Why Savvy Small Businesses Choose Digital Signatures

Today, security, efficiency, and affordability are the stalwarts of success. While this is true for most businesses, it is even more essential for small businesses. News24 recently reported that, according to the University of the Western Cape, South Africa’s start-up failure rate is a massive 70 to 80 percent within the first five years of operation.

This may paint a gloomy picture, but small businesses can and are excelling across the nation. While there may be several facets contributing to this success, a sound digital transformation strategy will certainly go a long way to driving stability and growth. For many small businesses, the Covid pandemic spurred a reliance on digital solutions – and while we may be returning to “traditional” work environments, these businesses cannot ignore the immense efficiency, cost, and security benefits experienced during this time.

 Carrie Peter, Managing Director of Impression Signatures, shares why savvy small businesses are choosing digital signatures – and will continue to do so in this new hybrid way of work. “Businesses now have first hand knowledge of how operations benefit from innovative solutions. When it comes to securing signatures on legal documents, service contracts, lease agreements, etc. there are three crucial elements; certainty around identity, the ability to track and prove the chain of custody, and the speed with which a legally sound, signed and sealed document is returned.”

In addition to the cost and efficiency benefits of digital signing solutions, Impression’s digital signatures offer total certainty around the identity of the signatory. “They are also proven to improve operational efficiency and compliance, empower the business to gain process intelligence, and create a socially inclusive customer experience with contracts being sent on any device, with or without a smart phone or data,” confirms Peter.

As businesses have realised the unmatched security and control offered by digital signatures, it would simply not make sense to return to less secure, traditional wet signatures. Identity certainty is absolutely critical, as without this, signatures can be called into question and the business faces immense risk. “When you receive a hardcopy document back, do you know whether the intended person signed; whether they had the authority to sign; whether they had the intent to sign and understood what they were signing; whether the document was tampered with prior to signing?” asks Peter

The Impression solution proves all of this, and more. Whether documents are signed on a laptop in the office, or on a cellphone on the golf course, the process is easy, the document is legally executed, and the business can track exactly when the document was opened, how long the signatory spent on each page, and that the intended person did, in fact, sign the document.

Thanks to the digitisation the world has witnessed over the last two and a half years, customers have come to expect instant gratification, ease of doing business with their suppliers or service providers, and convenience at every interaction. In short, they demand a minimum level of expediency that can only be delivered by digitised solutions.

While most small businesses cannot afford to develop and implement intelligent smart forms, they can afford Impression digital signature solutions – to the benefit of their customers. “By using Impression to allow a signatory to sign a document remotely, small businesses are empowered to pull on an entire range of technical capabilities. With named user licence starting at only R2200 per year, small businesses are securing signatures faster, procuring more business at a lower cost,” concludes Peter.