Documents are integral for business processes. However, getting these documents around can pose a challenge, especially as more companies now move to flexible work arrangements. Hence, there is a growing need for online document management systems to store documents and sign them electronically. This is possible with Remote Electronic Signatures that help improve productivity while reducing the chances for any risk to data and privacy.

The document system management market is expected to grow to about $10.17 billion by 2025. As a result, using electronic signature software is becoming more and more accepted practice for internal and even external use.

Using tools to manage electronic document signing should become a practice amongst more businesses as it promises many benefits that could provide performance improvements and scalability for an organization. Here are some of the benefits that remote signing software can have on a company or institution.

Higher Productivity Rate with Remote Electronic Signatures

Given that 21% of productivity loss in organizations stems from document challenges, innovating in this space could provide all kinds of promising results. Electronic document signing apps can help increase productivity rates by cutting down wait times on documents that need signing.

Some companies report a wait time of up to a few days to have a document signed by a superior or client, significantly affecting productivity. Cutting that down should have remarkable effects on a company’s overall productivity over the long term.

Fetch Safe and Secure Data using Remote Electronic Signatures

It’s a common misconception that remote signing of documents could pose more risks to data and privacy. While it still comes with certain risks, it can lead to better data safety. Paper documents can get stolen, misplaced, or destroyed easily. With softcopies of documents and many layers of encryption and security measures to back them up, digital documents have an edge in the privacy and security department.

Signature authentication software has also improved with time, ensuring that forgery could be less of a threat with electronic documents than most people think.

More cost savings

Running documents management on document management software provides an opportunity to save a significant amount of money. It cuts on printing and paper costs while saving space and workforce hours from having to file away hard copies. There are also significant savings on logistics as electronic document signing eliminates the need for courier services. 

More time for high-value staff to focus on high-value work

Sometimes companies don’t grow because their most valuable workers get bogged down by repetitive tasks. For instance, a company has an operations director with a project management master’s degree who wants to speed up approvals on new projects. 

In these fast-paced highly-digitized work environments, equipping someone with that kind of skill with software that can help remove as much administrative work—  like sending out proposals for signatures— to give them time to focus on high-value tasks, that director could put their insight and expertise to good use.  

Simpler systems

Simpler systems often lead to faster action and more sustainable growth for an organization. For example, company personnel can make life easier for others and themselves by putting automated steps from specific operational tasks, like getting signatures from supervisors to get a budget release approved or having new employees sign contracts.

Improvements in automation now allow employees to pinpoint which pages will need signatures on a document so that signees won’t miss a page. This issue has long complicated document signing processes for decades. There are many industries where e-signature tools can help, and all departments in a company are positively affected by implementing an electronic document signing system— HR, accounting, marketing, and so on. 

Faster implementation times

With simpler systems comes faster implementation times. Yes, hiring the right people for the right job adds immense value, but equipping them with the right tools should help more. 

When a company wants to grow and scale, achieving agility is crucial. And using digital signature services can help provide that agility on the document management front. On the client-side, document signing apps could also be a considerable value-add that completes necessary paperwork to onboard a client and allows both parties to get straight to work, which will almost always lead to more client satisfaction.  

Flexible work arrangements

Even post COVID-19, employees are looking to continue maintaining some work flexibility in an entire work-from-anywhere arrangement or some hybrid version of it. With document signing software, continuing in these setups is easier. Therefore, document management software should be part of any virtual team’s remote working tools list to thrive in a telecommuting work culture. 

Choosing the right tool

When looking for the best e-signature software for small businesses, it’s important to remember that there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, companies need to assess specific unique contexts to their business before landing on the right tool, like the volume of documents they need, confidentiality levels, budget, and so on. 

But with the right tool for document management systems, a company or business could enjoy most if not all of these benefits and set the organization up for more success and growth.