Gartner just published one of the most thoughtful research notes on e-signatures in some time. The abstract is here, and the research note is a relatively modest $195. The point as the abstract notes is that laws for e-signatures are already on the books, and the key to thinking about e-signatures is not legality (they are legal under the U.S. E-Sign Act and similar laws in most other Western countries) or the "mechanism used to create a signature", but rather the benefits of signature automation as part of the overall business process.
The piece also wisely counsels its readers to ignore "scare stories" from vendors trying to spread FUD for competitive advantage -- there are at least a half dozen creditable, 'legal' e-signature solutions on the market -- and instead pick a solution that enhances your business.
Does your sales team crowd around the fax machine at the end of the quarter? If so, you'll likely benefit almost instantly from automating those business processes with an on-demand vendor like EchoSign.
Do you have trouble keeping track of all your signed contract? If so, again you'll likely benefit from a system that automatically signs, tracks and manages all your contracts.
Give e-signatures a shot where doing business faster and easier clearly = more $$$. With an on-demand solution like EchoSign, you can try it out in just minutes. And stick with fax or paper based business processes where the process isn't broken and where the ROI isn't apparent.
P.S. That's why at EchoSign we provide both the web's simplest e-signature solution (and #1 according to Alexa, Comscore, Compete, Quantcast, and all the rest) AND the web's only solution to automating getting contracts signed and stored via fax as well.
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