The Online Digital Signature Way

19 April 2018

Question: I want to grow my business, how will digital signature help me achieve business growth?

Answer: If achieving business growth in 2018 is a key priority for your business than you have come to the right place. Converting to digital signatures has helped many of our customers to experience significant business growth for several reasons. These are:

1.         Easier and faster customer experience will cause in your acquisition rates to increase. Today’s digital consumers expectations have changed.  Nowadays a customer expects the sign-up process for any company to be easy and fast. We know that if the digital chain is broken at any point, potential customers are likely to abandon their sign up. Another common mistake we see is companies automating the sign up process BUT leave out the final step.  They still ask their customer to print out the form to capture their signature to complete the registration. This is frustrating for your customers and a waste for you as you’ve spent time automating the rest of the process without seeing the real benefit. Include digital signatures and you will see your sign-up rates go up!

2.         Digital signing and workflow automation will mean you can grow your business using your current staffing levels. You can scale your business without needing to hire new people to complete manual processes. This will free up your team to focus their time on value adding activities rather than administrative tasks, which will in turn result in happier and loyal customers.  Let Secured Signing take care of administrative work, such as sending automated reminders and data flow using our API.

3.         Finally grow your business with access to new markets thanks to a complete digital sign up process. No longer will you need to meet with your customer to onboard them, this means you can increase your customer base in new markets with little investments. Imagine the possibilities!

Contact me to arrange a demo of Secured Signing to achieve your business growth targets.  

Till next time,

John Webster

21 March 2018

Question: What is most important when selecting an e-signature platform?

Answer: Firstly, congratulations for deciding to ditch paper signatures and implementing an e-Signatures solution. Your team and customers will thank you when they experience first-hand the increased efficiency and improved customer experience as a result of a digital signing solution.

Now, it’s important to understand that e-Signatures solutions are not created equal! The biggest difference to understand is what technology they use, even if you are not a tech expert. Not all signing solutions meet the requirements set out in the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act 2000("ESIGN"), which made signed electronic contracts and documents as legally binding as a paper-based contract. For more information on this check our legal page.

We’ve listed our 5 must have features you should have when selecting an online signing platform

1.  Solution that uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Standard for signing. – This digital signature technology provides unique signing keys for each signatory. The user based digital signatures solution seals and protects your electronic document with the first signature. X509 Standard also allows for independent vendor solution for self-verification of signatures at your work station. You are not reliant on a single signing platform to validate signatures. This means you are not locked into one provider forever. 
2. Date and Time Stamp – ensure your eSignature platform includes a date and time stamp for each signature. This is an important requirement used to evidence when the signing took place exactly
3.  Audit log – look for a detailed audit trail of the signing process and one that is sent to all parties involved as soon as the document has been signed. The registered information gives a precise reference to verify activities and time frames related to the signing of documents and sensitive data. An audit trail report can be used as a proof for review purposes, and in case of a dispute.
4. Tracks changes – don’t be exposed, ensure the Digital Signature solution automatically detects any changes made to the document after signing and immediately invalidates the signatures. It should also promptly notify all parties involved.
5. Video Confirmation – Video Confirmation provides the highest confidence in the identity of the signer as it provides unchallengeable proof of who signed the document. The video recording captures the signer performing gesture specific to the document which is recorded in the audit log. The location and password for the confirmation video are contained in the signed document.

For more important features, check out our website www.securedsigning.com .

Till next time,

John Webster

Helping our customers improve their business is important to us. To accomplish this, we are innovative in our own thinking and agile in our approach. We have gained valuable insights from working with many different businesses over the years and through our E-Signature Q&A blog series we will share these insights with you.  

Questions: When should a business implement digital signatures to realize business success?

Answer:  Digital Signatures can solve for common issues that many businesses are facing today regardless of their size or industry.

The 4 most commons reasons to implement digital signatures are:

Slow and inconvenient customer experience.

Poor customer experience is becoming a huge barrier for growth for many businesses today. With the rapid change of customer expectations companies need to asses how easy is it for their customers (existing and potential) to interact with them. Paper driven business processes are slow and inconvenient for many customers as most don’t have printers at home. Customers expect for everything to be done digitally and effortlessly. We know a customer is more likely to choose a provider which offers a quick and easy digital only process, over a business which is still requiring to capture wet signatures.

New competition.

With technology innovation businesses are up against new non-traditional competition. To prevent loss of customers, successful businesses adapt quickly to by innovating themselves before it’s too late.

Cyber crime &  increasing compliance costs

With new technologies, there are also new types of misconduct, cyber crime and identity theft. As a result, governments have implemented additional compliance requirements and regulations (Know Your Customer) to tackle these growing issues. Secured Signing’s audit log and proof of identity technology provides business the tools and confidence to deal with both signature fraud and compliance requirements.

Inefficient processes.
Cost of paper, printing, courier and storage of information is going up. With increased competition businesses need to identify significant cost savings in their existing processes which are NOT adding value. Instead investing such savings into important research and development to stay ahead of the competition.

To stay up to date with the latest e-signature news, sign up to our blog.

Till next time,

1 February 2018

Security underpins everything we do, it’s in our name, and with this passion in mind we continue to ensure we offer our customers secure digital signing technology. With increasing cyber fraud, document and user security is more important than before.

While the current digital signing process is already very secure, there is always room for improvement to avoid signature fraud. Secured Signing offers additional methods for proof of identity, resulting in enhanced security and identity validation. 

Video confirmation, driver license and passport ID Checks – document verification, RealMe and data matching can be included in the signing process in Secured Signing. Our video confirmation feature provides proof of who signed the document by capturing the identity of the signer in real time. The video recording captures the signer performing gestures specific to the document, which are then recorded in the document log. The location and password for the confirmation video are also contained in the signed document. To enhance security even further, a tamper proof mechanism of the digital signature ensures the video confirmation details cannot be altered without invalidating the signature. This complements the inherent authenticity and reliability of public key infrastructure (PKI) digital signatures.

Invitees can also verify their driver license or passport with ID Check process, with matching mechanism to document content as part of the signing process verifying ID documents as valid. Alternatively, select government online proof of identity platforms which are integrated with Secured Signing, such as NZ RealMe. 

Put simply, Secured Signing is a highly secure way to sign documents online. The combination of ease of use for the signer and absolute compliance confidence for the document owner is without peer.

Check out this quick video showing how video technology is used in the signing process

If you want to protect your business from cyber risk, be sure to contact Secured Signing today

Till next time,

John Webster

17 January 2018

Secured Signing continues to develop its digital signature and workflow platform with the latest 2018 release. This release is full of new enhancements and features, providing users the complete platform for online signing.

The new release includes the following functions:

We Sign Form Fields - You can now add Form Fields in the We Sign document preparation process. The document owner is  able to add the required form fields when preparing the document for signing. The invitee will be asked to fill in the fields before signing the document.

Secured Signing Automatically Recognises Form’ Fields in PDF Editable Documents - Now you can upload an editable PDF document in the We Sign and Form Filler functions. Secured Signing system will automatically recognise these fields and present them to be completed online.

Increased Signing Key length – Secured Signing user’s PKI Digital Signature signing key is now 4,096 bits.  We’ve also upgraded to SH2 cryptographic hash function with 384 bit in the signing process.. These  improvements mean Secured Signing has very high quantum computing resistance and enhanced document’s security for the long term.

Free Verification Service – Secured Signing’s free verification service enhancement allows you to verify signed PDF document with the trusted Digital Signature (PKI). You can validate that the document has not been altered after it was signed and also verify the signatories' authenticity. The Secured Signing free verification service is available online or offline on your desktop.

Please note: download the latest Secured Signing Root Certificate for any documents signed after January 6^th  2018.

Signature Image -  System enhancement now support better image qualityand image transparency when drawing your signature on mobile device or desktop.  If the signature size is too small, the system will notify the invitee and request to redraw the signature.

Multiple Witness Signatures - At times a witness signature is required in several positions throughout a document. Now you can add multiple number of signatures fields in a document for the same witness.

Single Sign On (SSO) – Supports ADFS 4.x

Reroute Signing Invitations – Enable reroute functionality to your email invitations. This allows your invitees to forward on your signing request to another person.  For  enterprise users, you can limit the reroute function only to users within your organisation.

Combine Files – Upload several files in different formats to Secured Signing from your desktop or preferred cloud storage.  Secured Signing will merge them into one document ready for signing process.    

Documents Negotiation – Now you can use document negotiation when selecting Face to Face (F2F) signing process. Travel to meet your customers / invitees face to face and complete the document negotiation on your tablet. No need to print agreements to be signed. This is a popular functionality for users working in the real estate industry, especially for signing sale and purchase agreements.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our support team on support@securedsiging.com for any further assistance or questions regarding this release.

Secured Signing’s goal in 2018 is to continue on delivering exciting enhancements and value adding features for our users.  Secured Signing is the one stop solution for all your signing needs.

Wishing you a happy New Year from the team at Secured Signing

Till Next Time

John Webster