6 Benefits of Using Electronic Signatures to Sign Contracts

According to the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), 83 percent of legal departments face pressure to improve efficiency and lower costs. While there are many ways to address these challenges, adopting electronic signature as a standard practice is a quick and easy solution that addresses both operational efficiency and cost reduction.

Switching from wet signatures to electronic signatures can make a significant financial impact to your business, but also offers a number of other key advantages. Here are six benefits of using electronic signatures to sign contracts.

Keep business moving forward from anywhere

Now, more than ever, electronic signature tools are essential for organizations to execute new agreements and push business forward. Signing contracts with pen and paper was already an ineffective process, but with teams now spread across various locations, it has become an unsustainable if not impossible approach. 

Electronic signatures can be set up and executed from remote locations so your business can continue bringing on new customers, vendors, and suppliers whether your team is in the office or not.

Complete the signing process quickly and easily

Electronic signature allows businesses to greatly reduce the time it takes to execute agreements, eliminating days if not weeks from the outdated process of physically sending contracts from one location to the next to be signed in person. This allows businesses to shorten the contract turnaround time, meaning new agreements are completed and put into effect faster, which typically translates to recognizing value from the contract sooner.

Reduce costs and wasted time

Compared to the costs associated with shipping contracts between various signers, electronic signature represents a potentially significant savings, especially for legal teams that deal with a high volume of agreements. Printing, preparing, and mailing contracts also takes valuable staff time that could be spent on higher value activities. Since the process of sending out documents to be signed electronically can be completed significantly faster, this switch reduces the time - and therefore money - required to execute new agreements.

Get real-time status updates

Businesses that use electronic signature technology to execute corporate agreements can always see where a contract is in the signing process. Unlike traditional methods that involve physically signing and shipping documents, electronic signature tools allow select users to track who signed the contract when, who still needs to sign, and the current state of the document. This is also important for audits or any other situations that require you to answer specific questions about the timeline of a given agreement.

Increase security and reduce fraud

Most contract lifecycle management software includes several security measures intended to protect against unauthorized use, which means solutions that offer electronic signature can extend those same safeguards to protect the signing process as well. Taking advantage of contract management software with electronic signature capabilities also adds a layer of protection for your sensitive documents that are sent out for signature. Physically sending confidential documents to external signers can leave you vulnerable to unauthorized users accessing your most important documents and private information.

Improve the signing experience for all parties 

Whether you’re sending or receiving a contract that needs to be signed, the electronic signature process is far more convenient than traditional processes involving pen and paper (and shipping labels, trips to the post office, etc.). Adopting electronic signature technology will reduce the hassle and make the process of executing contracts easier for everyone involved, including your legal team and most valuable business partners and clients.

Request a demo today to see how you can quickly take control of the contract signing process with ContractWorks.