How Adopting E-Signatures Changed Everything for Our Business

Leveraging technology is the way to grow a business in today’s digital first world—that’s no secret. Whether you’re using technology to collaborate better in the workplace or to help your business development team generate, nurture, and close deals the smart integration of tech into business operations is pretty much table stakes today. And in our family of companies, we practice what we preach, both strategically investing in tech solutions that make things better for our clients and our team. Take, for example, moving to the world of electronic signatures (e-signatures). Here, let’s examine how (and why) leveraging an e-signature solution has been a game-changer for our business.

E-Signatures: Better for Our Clients, Better for Our Team

Our family of businesses includes a marketing consulting agency, a media company, a research and analysis firm, and a marketing association. We are a 100 percent virtual team, working in locations all over the U.S. Our clients and prospective clients are global, based not only in the U.S., but also operating all over the world. Our clients and prospects all have one thing in common—the expectation that their interactions with our company will be smooth, efficient, and user-friendly. That’s why the adoption of e-signature capabilities has been so important; it has allowed us to meet and exceed those expectations time and time again. Here are a few reasons why:

• Added document security. In today’s business world, security is top of mind for everyone, from the C-Suite on down. If a solution is feature-rich but lacking in the security and compliance department, it’s simply not worth the risk. Our preferred e-signature solution, such that it is a feature in and of itself. We don’t have to worry about facing authentication issues or coming up short when it comes to specific industry regulations surrounding signatures.
• Improved efficiency thanks to the ability to access and sign anywhere. We live mobile lives these days, and our business technology should reflect that trend, not buck it. As a tech-oriented business, we know an enterprise mobile mindset is far from optional—in fact, it’s a critical component of the process of digital transformation and business success. Our team members and our clients need to be able to sign documents on a variety of devices and within a variety of apps; with e-signature software solutions, they can do that with ease.
• Streamlined workflow and quicker payments. Workflow matters. Utilizing e-signatures allows us to get paid faster, especially on accounts that require multiple signatures. Instead of playing email tag and waiting on downloads, scans, or faxes, documents are instead automatically sent to the next signee in the workflow. This simple feature has anything but a simple impact. It allows us more time to continually generate new business and nurture the clients we have instead spending our resources playing the hurry-up-and-wait game that chasing paper trails often entails. In addition, e-signatures go a long way when it comes to benefitting overall workflow, as we can track our documents and always know where they are in process—and what’s next. As a business owner, or department manager, you can’t put a price on that peace of mind.
• A better customer experience. I recently delved into how adopting e-signatures can improve the customer experience, and that has proven true for our business. While we love technology, we love value-adding technology more. Utilizing e-signature software represents a customer-first mindset, taking the burden out of signing important documents, making the process mobile/user-friendly, safe, and quick.

Our businesses aren’t the only ones thriving thanks in part to leveraging e-signature solutions. A recent whitepaper shows e-signatures have helped companies like ours spend 92 percent less time worrying about employee contracts, cut a substantial 19 days off the sales cycle, and save over one million sheets of paper—and counting. You can’t argue with that data.

The Bottom Line

Integrating electronic signature software was a no-brainer for our family of companies. It has streamlined internal processes, helped us close more deals quicker and with less hassle, made accessing information more efficient for our team and, most importantly, created a good experience for our clients that minimizes hassles and speeds things along. And it can for yours, too.

The case for e-signatures continues to grow, especially as the market for the solution strengthens. For example, after their initial joining of forces earlier this year, industry leaders Adobe and Microsoft recently deepened their impact by integrating the powerhouse Adobe Sign across Microsoft’s widely used platforms, such as Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. This extended partnership makes collaboration even simpler—an impressive advancement in what I’ve discussed before as the operating model for the digitally transformed enterprise.

You can learn more about how Adobe Sign can improve your workflow by reading their informative whitepaper: Your Signature Move: Five Great Reasons to Make Electronic Signatures A Part of Your Business.

Have you adopted an e-signature software solution? What benefits have you seen as result? If you haven’t yet made the leap, what hesitations do you have? I’d be happy to address your questions in a future post.

Additional Resources on This Topic

Microsoft Teams gets a boost with Adobe partnership
Adobe Sign Use Cases
Why Businesses Love Cloud Technology [and Microsoft Office 365]

This post was sponsored by Adobe Document Cloud.