An Insider’s View on How the Pandemic Maximized e Signature Growth

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a prominent challenge of being unable to conduct business and carry on interactions in person.

With so many countries going into lock-down every now and then since 2020, the endeavor of getting physical signatures has turned entirely impossible.

However, this has also opened a new way of closing deals for many businesses by using electronic signature services.

The challenges introduced by the pandemic created a high surge in the use of online signatures software for signing documents, as companies found a way to maintain this important function.

As a result, many companies have digitalised their businesses to ensure that they face no problems in completing important projects.

Business owners are implementing professional and featured software for their businesses to survive during COVID devastation.

They send online documents and get them signed within a matter of a few minutes.

Although electronic signing has been around for many years now, COVID-19 played a role in expediting the adoption rate of this technology. The business world, in particular, is turning increasingly paperless by offering a quick way of executing documents. Online document signing offers a secure and efficient way of approving contracts and other documentation.

Rapid Adoption of Electronic Signature After COVID-19:

Earlier, the world was used to getting important documents signed by either meeting the other party in person or sending the documents through fax or post.

With the emergence and rise of COVID, the world has decided to work and make money online from home. The process of printing, signing, scanning, and emailing a document was not possible anymore. The task that was earlier considered so simple suddenly became difficult.

It can be easily said that the pandemic introduced a sort of unprecedented forcing function when it came to electronic signatures. Since the acceleration of digital transformation was evident in many previous processes, the adoption of electronic signatures soared.

It is now being expected that the global electronic signature market will grow from USD 4.0 billion in 2021 to USD 16.8 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 33.1% during this forecast period.

How Does E-Signature Solve the Problem?

Electronic signatures serve as a perfect alternative to the physical method of signing documents. This is a technology that makes it easy to sign documents digitally or collect signatures from anyone and at any time. Individuals and businesses can close deals, initiate agreements, and play an important role in all businesses.

The seamlessness that electronic signatures bring to the table results in quick turnaround time and streamlined costs related to printing, scanning, and mailing.

Different Ways in Which Electronic Signatures Make Business Dealings Easier Are:

1. Sales Cycle

The sales cycle is a strategic and important one. It has the ability to determine the profit and loss that a business is making. Sales representatives work hard to convert a lead into a customer.

This is a process that requires invoices, proposals, quotes, and other agreements as well. The use of electronic signatures has enabled the sales team to be focused on following up with leads while not worrying about documentation.

Everything is done online, and the deal is closed within minutes.

2. Vendor Deals

Businesses constantly need to hire professionals for different services. Sometimes it is the completion of a project, and at other times it is the delivery of goods.

All these agreements need proper documentation that clarifies the role of all the parties involved, including the time of payments.

The use of electronic signatures has enabled business owners to complete all of this important work on the internet.

3. Sales and Purchase Agreement

Some purchases require legal documentation involving all parties. The pandemic made it difficult to keep the agreement process going on, as sales and purchase agreements involve excess paperwork.

However, the introduction of electronic signatures has made it easy to sign documents from your phone or anywhere.

4. Human Resource Management Process

The human resource management process is yet another thing that takes a lot of time and comes with the signing of multiple documents. These documents can be called letters, social media, policies, offer letters, etc.

The pandemic made it difficult for human resource managers to hire professionals to fill vacancies. In addition, the on-boarding process was even more difficult as it required sending offer letters, agreements, policy documents, etc.

Ever since businesses opted for e-signatures, streamlining operational processes has been rather easy.

In the past two years, it has been seen that the adoption of e-signatures by small businesses has increased all across the world. There is absolutely no doubt that electronic signatures have become the new normal for many businesses and will be the norm in the future.

It is estimated that moving forward, there will be a high acceptance of electronic signatures in internal processes and communication in enterprises.

The enhanced operational efficiency is likely to reduce costs while positively impacting the growth of the market.

Moreover, the ever-growing need for security and authentication because of cyberattacks also contributes to boosting the growth of the market.

Important Things to Remember While Adopting E-Signatures:

Companies that are looking to adopt electronic signatures must focus on working with reliable and recognized electronic signature platforms. This will guarantee a more reliable and efficient service.

Other than this, companies are also encouraged to make sure that their customers understand the legality and validity of the electronic signature process.

The automation permission flow helps when you want to collect many signatures dependent on the authority chain. Best security practices and ease of inclusion are highly recommended.

It is critical to understand that, even before COVID-19, e-signatures represented an opportunity to improve customer experience and efficiency.

However, with the pandemic here and the nature of business being uncertain, organizations must find ways to secure themselves. Customer expectations have increased when it comes to living digitally.

Here, you can learn about the 5 major business developments that drive the deployment and adoption of electronic signature technology.

Customer expectations for digital interactions and legal acceptance of e-signatures are two examples. There's also a desire to stay competitive, pay more attention to compliance and security, and adapt to the growing use of mobile devices. 

In times like these, it is entirely on organizations to take a step ahead and give customers a digitally empowered experience with e-signatures.

Conclusion

We can vouch that electronic signatures are here to stay and work as an metro guards. The people and businesses that understood the importance of this technology have survived the social and economic challenges that were brought by COVID.

At this time, when the world is hit by yet another new COVID variant called Omicron, we don’t know how uncertain the times are ahead. And even when COVID goes away completely one fine day, the world by then will be completely used to operating digitally.

Hence, businesses that have not adopted e-signature technology must begin looking for a suitable electronic signature solution as soon as possible.

Other than the many benefits that e-signature software can bring, productivity and cost-cutting can change the business dynamics completely.

These are the very benefits that can enable businesses to stand out in the future.