The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend towards digitisation. Suddenly, government agencies, organisations, and businesses of every industry have been thrust into a world of remote processes, and the need for technology that enables business continuity has never been higher.

Businesses are transforming customer-facing transactions and the customer experience as a whole by shifting away from paper and towards the adoption of electronic signatures across the enterprise.

Along the way, they’re leveraging new technologies like digital identity verification to optimise higher risk digital processes and videoconferencing with co-browsing to reintroduce the human element to remote customer transactions.

Electronic signatures play a crucial role in digitising processes across organisations, but there are still a lot of questions around e-signatures.

This article answers important questions and addresses key considerations about e-signatures.

What Is an Electronic Signature?

An e-signature is first and foremost a legal concept. Generally, it is about having a lasting record of an individual’s intent.

Digital signature refers to the encryption technology used in a number of e-business and e-commerce applications, including e-signatures.

There are generally three forms of electronic signatures recognised around the world namely Basic, Advanced and Qualified.

Organisations often wonder whether e-signatures are legal. The answer is: yes. Over 90 countries around the world have passed legislations affirming the legality of e-signatures.

There is no longer any question about whether electronic signatures are legal.

The trend toward wider acceptance globally is clear.

However, specifics vary from country to country, so it is important for organisations to understand the laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where they operate.

Are E-signatures Secure?

Again, the answer is yes.

Security is understandably a top concern with digital transactions, so it is important an electronic signature provider meets the highest security standards while ensuring a trusted experience between an organisation, its employees, and its customers.

That means more than simply passing a security audit or obtaining a certification.

Security best practices include:

ID Verification: This is a signer authentication method to validate a signer’s identity before they gain access to critical contracts and high-value agreements.

ID verification with facial comparison enables a signer to validate their identity using their government-issued photo ID and a ‘selfie’, which is then compared with their photo ID to provide an additional layer of identity assurance.

ID verification provides a high level of signer authentication and supports fraud prevention.

User Authentication: A broad range of options to verify the identity of signers prior to giving them access to documents such as e-mail or SMS.

Document Security: Unlike most e-signature solutions, OneSpan Sign uses digital signature technology to tamper-seal documents after each signer and invalidates documents if any changes are made.

This built-in security ensures the integrity of the e-signed document.

Robust Audit Trail: This makes it easy to access details about the transaction to prove compliance.

An electronic audit trail is permanently embedded within the e-signed document for easy, one-click verification.

OneSpan Sign is the only solution in the market to capture a single audit trail of the entire agreement process—from identity verification and authentication to e-signature.

This includes the ID and authentication check method used and the detailed results of the verification.

As a result, you get a complete picture of the transaction with strong identity assurance to demonstrate compliance.

Virtual Room Recreates the Power of a Face-to-face Meeting Virtually

In today’s anywhere economy, the human element is more important than ever.

OneSpan’s Virtual Room helps you deliver a secure and interactive experience to guide customers through the agreement process and effectively close the deal.

It accomplishes this by bringing together electronic signature, web-enabled videoconferencing, and rich collaboration capabilities in one comprehensive solution.

Consumers get the financial help they need from the convenience of their home or office, and an organisation gets access to a new, high-touch channel to engage with customers as humanly as possible.

OneSpan’s Virtual Room’s highlights include:

Fast and Convenient: Built-in videoconferencing eliminates the need for in-person meetings to review and sign documents.

Real-time Assistance: Give customers the personalised attention, answers, and help they need in real time.

Fully Branded Experience: Organisations can add their logo and colors to keep the spotlight on their brand.

Secure Agreements: Protect data and documents with bank-grade security, digital signature encryption, and strong identity proofing capabilities

Strong Electronic Evidence: Strengthen security and compliance with vendor-independent audit trails with the option to record the virtual signing session.

All-in-one Solution: Built-in e-signature, videoconferencing, and rich collaboration features remove the need to patch multiple solutions together.

There are many ways to fine tune electronic signatures for your specific user groups.

Check out OneSpan’s Beginner’s Guide to E-Signatures to learn everything you need to know to get an e-signing project off the ground.