETA) defines an electronic signature as “an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record”. One of the most commonly used Electronic Signatures today is the Text Typed signature; text typed meaning that one has used a keyboard to type their name, with the intent to sign “something”. Although this is the most common, electronic signatures are not limited to this method. SmartSign allows businesses to have documents e-signed using other accepted methods such as voice, mouse, signature pads, iPad/iPhone (with your finger or stylus), smart-phones and the list goes on. What is important to note; an electronic signature can be applied almost by any means, but it is just the first step in a fully secure and compliant electronic signature process.
Digital signatures require the use of a digital certificate, essentially a type of key or code that utilizes cryptographic algorithms to assure the integrity and authenticity of electronic media, and the information within. Put simply, the application uses an algorithm to generate a unique code by processing the source file. That unique code, think of it as a document’s fingerprint, is then encrypted using the private key stored in the digital certificate. The result of all this processing is a secure document that is tamper evident. If any value in the source document is corrupted or maliciously altered, it can be easily detected by verifying the original signature.
Secure solutions like eOriginal’s SmartSign utilize a combination of electronic and digital signatures. After the electronic signature has been captured and applied to the document, SmartSign then binds the electronic signature and the document content with a second digital signature. This allows SmartSign to lock down the document, adding further assurance that the information in the document has not changed since the electronic signature was applied. This process allows businesses to take advantage of technology, removing paper from the workflow, saving time, money, and helping to increase revenue, all while maintaining the legal integrity, admissibly and enforceability of your important documents.
Do you need to send the same document to a large list of recipients and request that each sign his own instance of the document? Do you know that doing so is now easier than ever with eOriginal SmartSign?
Let’s walk through a very simple example for requesting that all 333 employees at Acme Organization sign the new Acme HR Policy Guide. We are going to define a single transaction with a single instance of the Acme HR Policy Guide, and magically, all 333 Acme employees will receive an email requesting they review and sign the guide…
In the SmartSign Setup application, choose to create a New Transaction. Give the transaction a name to be used as the base transaction ID (let’s use “Acme HR Policy Guide”) and fill in the rest of the transaction properties (status, expiration date, etc.) as you normally do. Click on the ‘Additional Information’ link to expand that section. In the ‘Generate Multiple Copies’ field, type “333″.
Now go through the steps to add a document and define the signature template as if you were creating a single transaction for a single employee.
When you get to the role mapping page you will be prompted to upload a .csv file containing the name, email address, and security codes for each employee.
.csv files can be easily generated via various spreadsheet and database applications. The .csv file should not include any column headings and should list each recipient in the following format:
First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Email Address, Security Code
(note if no Middle Name is available, a place-holder for its value must still be defined.)
Craft your email text and click to ‘Send’…all 333 Acme employees have just received your email with the link to review and sign the new HR Policy Guide. Now wasn’t that easy!
Additional Tips:
The number of entries in the .csv file must match the number of transaction copies requested.
Multiple roles may participate in ‘bulk mail’ transactions. The actual signers playing each role may be defined by either uploading a separate .csv file for each role or by defining a specific individual to play that role across all transactions. When uploading multiple .csv files, be sure the signers are listed in the order they should be ‘paired up’.
Online document collaboration with Google Apps allows users to easily create, review, comment and edit documents in real time. This new interaction paradigm has displaced the time consuming process of creating a document, emailing the stakeholders, getting comments back, finding the comments, editing the document, emailing stakeholders (again!), and so forth. This has been a very slow way of collaborating on an agreement or contract – any document really. The same thing can be said of the paper based processes employed when those documents need to be signed and counter signed.
Printing documents simply to capture signatures introduces significant lag in the “closing” process, often results in not in good order (NIGO) documents, and triggers additional slowdown in completion as employees deal with mail, faxing, scanning, indexing and filing.
Now you can take advantage of Google Apps enhanced collaboration tools with SmartSign’s powerful electronic signature solution. Simply link your Google Apps account with your SmartSign account and you can begin sending invitations for participants to electronically sign the documents. The process can be further automated by leveraging predefined signature templates. If you need to include additional standard forms that do not change across transactions, our forms library makes it fast and easy to have those automatically included with your Google Apps documents. Best of all, SmartSign keeps you in the loop as each signer completes the process and it can automatically push electronic copies into your CRM or imaging systems.
With Google Apps + SmartSign Web your transactions are completed faster, with fewer errors and more securely.
We have recently partnered with DocStoc, the premier online business resource offering the widest selection of high quality professional documents, to further enhance our Small Business Solutions.
The electronic signature and transaction management solutions we provide, are already used by many of the largest US corporations, and their success has really influenced many small to mid-size businesses to streamline business processes and drive new business opportunities by utilizing electronic signatures to expedite online proposals, contracting, and improve customer service. By teaming with DocStoc, our customers can now quickly implement the legal and professional documents they need to setup and operate their business at significant savings.
“Our small to medium business clients want to take their onboarding, contracting and business processes online but often they are stalled waiting for the development of the necessary legal forms, contracts or agreements, said Morris Abell, Director of Sales at eOriginal. “This partnership gives them an opportunity to accelerate their time to market.”
Many of us have been following and anxiously awaiting a decision by the Utah Supreme Court regarding the challenge of the legal validity of electronic signature for government ballots which relied heavily on Utah’s version of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). I have read many differing and varying opinions from legal experts, blogs, tweeters, etc. but we can all stop speculating because the ruling on June 22, 2010 confirmed the validity of the collected eSignatures established new precedent.
What this decision does, is open the door for wider implementation of electronic signatures by government and businesses that have been slower to adopt this type of technology because of legal concerns. As stated by David K. Isom yesterday in a great blog post, Electronic Signatures Come of Age: From Elections to Commerce and Beyond, “The Utah decision resolved many of the fundamental issues presented by UETA, and resolved them in a way that energizes UETA. UETA will have a broader application in states that follow Anderson than most commentators would have predicted.”
I’m sure we’ll be seeing the positive effects of this decision. With the recent decision by the FHA to accept eSignatures on 3rd party documents and a preliminary decision by the North Carolina State Bar for the use of SaaS products as long as reasonable care” is taken to minimize risks to the “confidentiality and to the security of client information and client files, it appears that technology and products like eOriginal’s eSigantures solutions will be playing a greater role and making a wider impact on the way in which government and businesses handle their online transactions.
Electronic signatures scale to meet demand for construction inspections and exceed compliance requirements.
eOriginal an industry pioneer and leader in the electronic signature market has announced a partnership with Certified Chinese Drywall Testing, a multistate drywall inspection company that provides insurable results for their inspections of imported Chinese drywall.
“Chinese sheet rock is likely to be the largest product liability issue the construction industry has ever seen, said Joseph Weissglass, President of Certified Chinese Drywall Testing, LLC. “The high volume of demand for our testing and inspection programs required an e-contracting solution that could scale and be compliant and the best, most complete solution we could find was eOriginal’s SmartSign Web.”
eOriginal’s data collection, digital signing, and lifecycle management of electronic signatures and transferable records management such as e-contracting can be deployed as premise behind the firewall, SaaS or cloud.
“eOriginal is a natural fit for companies like Certified Chinese Drywall Testing that want to quickly reap the benefits of automation for a better customer experience that is still compliant”, said John Jacobs, Account Executive for eOriginal.
About eOriginal
eOriginal provides advanced electronic signature, vaulting and electronic transaction solutions that are tamper–sealed, auditable and legally enforceable. eOriginal SmartSign® enables compliance with the eSignature requirements of the ESIGN Act, UETA and the UCC. eOriginal has provided secure, verifiable execution, delivery and management of commercial loans, leases and other financial industry documentation for fifteen years. eOriginal customers, including top–tier financial institutions, have processed over 20 million electronic signatures without a single system error or legal challenge.
To learn how eOriginal can streamline your business processes, visit www.eoriginal.com call (410) 895-7699 or follow eOriginal on Twitter @eOriginal.
About Certified Chinese Drywall
Certified Chinese Drywall Testing, LLC offers the Nation’s only insurable testing option for Chinese drywall. Potential buyers, sellers, attorneys, banks, and other interested parties rely on Certified Chinese Drywall Testing to provide comprehensive, quantitative, and conclusive Chinese drywall testing.
Certified Chinese Drywall Testing, LLC offers services throughout the state of Florida and across the Gulf Coast, as well as Virginia.
Partnership will revolutionize the parts delivery process through real-time, web-based systems that streamline and automate routing, tracking and delivery
EAU CLAIRE, WI and BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) May 11, 2010 – The founders of Elite EXTRA, a revolutionary new routing and tracking tool, and eOriginal Inc., a leader in electronic signatures, vaulted repository and electronic transaction solutions, have partnered to offer point of delivery electronic signature capture for the automotive parts industry.
Jim Ward, President of Extra Trax, the company that owns Elite EXTRA (Extreme Routing and Tracking Application), recognizes the electronic signature solution is a critical add-on that will benefit Elite EXTRA’s customers by providing a secured electronically signed document as proof of delivery or service, creating the option for a paperless system for customers who choose it.
“This is the first routing and tracking system that combines automated optimal routes at an affordable price point with real-time electronic signature capture,” said Ward. “Together these tools will revolutionize the way auto parts are delivered by creating efficiencies and reducing waste for customers.”
Jim Tebay, eOriginal’s Vice-President of Business Development, said “We’ve played a key role in automating automotive finance with our solutions, so we see Elite EXTRA’s real-time solution for parts delivery as a natural complement and one that provides a fast return on investment for both dealers and parts suppliers.”
Electronic signature capture, embedded into a web browser on the driver’s cell phone, will be provided at the point of delivery, to capture the signature from the person receiving the order. The signature will then be stored for the customer with the pertinent details of the delivery, invoice or work order, and accessible in real-time via Extra’s customer web portal.
Because both the Extra Trax and eOriginal processes are aimed at automating and streamlining operations for deliveries, the two complement one another in helping businesses to operate efficiently, reduce staff and cut overhead operating costs.
Elite EXTRA has a proven return on investment (ROI) of 15 percent through route optimization and driver and dispatcher efficiencies, and signature capture will further augment that ROI by reducing the amount of time staff spend in searching and accessing paper documents.
“We did an extensive search for an electronic signature solution to help streamline our customers’ operations in a manner that is easy, efficient, and secure,” said Ward. “eOriginal has been wonderful to work with, and through integration offers a complete, cost-effective, cutting-edge solution for customers wanting digital, web-based signature capture.”
Elite EXTRA, which was launched in 2009, is a web-based system that creates automated optimal routes, tracks drivers, and provides an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for customers. It uses the latest in open source geospatial technologies to streamline the automotive parts delivery system. Advanced geospatial algorithms calculate delivery routes and route orders, helping dispatchers to determine the optimal routes for their drivers. It is a powerful, yet lightweight and cost-effective solution for all industries that transport goods or services.
The first release of the system was developed exclusively for the auto part delivery industry with extensive input from pioneers in the logistics and auto parts industries. It costs less upfront, and is less per driver than comparable software as a service (SaaS) packages.
Extra Trax, LLC is a logistics and routing subsidiary of Applied Data Consultants, Inc. (ADC) that is targeted solely at providing customized routing and delivery tools for the logistics industry. Its headquarters are in Eau Claire, Wis.
About ADC
Incorporated in 1996, ADC provides customized web solutions, application development, enterprise-wide consulting and mapping services. ADC now has 40 employees between its Eau Claire headquarters and its Omaha, Neb. and Denver, Colo. branch offices. For more information about ADC, please see: www.adc4gis.com
About eOriginal
eOriginal, Inc. provides advanced electronic signature, vaulting and electronic transaction solutions which are tamper-sealed, auditable and legally enforceable. eOriginal SmartSign® enables compliance with the eSignature requirements of the ESIGN Act, UETA and the UCC. eOriginal has provided secure and verifiable execution, delivery and management of commercial loans, leases and other financial industry documentation for over a decade. eOriginal customers, including top–tier financial institutions, have processed millions of electronic signatures on millions of documents without a single system error or legal challenge.
To learn how eOriginal can streamline your business processes, visit www.eoriginal.com or call 410-895-7699. You can also follow eOriginal on Twitter @eOriginal.
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