An intriguing article on itnewsafrica.com outlines how document digitisation is now a crucial enabler of the digital enterprise, while also proving that digitisation is making a huge impact on business processes all around the world.
For an organisation to truly achieve end-to-end digital transformation (and therefore effectively compete in the new digital economy) – it is vital to move away from time-consuming, ineffective, manual, paper-based processes.
Although increasing numbers of companies are certainly on the right path to establishing full digital business processes, via leading-edge enterprise technology solutions, it’s fair to say that many still end up converting documents into paper-based formats to handle signing processes. This old habit of print, sign & scan breaks the digital chain, inhibiting an organisation’s ability to become digitally fluent.
Electronic signatures are the solution to bridge this gap. Aside from the efficiency gains of moving to fully-digital document management solutions that include signature automation – e-signatures offer a range of other benefits, including:
- Data security – tools such as multi-factor authentication, password managers, strong policies and vigilant monitoring help companies to keep tighter control over the security and integrity of their documents.
- Version monitoring – with digital signatures, there is no ambiguity over which version of a document is the original (or which one is the most-updated).
- Costs – printing and scanning involves more human intervention – pushing up costs in areas such as wages, printing fees, paper, routing, and storage.
- Control – physical documents carry numerous risks: they can be lost, stolen, damaged or accidently destroyed. Digital solutions eradicate these hazards
- Fewer dependencies – paper-based systems are, by their very nature, more dependent on other processes, from both inside and outside an organisation (for example; an organisation may have to rely on postal or couriering services – this reliance can be removed entirely with the right digital approach).
By digitising processes (including the implementation of e-signatures), companies can take an essential step on the road to digital transformation – and reap the vast array of benefits on offer. In short – digitisation is happening everywhere – are you on board yet? If not, Dajon can help.