What is Electronic Signature?

Picture of Jackson Tyler Burke
The digital age isn't coming, it has arrived. And now, we watch from the edge of our front row seats as technology continues to evolve at the speed of A.I. and beyond.
 

Since the start of the new millennium, the era has been characterized by the progression of digital processes, offering unparalleled capabilities to a rapidly growing market.

Although A.I. is undoubtedly impressive, many of us continue to depend on some of the most fundamental (and essential) technologies to enhance our projects, accelerate our pipelines, and keep our workflows flowing.

Among these essential technologies sits the Electronic Signature.

Despite its essence in the modern workplace, some still remain unfamiliar with what an eSignature is and what it can offer their organization.

So, what exactly is an electronic signature? Excellent question.

To address this question and highlight some of the advantages eSignature can bring to any and all businesses, we've provided some eSign 101 insights below.


How is Electronic Signature Defined?

According to current U.S. legislation and the Electronic Signature & Records Association (ESRA), eSignatures are defined as:

“An electronic sound, symbol or process that is attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record."

The broad definition—encompassing sound, symbol, or process—enables eSignature providers like AssureSign to deliver various solutions capable of capturing an electronic signature through voice, computer, or even a mobile device.

eSigning can be implemented a number of ways, but the method utilized by any one business depends on two things

1. the process involved and

2. how they go-to-market.

For example, provisioning full sales contracts will often demand an eSign process that supports capturing various initials and signatures from numerous parties on several documents. Conversely, a business such as Amazon that sells products directly to customers online 


Are Electronic Signatures Legal?

Speaking of eSignature legality… this is a query our sales team receives fairly often.

The short answer? Absolutely.

In the U.S., electronic signature was legalized and recognized as synonymous to its traditional counterpart after the passing of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Together, these two pieces of legislation allow electronic signatures to conveniently replace the aged, wet ink signature, so long as the three legal hallmarks of eSign are met:

  1. The signer is who (s)he claims to be. If needed, a signer’s identity can be confirmed or authenticated using various digital markers, such as an IP address.
  2. The signer’s intent to sign is captured. The parameters of the transaction are communicated and the signer unequivocally intended to undergo the process and method of signing.
  3. The signature is associated with the document or record is verifiable. This speaks to the signing process: (1) how was the document signed? (2) what action did the signer complete? And (3) what evidentiary documentation is present to support the electronic transaction? Additionally, these records must be retained by the business or originator.

To illustrate how AssureSign meets and exceeds the three legal pillars of electronic signatures, take a look at how Jadu uses our eSign integration with its content management software for higher education:

When students (signers) receive documents for eSignature, they are not only required to input login credentials to access the document within their online student portal, they must also satisfy questions generated by AssureSign’s knowledge-based authentication (KBA) when completing sensitive processes like their financial aid elections.

KBA ensures students are who they claim to be by requiring correct responses to a series of questions generated by public data sources. The student’s intent to complete and sign off on the process is made clear through the presentment of required disclosures, AssureSign’s terms and conditions, and the eSigning process. After the process is completed, AssureSign associates the student’s financial aid elections along with their consent to electronically signing the documents. Jadu then securely and confidentially retain these records for verification.

Not only does AssureSign allow businesses like Jadu to exceed all electronic signature requirements in the U.S., our process is compliant with nearly every set of laws governing electronic signatures across the globe.

For example, in the EU, the Electronic ID and Trust Services (eIDAS)-also known as Regulation EU 910/2014-provides a tiered legality of eSignatures based on a number of factors on behalf of the vendor and user. More recently, the EU enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which stipulates how the private data of EU citizens must be handled.


What are the Benefits of using Electronic Signature?

Not only do intercontinental laws and provisions allow transactions to take place across borders, electronic signatures diminish the amount of time, cost and oversight associated with these transactions while bringing increased velocity and simplicity to business exchanges.

Less Time.

eSignatures shorten the lifecycle of transactions. What’s more, AssureSign users have access to document audit trails, which relay where signers are in their signing process and how much progress they’ve made.

After United BioSource Corporation UBC adopted AssureSign’s eSignature, their average transaction completion time plummeted from 11 days to under one hour. UBC can now provide timely and critical medical care to their patients, faster!

Reduced Cost.

Paper, ink cartridges, shipping/mailing charges, and other extraneous costs are all but eliminated when businesses adopt eSign.

Just ask Captorra. After leveraging AssureSign’s electronic signature, the legal intake software vendor reduced these costs by over 90 percent! Captorra uses this newly found revenue to seek and hire the best talent the market has to offer.

Minimal Oversight.

Many processes require tiered responses and multiple steps as part of their workflows, but HR workflows likely take the win.

Particularly, employee onboarding requires a lot of back-and-forth emailing, signing, and so forth. After integrating with AssureSign’s eSignature, PowerObjects can handle the entire employee recruitment and onboarding process in just a few mouse clicks. From cradle to grave, PowerObjects maintains its HR entire onboarding workflow with greater efficiency and less maintenance.


 

Discover how to get your business started with eSignature today…

 

 

** This article was originally authored by Jackson Tyler Burke while employed with AssureSign, LLC. All copyright and publishing rights for this article and its contents are retained by AssureSign, LLC.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Jackson Tyler Burke

Jackson has 7+ years of experience in digital marketing. During his career, Jackson has developed an expertise in content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). He is certified in digital marketing by General Assembly while holding both a bachelor's in mass communication as well as a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State University.

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