Electronic signatures have become quite popular for their convenience. You no longer have to print a document, sign, scan it, and then email it back. Electronic signatures or eSignatures can replace your handwritten signatures digitally to speed up virtually any paper-driven, manual signature process. And they are being used to optimize business processes for several documents. Some examples include:
Several industries are using electronic signature solutions to optimize their processes and bring efficiencies. For instance,
We have been asked the question lately about Digital Signature vs. Electronic Signature in the context of recording agreements on documents. Most people get confused about this, but it’s quite simple. An Electronic Signature is a legal term defining what constitutes a record of intent to form an agreement while a Digital Signature is digital authentication technology.
Many countries have made laws that define an Electronic Signature. The Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 (the ESIGN Act) in the U.S. defines (paraphrased) an electronic signature as a sound, symbol, or mark, made with intent to sign (applied to a document) logically associated with the content.
If the electronic signature meets the legal definition, only then does it become a legal electronic signature. But what makes the legal electronic signature strong evidence if there is ever a dispute as to who agreed to what with whom? Here, one should look to see whether the record that memorializes the electronic signature, (sound, symbol, or mark) logically associated with the content, agreed to include other metadata (a fancy term for data about the data record itself) related to the transaction.
An example of strong metadata about the eSign transaction record that can provide strong evidential weight to the record is:
Digital signatures fulfill this gap. They are a technical term for an encrypted hash of a set of data (that set of data in this context being an electronic signature applied to a PDF record with agreement content and transaction metadata, for example).
Only a few electronic signature services (RSign, a global e-signing solution by RPost, and the few that have licensed RSign patents) combine electronic signature capture processes with digital signature authentication technology to give a record of the agreement that is court-admissible with strong evidential weight.
RSign combines the best of both worlds – eSignatures and digital signatures with advanced security and encryption capabilities while complying with eSignature and data privacy regulations. You can send a document for eSignature to one person or multiple recipients, track in real-time which documents have been opened and signed, and receive an error-free, completed, eSign record in the form of a digitally signed and electronically signed PDF, a robust, court-admissible eSign record that has high evidential weight.
In essence, here’s what you get with RSign to make the whole electronic signatures process seamless:
Creating an electronic signature with RSign is super easy as it offers several features and configurations to adapt to any use case:
As simple as that! RSign also offers several additional features to make your entire experience seamless. For instance, you can:
RSign has built-in integration with Microsoft Word, which means with a few clicks inside Word, your document magically transfers into RApp, a plug & play eSignature desktop application - ready to be addressed and sent for eSign.
Creating an electronic signature in Microsoft Word is a simple process within RApp, which you can use after creating a free account with RSign.
RSign will email a link to the recipient so they can access the document and sign – something like below. It works across all devices; your recipients don’t need to download or sign-up for anything and will get clear instructions on how to sign the documents.
You can also create electronic signatures in a PDF file with RSign. Just open the existing PDF file of your contract in RSign and configure it to sign forms for making an eSignature. The entire process of adding electronic signatures to PDF remains the same as for the Word doc with a guided, eSign experience.
RSign digital signatures guarantee compliance with GDPR and HIPAA and provide users with many privacy options to protect sensitive data. Plus, all parties receive Legal Proof® records and forensic audit trail of every eSign and UETA-compliant transaction for an atomic timestamp of signer IP addresses, date and time of delivery, and exact message content.
RSign saves even more time and money with off-the-shelf integrations with the systems and tools your teams already use. Whatever your industry and sector (legal, sales, self-storage, real-estate, insurance, healthcare, and more), it’s easy to integrate with several plug-and-play standard options.
Electronic signatures are popular because of the many benefits they offer. Plus, they are eco-friendly! To seamlessly create electronic signatures, businesses need an electronic signature service that is user-friendly, creates a legally binding record with high evidential weight, is secure, and compliant with data privacy and other regulatory guidelines (ESIGN Act, UETA, eIDAS, ECTA).
With RSign’s patented technology, you can produce eSignatures that have high evidential weight, including an audit trail, associating it to the email and eSign document record, and providing methods of authentication. With RSign, not only can organizations do business faster and more conveniently, but also have peace of mind that approvals on documents and contracts are digitally secure.
Plus, it’s much more affordable at scale and is free to use. Get started on creating free electronic signatures with RSign today!
