Before electronic signatures were legally recognized, the usual activities for all paper-based agreements or contracts had to be:
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- signed with handwritten signature,
- mailed or
- emailed, faxed, or scanned,
- and filed.
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Obviously, this requires several steps making it time consuming, costly and can be replaced in favor of electronic signatures or the subset of it known as Digital Signatures.
Digital signature is a type of electronic signature. Both digital signatures and other electronic signature solutions allow you to sign documents and authenticate the signer.
However, digital signatures provide an encryption known as Public Key Infrastructure(PKI). The encryption provided is added as a layer of security. Another way of saying, if your document is encrypted then no one else would be able to read it unless given permission.
Most importantly, this encryption is globally recognized and legally accepted. This is the key difference between digital signatures and other electronic signatures solutions.
So, if you are looking for e-signature solutions, I would suggest you to take on digital signature. Below are the 7 benefits of digital signatures.
1. It is useful for audit trail purposes
An audit trail is defined as a step-by-step record or log system which is a collection of the documented history of transactions – right from the beginning of a document when signed together with timestamp – time & date are recorded.
This would ensure the signed document can’t be denied by the signer after the transaction has been completed.
If you have lots of documents to be signed every day, imagine the hassles that you would save if you ever needed to backtrack for purpose of integrity of the information.
2. It is legally accepted in Malaysia.
Please watch the video on Digital Signature Act 1997.
Digital signatures are legally accepted in many parts of the world. In Malaysia there is Digital Signature Act 1997(“DSA”) which governs the usage of digital signatures. It was followed later by the Electronic Commerce Act 2006 (“ECA”).
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is responsible to administer, enforce, carry out and give effect to the provisions under DSA 1997 for the purpose of monitoring and overseeing the activities of Certificate Authorities(CAs).
3. It brings time efficiencY.
Comparatively, in a manual process to get a signer to sign a document, you can also use digital signatures platform. By using this digital platform, you alleviate the usual and sometimes lengthy process of manually signing documents, managing it and later store it in a physical space.
Digital Signatures allow you to turn this process – sometimes days or even weeks into minutes or few days.
4. It is extremely cost-effective
When you use Digital Signatures, you can see an improvement in cost saving due to the less usage of:
- paper,
- ink,
- printers and
- other related maintenance costs including the physical space to store the documents which could be used for other purposes.
5. It provides a good security policy and mechanism
It eliminates the chances of physical records going missing or being destroyed. The basis for document signing, it is the action of adding a “trusted digital signature” to a document.
It generates tamper seal to alert the receiver in case of any unauthorized edits are discovered. As a result, it eliminates the risk of forgery because it is backed by high level of encryption.
Another benefit is when a digital signature is added, digital certificate is created with time stamping elements which ensure the signed documents are protected even after the digital certificate expires.
6. Workflow efficiency
Managing and tracking documents is easier and faster. Processes that use to take months from the time a document is requested until it is received can be done in considerably less time.
You can even have any agreements or contracts signed as soon as possible. This would promote efficiency in the workflow.
This in particular will help organizations or businesses who have employees working from home to use digital signature solutions to alleviate unnecessary risks.
7. PHYSICAL SPACE SAVING
It is a space saving in the sense that you do not have get a space for storage of transacted documents. Everything now is located on the server which you can access it from anywhere and at the time of your convenience.
Perhaps, sometimes you need to get to office just to get the copy of documents after working hours or in weekends, imagine what you can do with few clicks from your comfort of home or if you are travelling, you can access to the documents.
Contact us @012-3075896 to learn more our digital signature products
