The Online Digital Signature Way

21 September, 2012

Let’s open with a trivial question and a most anticipated answer – do you prefer to be asked how you like your coffee? Or steak? And what about your business card design? Or your website’s functionalities? These simple questions have quite obvious answers that reflect human psychology with business practicalities: we like to be asked, we want to feel appreciated, and we are thrilled when our point of view counts, and is acted upon. Ask any successful service provider.    

The Customer-centric approach has been explored and discussed in the business and commercial context for a while now. It relates to a process that starts with understanding your customers’ needs, building a related customer-centric strategy, and successfully executing it. The latter can be satisfyingly achieved only when it fits into the company’s culture and values, and communicates effectively on all levels.

Secured Signing, the worldwide service provider of PKI digital signature in the Cloud, consistently fosters personalised relationships with its customers, and proactively addresses their varied needs and requests with flexible service delivery. Practising an open channel of communication enhances a professional and precisely tailored response for the online signing and electronic fill-in of forms and documents. Furthermore, the Secured Signing’s team takes that information, anticipates future requirements, and continually works on the development of new features.

Its current comprehensive customised solutions include:        

• Fill-in and eSign your company’s forms online
• Branding – E-mail invitation, signing, and filling pages
• API – integrate your application and service 

And, as Thomas Herrington once said: “In today’s economic climate, those companies that thrive will be those that are customer centric and those that remember that customers are the ultimate judges and the world’s leading authorities on whether we impressed them or not with our efforts.”  

For more info please contact us!

Till next time,

Cheers, John

5 September, 2012

Gartner’s recent Hype Cycle annual report (August, 2012) for the assessment of more than 1,900 technologies and IT maturity and trends in information security highlighted a variety of related directions. The leading IT research company determined that organisations will champion a faster purchase of Software as a Service (SaaS), and predicts that by 2015, more than 50 percent will include it in their business approach, and beat their competitors “by 20 percent for all existing financial metrics.”

SaaS applications are attractive to businesses and customers alike, so the report came as no surprise to those who engage or provide the exclusive advanced technological solution that combines the following plentiful advantages:

• Higher accessibility – from any computer or device, anywhere, anytime.
• Increased business profitability – a result of savings of potential operational expenses. SaaS eliminates customers’ need to buy, manage, and maintain the IT infrastructure including hardware or software. Allows redistribution of bu dget, and focuses on core competencies.  
• Simple adoption – shorter learning curve due to product simplicity and user familiarity with the Internet.  
• Seamless integration – scaling ability, flexibility, and customisation capabilities (including APIs) meeting customers’ specific needs.     
• Instant use of latest technology – businesses of all sizes are able to use latest innovations that were previously inaccessible e due to budget or infrastructure constraints. 

So SaaS gets the ol’ thumbs up for a good reason! Yet, it is up to the service provider to successfully implement this for its clients. This is where Secured Signing delivers as the market leader of secure and compliant digital signature solutions for e-Forms and online signing. Secured Signing continually provides and maximises irreplaceable operational, financial, and environmental benefits to its worldwide customers.  

And as a Henry Ford once said – “Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.”  

Till next time,

Cheers, John.

24 August, 2012

I would like to share with you my recent article:  

“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” Niccolo Machiavelli  

We are living in a fast-tech era, consuming fast-tech products. The life we live, and the business we run (or work for), our social interactions, work environment, and daily behavior are all changing and reshaping constantly by new technological developments. Before we continue with our justified hail for progress, let’s go back for a brisk moment in time. The birth of first computer took place with the invention of ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. The world’s first electronic digital computer (patent was filed in 26 June, 1947) was invented as a result of the great demand of war to “reduce the time required for arriving at solutions to problems which might have required months or days by older procedures.”

Fast forward sixty five years, the revolution of the ENIAC endures. The majority of us carry our individual portable devices for communicating privately or for work purposes, struggling to keep in pace with the latest gadget, or surrendering / fighting the desire to have the latest model. What surprising is the fact that regardless of what devices we use to implement it, the principals who differentiated more than half a century ago the ‘new’ outcome from the ‘old’, is astonishingly similar: the workload of recruitment companies and their consultants reduces from days to minutes!  

A typical recruitment process requires a candidate to fill-in and sign adequately dozens of essential paperwork in order to meet employment, legislative and occupational health conditions. The process is lengthy, tiresome and frustrating for all parties involved: the candidate, who desires to find a job promptly but accidently omit a signature somewhere, the employer who needs to see new employees onsite as fast as possible, and for the recruitment consultant, who communicates with both and often waste time chasing the forms and missing items while trying to provide professional customer service that complies with industry’s regulations.

The introduction of eForms that incorporate digital signature technology has distinguishably transformed this situation altogether.  Recruitment consultants are now able to sign and invite candidates and employers to fill-in and sign brand electronic forms from anywhere any time, to manage and oversee the signing process, and view in real-time progress reports. The user-based PKI digital signature innovative technology complies with worldwide regulations for the online signing of electronic documents (ETA’s, ESIGN, EU VAT Directive, UECA, UETA, ECA’s and many more), and offers highest level of security. The signed form is sealed, and any changes made to the document invalidate the signatures.

Abardeen Group, a leading provider of business research, published its Human Capital Management Trends 2012 Report. The study reveals that HR companies and line of business respondents who show results in top industry performance, Best-in-Class, have implemented successfully recruitment technologies as one of their core business strategies. Secured Signing’s service that offers to fill-in and signing of electronic documents follows the trend. It boosts efficiency, ensures costs cut, meets market labour demands, and as mentioned above, plays an essential role in the recruitment industry’s timely change of conduct. 

Till next time,

Cheers, John

3 August, 2012

The London Olympics are in full steam and so far, apart from some disruptions during coverage of the men’s road cycling race, there were no public reports of any major IT disruptions / failures – touch wood!

According to Gerry Pennel, CIO for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), careful planning of this mega operation started back in 2008. With nearly a quarter of the entire committee’s budget spent on technology, a team of 5,500 technical staff, and an around-the—clock, 173-seat Technical Operations Centre (TOC), it is obvious to see a thorough and careful strategic planning was at the core of this successful execution.                    

A recent Forrester’s report, ‘Measure the Effectiveness of the Strategic Planning Process’, by Chip Gliedman, et al. (June, 2012) elaborates further on this issue."The ultimate judges of any strategic planning process are the business technology (BT) users who need to produce business benefits with the technology. The goals, desires, and needs of this group are therefore key inputs to the strategic plan, and improvement in their satisfaction with the tools provided is the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of the resulting plans and road maps”.     

This is indeed true, and similarly applies to the worldwide users of the Secured Signing service who judge and experience daily the extensive benefits of electronic signing of documents that expedites business processes, improves efficiency, reduces operational and processing costs, and enhances a green environment. The Secured Signing solution combines meticulous planning, utmost secure and compliant user-based PKI digital signature technology, and ongoing design and development of comprehensive cutting-edge online signing products that provide proven results and are worthy of Gold.  

Till next time,

Cheers, John

24 July, 2012

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile” Roger Staubach  

There is no doubt customers were in the Secured Signing’s digital signature Cloud service management team’s mind when a decision was made to go the extra mile and provide a free digital signature with certificate for signing online documents. Whether the user is an existing client or a new one, regardless of location or time, anyone can benefit from the secure, compliant, and reliable service that allows the signing of up to three documents per month for free.       

Forrester’s Top 15 Trends for Customer Service in 2012 (Kate Leggett, Jan 2012) reveals that more than ever before, customers are in a strong position to search for real value in their business trade, and ready to explore and use SaaS and Cloud initiatives. Secured Signing Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is rising to this challenge with its Free Account function that grants clients the advantages of a user-based PKI digital signature technology with user’s exclusive certificate (Digital ID), seal of signed documents, audit trail feature, and verification apparatus.

A range of products and features, API’s functionality, use of Smartphone and Tablet devices, and the ability to simply upgrade to a full account to eSign more documents creates no traffic jams! Secured Signing’s comprehensive solution meets businesses’ needs and enhances their efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

Till next time,

Cheers, John