Document signing plays a central role in business agreements. The use of electronic signatures in digital contracts isn’t well ahead into the future; it’s the trend, and it’s happening all over the globe. Apart from saving time, effort, and funds across organizations, it promotes a deeper sense of trust and is overall more secure.
Signing documents digitally is not just future proofing companies. Transitioning in this practice saves the environment, too.
Contract Management Trends
There is no stopping the transformation of contract management from traditional manual processes into more efficient, data-driven systems that leverage data, analytics, encryption, and automation. These technologies enable organizations to reduce errors, streamline workflows, and improve compliance.
Collaboration on contract management systems
Collaborative contract management (CCM) involves all stakeholders in creating a transparent environment where legal, procurement, finance, and other departments can create, negotiate, and manage contracts as one. Having CCM software would enable teams and departments to work together in real-time, track changes, and manage approvals from a centralized dashboard. We expect a heightened adoption of CCM software to improve collaboration and transparency in contract management. The increasing complexity of contracts and the need for authentic synergy between departments drive this growth.
Data and analytics with contract management SaaS (Software as a Service)
The data contained within contracts is valuable, providing insights into market trends, customer behavior, and supplier performance. However, extracting and analyzing this data is tedious.
According to McKinsey & Company, leveraging data analytics in contract management can achieve cost savings of up to 15%, improve compliance by up to 90%, and reduce contract cycles by up to 50%. Hence, we expect to see an increased focus on contract data and analytics with contract management SaaS. The insights formulated from the gathered data can help determine pain points and how to take corrective action for the succeeding instances.
Signing contracts with encryption
Companies are looking to employ strong encryption protocols to protect the confidentiality of electronic and digital contracts. Encryption ensures that the content of these agreements remains safe during transmission and storage, making it impossible for third parties to gain access or make changes without authorization.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, and blockchain-based smart contracts
AI can be used to identify potential risks in contracts, automate contract creation and approval workflows, and extract data for analysis. Meanwhile, blockchain technology can enable “smart contracts,” which can be programmed to execute automatically when specific conditions are met. This reduces the need for human touch and streamlines the contract management process.
The future is paperless
People will save our planet, but technology can help. GlobalSign believes in the paperless office and its ability to revolutionize the way that organizations conduct business. Reducing the amount of paper that businesses use has the potential to save thousands of dollars and reduce transportation costs, which could also reduce carbon emissions.
- Reduce carbon footprint – Digitizing documents eliminates the need to physically distribute and duplicate paperwork, enhancing agile work. It also reduces the need for physical file retrievals for documents stored offsite. Digitizing documents enables files to be scanned on demand and digitally returned, within hours.
- Save money – Significantly reduce costs by eradicating the need to purchase and archive paperwork. Also consider mailing and photocopying costs, as paperwork is commonly misfiled and misplaced. You’ll also reduce storage costs. Are you using a prime office location and spending high cost per square meter to store your documents?
- Save office space – The removal of filing cabinets could create a more spacious office setting, or even reduce the office rental area in the long term.
- Save time – Reducing paperwork can speed up everyday processing.
- Improve business communications – Once digitized, business information can be accessed from any location, providing fast, easy access for your stakeholders in a secure manner. This makes communication quicker and easier than ever before.
- Stay ahead of the competition – Not having document signing solutions in place signifies that your organization is not future-proof. Emphasizing that you have the future of business agreements in mind acts as another selling point to potential customers and contributes to your company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Start your paperless journey with digital signing solutions
If your organization is looking to embark on a paperless journey soon, here are a few things to consider:
- To guarantee that your contract management systems are efficient and interconnected, create a task force that includes staunch champions from each of your departments.
- To facilitate data access and exchange, improve the interconnectivity of your legacy and new systems.
- To tailor your digital signing solutions to your specific organizational needs, work with contract management solutions provider that has a strong local presence.
- To avoid risks of data loss while also saving storage space, enlist a solutions provider that guarantees a comprehensive data storage, security, backup, retention, and recovery strategy.
- To help your employees and constituents adapt to your new processes easily, implement a change management plan.
GlobalSign’s Document Signing Solutions
Secure your documents and improve workflows with digital signatures and seals.
Electronic/Digital Signatures, with Adobe Acrobat Sign integration
As a member of the Cloud Signature Consortium, Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL), and Microsoft Trusted Root Certificate Program, GlobalSign digital signatures are automatically trusted by Adobe Acrobat Sign and other leading programs.
Digital signatures provide greater assurance and security compared to other types of un-standardized electronic signatures with features including signer identity validation, non-repudiation, document content integrity, and third-party timestamping. With seamless integration to Adobe Acrobat Sign, GlobalSign makes digital signatures accessible to companies of all sizes, enhancing the speed-to-completion (of document signing requirements) with higher assurance.
AATL on USB
The easiest way to get started, AATL on USB has the most foolproof signing process. Once availed, all you’ve got to do is plug your USB dongle token into your computer.
AATL on HSM
For Hardware Security Module (HSM), you’ve got to store your Portable Document Format (PDF) certificates and keys in the HSM and not on a USB token. You get the option of plugging it directly to a computer or network server.
HSM manages and processes digital keys. Here, all your signing operations are done within the security of the HSM.
Digital Signing Service (DSS)
Transform the way you do business with our Digital Signing Service (DSS). A digital signature is like an electronic signature and trusted digital ID combined into one. It’s the best way to sign digital documents like contracts and invoices, and to enable secure document signing across the enterprise without legwork. For better appreciation, here’s an eBook featuring our DSS.
Advanced & Qualified Signatures
Qualified electronic signatures and seals are available to individuals and organizations through GlobalSign’s token-based deployment. In keeping with eIDAS requirements, each signing identity, whether individual or corporate body, is verified and issued a qualified certificate stored on a qualified signature creation device (the token).
GMO Sign, a secure and cloud-based solution
GMO Sign (by GlobalSign) enables electronically and digitally sign documents, with timestamping, long-term validation features. This scalable solution reduces the time and cost that an organization would otherwise spend on managing, archiving, and shipping paper documents. GMO Sign is used by many customers across industries such as software, internet, information asset management, transportation, real estate, gaming, and fitness.
A necessary administrative task of doing business, contracts create mutual understanding and assurance between parties to ensure that a buyer will receive a product or service and that the supplier will receive payment. However, managing contracts can be tedious, reducing employee productivity and focus, especially if done manually.
GlobalSign offers Document Signing Solutions to help with more secure and efficient contract management. Our solutions go beyond serving as a central repository for your contracts so that all stakeholders, including legal and compliance departments, can search for and review the valuable data in your documents.
Given the threats of tomorrow and today, we expect future agreements to be more intelligent. As a public Certificate Authority that is trusted worldwide, GlobalSign can help your organization build trust and credibility as you go about and conduct your business.
If you’re interested, email marketing-apac@globalsign.com today!
