The Online Digital Signature Way

9 May 2013

A common electronic procurement goes back to paper handling as soon as a signature is required, creating hassles, delays, and costly processes to all parties involved: the organisation, staff, suppliers, and customers. Yarra Ranges Shire Council and Manningham City Council chose to break this ineffective signing practice by using Secured Signing digital signature service:

“The efficiency gains and document security benefits of electronically signed documents is immense,” says Jason Farrugia, Manager Strategic Procurement at Yarra Ranges Shire Council. “Secured Signing has saved a lot of administration time and significantly reduced printing consumables, envelope and postage costs, and has also allowed us to be a greener organisation by reducing our paper consumption.”

Tim Lawson, Manager of Procurement Contracts at Manningham City Council added: “The primary driver has been about simplicity and making it quicker and simpler for people to sign; but it is nice to know we are also introducing a clearer audit trail into our signing process.”

In addition to the prompt digital signing of documents ranging from contracts, evaluation reports, or conflict of interest declarations, both Councils benefit from the assurance of a reliable User-Based PKI digital signature technology that ensures non-forgeable signatures and offers the highest level of security available today.

And, as Andrew Grove once said, “Not all problems have a technological answer, but when they do, that is the more lasting solution.”

Till next time,  

Cheers, John

31 January, 2013

On the 17^th January 2013, the E-Signature Summit for Banking Executives took place in New York with close to 200 top leaders who examined primary digital strategies in the banking industry. Penny Crosman (from the acclaimed publication American Banker) wrote that at the conference, “both bankers and lawyers testified to an emerging legitimacy of e-signatures in the world of banking” with examples like the Royal Bank of Canada that makes extensive use of the technology, and the US Bank that has already extended e-signatures to its 3,000 branches.    

In the quest to eliminate the last remaining paper and reduce time and costs for mortgage income verification, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - in a move that sees an entire loan process completely automated - recently allowed for electronic signatures to replace the traditional wet-ink signatures,. “The current process for requesting a borrower’s tax return transcript is labor intensive and time consuming, “ said Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) president and CEO David H. Stevens in a statement on the company’s website. “With this announcement, the IRS is making this process much easier and more efficient...allowing for electronic signatures will save time and reduce the likelihood of errors or loss of documents. This is a win for consumers and lenders alike.” 

The IRS recently published (22 January, 2013) Announcement 2013-8, seeking recommendations to formally identify an e-signature set of standards for the tax industry. In its release, the IRS suggests five essential signing requirements that relate to the type of electronic signature: signer’s intent, association of signature to electronic record, ways to recognise and authenticate the signer, and the intention to keep the integrity of the signed document. 

Secured Signing service, market leader for advanced electronic signatures, provides all the above, and much more! On a daily basis, our worldwide customers experience the compliant and most secure user-based PKI digital signature technology for filling-in forms and online signing of documents - complete with individual digital certificate for user’s authentication, proof of ownership and intent, and exclusive verification tools.  

And, as Greg Anderson once said: “The Law of Win/Win says, let’s not do it your way or my way; let’s do it the best way”.  

Till next time,

Cheers, John

2 November, 2012

In Gartner’s Symposium at Sao Paulo, Brazil (29-31 October, 2012), Donald Feinberg, Vice President and distinguished analyst was quoted as saying that, “the future of computing is social, mobile, information and cloud, and companies are doing pieces of it correctly today. But the real advantages to the vendors’ side and the consumers’ side, or the corporate side will be when they start bringing these forces together.” (Roberta Prescott) 

This growing business trend sees a large number of companies and government agencies shifting into the electronic completion and digital signing of forms. The latter, which clearly reflects this new nexus of forces, as Feinberg described it, offers secure, efficient, automated, and prompt business methods that save associated costs and workforce resources, and is recognised by international administration’s regulators. 

Secured Signing’s interactive Form solution follows this trend and offers to its worldwide business partners and users tailored and branded forms, inclusion of secure, user-based, PKI digital signatures, conversion to web-based pages, accessibility from any browser in smartphone, other tablet device, Windows PC, or Mac - with no apps to install, and much more.

Yarra Ranges City Council, Evolve Scientific, Digital Mobile Vodafone’s NZ largest dealer, and many others no longer need to print, sign, scan, fax, mail, or deliver documents. Neither do their customers nor business associates who simply fill-in and sign online their designated electronic form.     

And, as Bill Gates once said: “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it - so it’s part of everyday life.”    

Till next time,

Cheers, John 

12 October, 2012,

Ronald Reagan once said: “Trust, but verify.”

How true and applicable to so many areas in our lives today! Obviously, I am not going to examine this theme in connection to the relationships between people or social groups, but rather to showcase some latest cases that explore trust between people and technology and more specifically, in relation to electronic and digital signatures.       

In the first case, a dispute between a professional couple and a real estate agent over the validity of their contract was brought up in the Court of Appeals in Arizona. This argument raised the question of what qualifies as an electronic signature, and whether an e-mail could be legally equivalent to a signature on a contract.   

The second one involves Macmahon Holdings, a construction and mining contract company in Australia. Macmahon management called in its lawyers to investigate internal e-mails that were supposedly written by their chief executive and board of directors about an alleged takeover offer at a generous premium by a Chinese company, which resulted in a trading halt (5 October, 2012). 

The above is relevant to our discussion as it again questions the trust we can/should have in online written professional or official information, and what can be done about it. Peter Moon, a Melbourne lawyer who writes a weekly technology column for the Australian Financial Review, referred to the latter and questioned whether Macmahon “directors, or their lawyers, or the regulator they complained to, are digitally signing their mail” (9 October, 2012). 

Moon follows it with a clear message on how to avoid these situations, and why digital signatures (not simple electronic signatures) provide the best possible solution: “A true digital signature, on the other hand, is the product of the same complex bit of mathematics that underlies data encryption. In fact, it’s just the other side of the encryption coin. It calculates a virtually unique string of text for any document, including an e-mail, that can validate both who authored or authorised it, and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Change as much as a space in the text and it won’t validate.”   

Couldn’t agree with him more! These are well known, irrefutable facts that are implemented daily by the worldwide online signing users of the Secured Signing PKI digital signature service that authenticates each user with digital certificate, provides ownership approval, and grants this much-needed assurance and verification.       

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