Contract Management Software vs. Digital Signature Technology
Posted by Randall Isaac on Fri, Sep 17, 2010 @ 04:03 PM
"...as central as it is, the signature itself is only one part of the overall document or business process life cycle; the true value to an organization lies in replacing all paper-based processes with electronic ones and securely automating as many previously manual steps and procedures as possible.”
"Market Overview: E-Signatures in 2010,” Forrester Research
There is often confusion in the minds consumers on how to transform their paper-based approval processes to one that is digital. There are number of areas of the contract life-cycle where a manual paper-based process can bottleneck. It is important to know the different types of available technology and match it with the ideal one to resolve these bottlenecks.
Digital Signature technology enables users to place a digital signature onto a document. The capability is certainly a component of improved efficiency ─ but just a start. A complete contract management software platform drives up gross margins by automating the entire contract workflow. It enables users to control not just whole agreements, but also the data within the agreements. The ability to manage at the data layer opens up new automation possibilities. For example, you can import and populate agreements from a variety of sources (Customer Relationship Management, Sales Force Automation, Excel spreadsheets, ERP systems, etc.), move the data into other agreements relevant to the particular transaction, verify data entry at the time agreements are filled in, map data from completed contracts into internal systems - or third party systems, and more.
Is a contract workflow management platform right for you?
Digital signature technology is idea when the process is simple. It only requires a document to be sent to a signatory, signed and then returned. Or where automation is not needed because the contract volumes are low.
The benefit of a contract workflow management platform is to drive down costs by automating the entire workflow for medium to highly complex workflows.
A contract workflow management platform is best suited for organizations with high volumes of similar transactions with a complex signatory routing process. There are innumerable situations where automation can quickly eliminate wasted resources. Some examples of this are security broker new account openings, employee pay stubs and benefits statements, account transfer forms, merchant card service on-boarding, and so on.
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