5 Things To Look For In An Electronic Signature Vendor

 In the past, people had to do in-person document signing or send papers that needed signatures back and forth through the mail. Thanks to technology, things are different now. Today, electronic signatures (e-signatures) are more popular. They save time and money and provide more convenience. 

In simple terms, an e-signature allows one to sign documents online without the need for printing, signing, and resending documents. If you’d like to use this solution in your company, it would be a significant step in increasing convenience for your customers, suppliers, or employees. However, you must ensure that the signing solution is easy for everyone to use, provides maximum data security, and produces legally valid signatures. For this reason, you must work with a reputable e-signature vendor. Below are five factors to consider when picking one:

1. Security Assurance

One essential thing an e-signature provider must assure you of is maximum security. Their service must be safe from malware, breaches, data loss, and viruses. These cyberthreats could ruin your company’s image and damage customers’, employees’, and suppliers’ confidence in your enterprise. It can take time to repair lost trust or a ruined reputation in the business world after a data breach or any other cyber-attack. 

You can avoid the negative consequences mentioned above by working with an e-signature provider that gives you total security assurance. Firstly, identify if the vendor’s service can ensure the validity of electronic signatures. Check if they’ve leveraged an audit trail feature, which traces a signer’s actions and documents. This can offer future evidence of how a particular transaction took place. 

Secondly, a good e-signature vendor like jSign must also assure you that your documents and e-signatures won’t be tampered with before or after signing. Check if they use reliable encryption solutions or have security certifications from accredited bodies. 

2. Easy To Use Product 

Most stakeholders prefer business processes or systems that are easy to understand. Therefore, it would be best to work with an e-signature provider whose application, software, or plug-in is user-friendly. The vendor should assure you that it won’t be challenging for anyone to install and navigate their product or use the features in their application, plug-in, or software. Also, it should be easy to enter personal details and sign whenever necessary. 

3. Compliance With E-Signatures Laws

You must also make sure your chosen vendor follows the relevant e-signatures laws. To ensure this, check if a provider abides by the ESIGN Act and Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) before agreeing to work with them. These two offer security guidelines for e-signatures. If a vendor abides by such regulations, their e-signatures may be considered legally valid. Therefore, the e-signed documents can be accepted in court or used for valuable transactions. 

E-signature laws may vary in different regions. Therefore, check what your local regulations are and ensure you only work with e-signatures vendors who abide by them.

4. Multiple E-Signature Capture Methods

Some e-signature providers have applications, plug-ins, or programs that offer various signature capture methods. For instance, a product may allow the creation of handwritten signatures with a mouse or transform a smartphone’s screen into a touchpad that can capture a user’s signature. Other options available are click-to-sign or click-to-initial. With the last two, one only needs to tap on the signature area to input their data and finish their signing process. 

It may be best to consider working with vendors who provide a product with various signature capture methods. Their software, application, or plug-in will offer you and your stakeholders more options to sign documents, meaning everyone might find something that meets their needs. This can help you better customer experience, remote working, and employee satisfaction in your business. 

5. Reputability

Verifying an e-signature provider’s reputation is essential before agreeing to work with them. Therefore, conduct thorough research before settling on any. You can visit various vendors’ websites to see their clients’ testimonials. Alternatively, ask a friend in your industry to recommend a reliable e-signature provider you could work with. It’s easier to work with one that has been vouched for by somebody you trust. 

Conclusion

E-signatures have become quite popular today. They save money, time, and the environment. Also, they’re more convenient and can enhance stakeholders’ experience with a business. That said, you must work with the best e-signature provider if you’d want to enjoy the benefits mentioned. As you’ve seen in this article, a good vendor is reputable and follows your country’s e-signatures laws. Besides that, they also offer a secure, easy-to-use product with various signature capture methods.