E-Signature Is A Perfect Tool For Business

Today, almost all areas of business work through the Internet. Increasingly, company managers have to sign documents in electronic format. That’s why business leaders need a tool like an electronic signature to run their business successfully and create a handwritten signature remotely. In this case, SignNow service is ready to give you the opportunity to sign documents and make your business more productive using e-signature. 

In our modern world when companies are increasingly inclined to dematerialization, the problem of legal e-signature becomes inevitable. Indeed, this is not about a simple digital signature of a document or scanning a handwritten signature, but rather about creating a process that ensures full compliance with existing legal norms. Moreover, signNow offers affordable prices for all packages of services. 

To do this, you must rely on an e-signature certificate provided by a trustful service like signNow. Their certificate guarantees the integrity of your papers and the authentication of the signatory, whether legal entity or individual.

In this article, we are going to learn how it works, what the legal context is, and how to put your first certified e-signature with the help of a particular service.

What is a legal basis for e-signature? 

In order to give an e-signature the same legal force as a handwritten one, you should follow the next steps:

● To approve documents;

● Clearly identify the person of the signatory and guarantee his/her connection with the e-signature;

● To ensure the integrity of documents.

In addition, an e-signature must be created by services that the signing party can keep under exclusive control.

Finally, it must be associated with the data to which it belongs so that any subsequent modification of this data can be detected.

The process of signing documents with e-signature online 

Before you receive an e-signature, you need to familiarize yourself with the entire process of its creation.

To sign a document with an e-signature through e-mail you have to:

● click on the access link received by e-mail;

● read a digital document;

● sign it after receiving the security code via SMS.

You have given your legal consent.

However, if you want to directly sign Word or PDF documents:

It’s important to mention that all formats can be signed with an e-signature (Word, XML, PDF, JPG, etc.) you even don’t need to preload them into special software.

However, best practices prefer PDF format; it does provide better preservation and protection of content and is the only standard recognized in Europe that includes signature elements directly in the file.

Just paste your electronic signature using the options available in your version. 

How does an electronic signature guarantee the integrity of the document? 

When you sign a contract, a qualified timestamp allows you to certify the exact moment when this happened and encrypt the document so that it can no longer be changed.

To do this, you can confidently contact SignNow, which allows you to sign all your documents with an electronic signature in just a few clicks, but above all, in complete safety! You can read all characteristics of the service on the trustful resources. 

Three levels of electronic signature

There are three levels of electronic signatures for now:

Simple signature. This one is enough for most standard documents.

Extended Signature: The signatory must be uniquely identified (for example, using copies of identity documents). The trusted third party then provides a digital certificate that is almost impossible to forge.

Qualified signature: this is the safest type of digital signature. A qualified signature is an e-signature based on a certificate. The process of issuing a digital certificate is possible only after the identity of the signatory has been verified personally (visually). The signature is created using a very secure device called QSCD, which can only work in a cloud system managed by a trust service provider (TSP).

Finally, the choice of the e-signature method must be suitable for your needs. If the qualified signature procedure should be chosen only for very specific cases, an extended signature seems to be a good compromise. 

Cooperation with a trust service provider like SignNow will help you choose the most preferred type of electronic signature according to your requirements!

How does e-signature affect your business? 

Dematerialization is not a whim, but an operational reality that accelerates the processes of companies and administrations. In a controlled and secure environment, organizations of all sizes, from tiny to large groups, including small and medium-sized enterprises, receive significant benefits.

The exchange of paper documents is replaced by a simplified and immediate procedure: the introduction of an electronic signature becomes a factor of competitiveness, contributing to increased productivity. On average, each contract saves 2.2 hours!

The structure of the digital signature is now clearly defined by the rules and trusted third parties comply with strict specifications and exact standards. They offer the best services, guaranteeing the legal and legal value of electronic documents.