An antiquated contract signing process can be exhausting and overly complicated. However, tedium and headache are not the only consequences. Organizations relying on paper-based printing, signing, wet signatures, drawn-out mailing times, and costly postage fees are essentially guaranteed to lose out on revenue, opportunity, and timeliness. But why? What's so good about a more modern contract signing solution anyway? Read on to learn about what you are missing if you lack an advanced electronic signature software solution within contract management software.
#1 - Missing Out On Cost-Effective Contract Signatures
Contract signature costs can quickly add up.
Ink, paper resources, and postage expenses (at times including rush delivery expenses) for contract signing may seem like small costs at first. Still, they quickly become excessive as contract complexity and contract volume increase with organizational growth. Additionally, organizations are almost sure to suffer a hit in revenue due to signature delays because of the time it takes to mail contracts back and forth. Revenue can further decrease if a potential client or business partner explores other options due to contract execution taking a needlessly long time.
#2 - Missing Out On Faster Contract Signatures
Expediency is key in contract lifecycle management. Unfortunately, obsolete contract signing methods can hold up the process. Managing paperwork with a manual process is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone. When collecting wet signatures, organizations' turnaround time is dependent on variables such as business days, service delays, couriers, warehouse schedules and processes, and the schedules of busy stakeholders with signing authority. Furthermore, you can quickly lose track of who signed and who should be followed up with without the right approval tracking tools - further delaying contract execution.
#3 - Missing Out On Efficient Contract Signature Archival & Retention
Contract signing reliant upon wet signatures are typically scanned and filed within disorganized digital storage or physically stored away in filing cabinets. These processes can make it impossible to enforce contract archival and retention properly.
If organizations need to refer to or retrieve signed contracts stored in this way in the future, retrieval from boxes or shared digital drives can take longer and is prone to inaccuracy.
Organizations can get started with better contract signature oversight and contract lifecycle management tracking with the free contract management tracker below - but eventually, they will need to implement a superior solution.
A Better Way To Handle Contract Signatures
The trials and hardships of contract signing outlined above and more can be avoided with a contract signing solution that marries contract signature efficiency, process centralization, and continuous developments in legal operations digital transformation. That solution is advanced electronic signature software.
Advanced Electronic Signature
An advanced electronic signature can replace contract signing methods involving wet signatures, costly postage, delay-prone send-to-sign times, and disorganized filing with a faster and easier way to sign and execute contracts. E-Signature software can support signatures that are:
- legally binding.
- cost-effective.
- easily trackable.
- in the office or on the go.
- integrated with leading third-party applications.
Electronic Signature Software
Electronic signature software can reduce send-to-sign time by up to 20% and essentially eliminate signature bottlenecks and streamline contract execution.
Electronic signatures allow contract signing to be facilitated with a process that uses encryption technology to verify a signature's authenticity. Signing processes can be easier, more secure, and more easily trackable - down to the date and time of signing. Advanced electronic signature software solutions such as CobbleStone Software's IntelliSign® electronic signatures integrate digital signature software to certify a document's integrity without the need for a licensed notary.
Organizations looking for a swifter signature process can leverage electronic signature software to:
- save money without the need to pay costly expenses for printing, paper, ink, mailing, travel costs, and lost revenue opportunities associated with manual contract signatures.
- save time without needing to waste time tracking administrative costs, managing paperwork. collecting wet signatures, waiting on mailing, and waiting too long for busy resources with signing authority to sign.
- enforce archival and retention with the ability to easily search and report on contracts within a secure contract and contract data repository for end-to-end regulation of partially or fully executed contracts.
- enhance security with audit trails and secure and legally binding signatures.
- improve business relationships by streamlining the signature process and making it accessible in the office and on the go.
- improve visibility with signature dashboards, reports, and monitoring for better contract analytics.
Advanced electronic signature software offers robust eSign options so that signatories can quickly add signatures to saved contract documents. Organizations can also add necessary PDFs and MS Word documents (and other file formats) straight from a user-friendly document toolbox within contract lifecycle management software. Robust electronic signature software can offer organizations a diverse collection of placeholder options, including:
- including a saved, typed, or drawn signature.
- including a date.
- signing with one's initials.
- including additional texts with signatures.
- and using a previously saved title for signing.
Organizations can send documents to signing contracts, requests, bids, vendors, employees, purchase orders, policy records, and more on one user-friendly signing platform within advanced contract management software.
Organizations can also send tens, hundreds, or even thousands of contract documents for eSignatures in mass so that organizations no longer need to waste inordinate amounts of time routing manual signatures for bulk contracts, bulk addendums, HR documents, policy updates, and more.
Need help making a case for contract lifecycle management software with electronic signatures to your boss or a key decision-maker within your organization? Read our free whitepaper to make your case for approval of your contract management software recommendation.
Get Started With Advanced Electronic Signature Software
Now that you know what you are missing out on without advanced electronic signature software - as well as the many benefits it can offer - it’s time to take control of your organization’s contract signing process with CobbleStone’s industry-leading IntelliSign electronic signature software. To see IntelliSign eSignature software and CobbleStone Contract Insight® CLM software in action, book your free demo!
