Posted on Fri, Jul 30, 2010
With budget reductions affecting most businesses, there is an urgent need to improve efficiency and reduce costs. One of the easiest areas to reduce costs is those associated with printing countless documents that usually have to be scanned at a later date.
The slow rollout of digital signatures—despite laws clearly establishing their parity with wet signatures—exemplifies the inefficiencies still plaguing the digital world. E-signatures are a key step in executing a document management strategy. "With an e-signature, a document can be turned around in minutes not days." No matter how good the rest of the online experience is, “anytime you need an ink signature you trip yourself up by falling into the paper mode.” Nicole Kealey, Adobe
When people think of a paperless office, they usually focus on how to store documents in a digital form. This is important, but it misses the real point of going paperless. The real benefit comes from creating documents in way that they are digital for the entire lifetime. Once a document gets printed out, you’ve broken the paperless life cycle.
THE GREEN BOTTOM LINE
Going green is almost synonymous with going paperless. By shedding paper a business can reduce the enormous environmental and business costs associated with paper’s creation, transport and disposal. However, kicking the paper habit will not be easy. Consumers’ hearts are in the right place, but if the paperless process is inconvenient or confusing most are not going to switch. It’s up to businesses to create a digital environment that consumers want to join because it is superior to their current paper-based environment. Some institutions are already working toward this goal by more fully automating back-end processes and making better use of digital signatures.
Despite the myriad challenges faced by large institutions in today’s economic climate, it might just prove to be a perfect time for small- and medium-sized institutions to focus on green initiatives and grab market share from their competitors who have put these inniatives on the back burner. It’s an opportunity to innovate and help the environment.
Posted on Thu, Jul 29, 2010
The Vicious Circle
Your output is a critical customer touch point that allows you to complete sales and communicate in a compliant manner important documents. You can’t adjust your output to respond to customer expectations and marketplace demands with an inflexible infrastructure. Manual processes can cause each stage of production—data creation, formatting, printing, finishing and mailing—to be disconnected from the next, requiring manual administration that is prone to error and inefficiency. Many organizations have output systems that lack the flexibility, scalability and resilience to adapt to changing demands. There needs to be a better way.
Many companies turned to Automated Document Facrtory solutions. Automated Document Factory (ADF) solutions are designed to be vendor-neutral, closed-loop systems that can automate and control your entire print and mail operation.
With an ADF solution you can:
* Make the best use of every dollar you spend on mailings
* Prove that every envelope is mailed with accurate customer information
* Maximize throughput and asset utilization at one or more sites with centralized management
* Improve mailroom integrity
* Lower postage costs
* Achieve comprehensive output management
Yet, this still does not solve the issue as well as a digital signature solution can. With a digital signature solution you can sign with confidence as ell as eliminate costly overhead.
SIGNiX MyDox empowers decision makers and users to access any print form, document or business communication, and approve steps in pivotal business processes in a manner that is secure, auditable and compliant.
One of the most powerful capabilities built into MyDox is the ability to easily and seamlessly capture any paper forms and documents and connect them to processes that may already be active. For users, this means they have the ability to convert paper forms to electronic forms. In situations where a wet signature is required or where federal or state government mandates require both options (paper and electronic forms) to be offered to consumers.
Business Focus
Gain valuable time and focus on customers through internal and external business process, not paper documents.
Speed
Enhance productivity and efficiency with straight-through electronic document workflow and increase speed of sales.
Security
Trusted tamper-proof documents through authentication, verification and certification.
Cost Reduction
Savings comes fast and easy with cost prevention from traditional paper where customers have calculated double-digit savings.
Profitability Improvement
Digital signatures results in attractive paybacks on the business and customer side.
Lean
Elimination of duplication of efforts, old practices and processes, the manual physical world.
Green Effect
Reduce dependency on paper through digital signatures with a green workflow, an asset that promotes corporate responsibility.
Digitaly signed documents, contracts, forms and business communications are critical to your business operations. They provide a lasting record of decisions taken by your organization and agreements with your customers, partners and suppliers. And they also can clearly demonstrate your organization’s compliance with various laws and regulations.
When moving the signing processes online, it’s imperative that your electronic records provide the same, if not greater, compliance and auditability than what you have with pen and paper or even simple click wrap e-signatures.
Posted on Wed, Jul 28, 2010
The amount of paper used today is staggering. A typical document is copied 19 times, a typical office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and a typical office discards 350 pounds of paper per employee each year, according to Ecopreneurist.com. Seven out of ten consumers receive paper bank statements. If every household stopped receiving paper bills and statements, 687,000 tons of paper would be saved every year—enough to circle the earth 239 times. The National Archives and Records Administration estimates that a cubic foot of records costs $23.24, virtually all of which is the rental cost of the office space.
In this age of Internet and mobile transactions, it’s hard to imagine some industries such as banks operating without paper. Whether a customer completes a paper application at a bank branch or prints the application off a bank’s website, most employees and customers still assume all transactions end with a stack of paperwork and a “wet” signature on the bottom line. There is technology that can reduce everyday paper use, while reducing costs.
For utility companies, hospitals & banks there is a heavy price tag to this paper addiction. A typical statement has an all-in cost of approximately $1.20, according to industry estimates, and multiplying that by millions of customers adds up very quickly. Industry experts state that the banking industry alone spends $70 billion to $80 billion per year on printing and mailing statements. This number does not include other paper correspondence, or any other costs associated with paper.
These are astounding numbers. But getting consumers to turn off the paper is not an easy task. Most consumers, even green-leaning ones, need an incentive beyond the environmental benefits to make the switch to digital. The solution is to create an enterprise-wide digital environment that is superior to a paper-based environment—one that customers want to join because it makes their lives easier. In an era of heightened environmental awareness, green initiatives resonate strongly with the public and can strengthen a businesses brand. There’s growing evidence that such green efforts boost the bottom line and can help companies outperform their competitors.
Posted on Tue, Jul 27, 2010
Electronic signatures not only accelerate turnaround, but they can greatly reduce the cost of paper, postage, shipping and other resources. With the new proposed postage rate increases that go into effect in early 2011, its more than just saving paper its about saving money as well.
‘Electronic invoices save time, money and trees’, says Jan Willem Breen, Director Marketing and Sales of TNT’s Express division. ‘But with internet fraud on the rise, customers also ask for legally recognised techniques like digital signatures that authenticate the source of invoices and protect the documents’ integrity.’
Organizations typically see an immediate impact to utilizing and electronic or digital signature process. Where contracts would once been sent to signer and visibility completely lost, using a digital signature process sales teams are able to extend visibility into a sale from lead all the way through the signing process. With this type of visibility it allows organizations to manage contracts through the signing process significantly increasing close rates. Many organizations also find that they are able to greatly reduce administrative tasks related to managing paper contracts as well as reduce the costs associated with mailing & postage.
These firms have repeatedly proven that using legally binding e-signatures can reduce costs, accelerate processes and eliminate paper processes. Cycle time for customers to electronically sign and return documents is significantly reduced, which increases client satisfaction. Business processes are streamlined, increasing efficiencies.
Digital Signature Solutions Can:
* Enhance customer satisfaction
* Accelerate sales close rates
* Expedite the document signing process
* Reduce operating costs
* Improve efficiency
Posted on Fri, Jul 23, 2010
Does it seem like the cost of a postage stamp just went up? That’s because it did: Last year, the Postal Service last increased the price of a first-class stamp to 44 cents, up from 42 cents in 2009. Yesterday the Postal Service met to discuss a new rate increase and they have agreed that it’s time to increase rates once again. Technically, the law prohibits a price increase that’s greater than the rate of inflation, which for the last year has been 0.9 percent. But under “unusual circumstances,” the Postal Service can sidestep the law and increase postage rates by more, which is what they plan on doing.
Why is the post office increasing rates greater than the rate of inflation? “The Postal Service faces a serious risk of financial insolvency,” postal vice president Stephen M. Kearney said. The post office lost $3.8 billion last year, despite cutting 40,000 full-time positions and making other reductions, and Kearney said it is facing a $7 billion loss for this year and the same for fiscal 2011, which begins in October. The rate increase would bring in $2.5 billion, meaning there still would be a large loss for next year.
How Much and When Rates Will Increase
5% Increase. A first-class stamp will go up 2 cent from 44 to 46 cents. While your average letter will be going up a few cents, everything else is increasing as well. Priority mail, express mail, addtional first class postage, media mail, and so on. Across the board, most services will see about a 5% increase. One noticeable increase comes to the mailing of periodicals. Those mailings are slated to see a whopping 8% increase. The new rates still need to be approved, but with almost certainty they will be, and then the new rates will take effect on January 2, 2011.
How This Will Affect You
It effects you whether print or email! You don’t send letters and use email instead, you pay all of your bills online, and the increase won’t really matter to you. It’s true that an extra two cents for a stamp isn’t going to break the bank for most people who only mail a handful of items a year, but these postage increases don’t stop there and even if you don’t mail anything these days you may still feel the pinch.
Think about the companies that rely on the postal service to ship their products and communications to consumers. What does a 5% increase in postage mean to a company that already spends tens of millions of dollars a year on postage?
Just one example - Netflix. Their core business model resolves around sending you movies in the mail. In fact, media mail, which Netflix mailings fall under, is slated to get a 7% increase. This would end up costing Netflix upwards of $50 million more on shipping costs in 2011. That’s on top of the already hundreds of millions being spent on shipping.
- What About Less Service?
Five-day delivery. Despite lower mail volumes and reduced revenues, the USPS network must support an additional one to two million new addresses each year. In order to maintain universal mail delivery, the USPS would like to eliminate in-home delivery on Saturday (the lowest volume day). Such a move would require Congressional action.
How To Protect Your Company & Budget?
Digital signatures can help reduce 50% of your paper based, mailed contracts, forms and business communications. These signature required documents will move faster both internally and externally to speed the velocity of business!
Posted on Wed, Jul 21, 2010
Digital signatures are quickly replacing handwritten signatures in organizations from many different industries. Professionals in industries such as the health care, real estate, financial, insurance & government agencies understand that time is money and every minute spent waiting for a signature can cost valuable revenue. A manual process can add days to a transaction and require costly resources to complete.
There has been a great interest within several industries for utilizing digital signatures to improve efficiency all while reducing costs, saving time, eliminating delays and better serving customers.
There are many companies that provide electronic signature forms, but not all services are standardized. Below are 10 important factors to consider when choosing a Digital Signature
Solution (electronic signature) for your organization.
1. Hosted Digital Signature
2. 3 in 1 Registration, Certificate & Time Stamp Authority
3. Real Time Independent Identity Authentication
4. Broadly Trusted Signature by Adobe & Microsoft
5. Non-Repudiation
6. Portable
7. Independent
8. Hardware-Based Encryption - FIPS Level 3
9. Patented Protection of Signing Credentials
10. Enterprise Application Integration
SIGNiX has the XFactor solution which offers the security and comfort of superior non-repudiation – meaning that a party in a dispute cannot refute the integrity of a digitally signed document. Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography which allows you to know, without question, if a document has been modified.
Posted on Tue, Jul 20, 2010
The technology behind electronic or digital signatures is called PKI or Public Key Infrastructure. In order to go paperless in industries that rely on securing signatures for legal documents, there has to be a secure way to protect that digital signature for the end user as well as the business.
PKI uses asymmetric key-pair encryption. The only way to decrypt data encrypted with one key in the pair is by using the other key in the pair. This key pair is comprised of a public key and a private key. The public key, may be shared freely, as this key does not need to be kept confidential. The private key, on the other hand, must be kept secret. The owner of the key pair must guard his private key closely, as sender authenticity and non-repudiation are based on the signer having sole access to his private key. A Certification Authority, who confirms and verifies the identity of an individual before issuing a certificate, certifies the key pair. This forms the 'Digital Identity' for that individual. The certificate issued is called the 'Digital Certificate'.
There are a few important characteristics of these key pairs. They are mathematically related to each other, it is impossible to calculate one key from the other. Therefore, the private key cannot be compromised through knowledge of the associated public key. Second, each key in the key pair performs the inverse function of the other. What one key does, only the other can undo. The private key is used for signing and decrypting a message or a document while the public key is used to verify or encrypt.
There are 7 basic steps that are taken in this process:
Step 1
An Individual applies to Certification Authority for Digital Certificate.
Step 2
CA proofs and identifies the individual and issues Digital Certificate.
Step 3
CA publishes Certificate to Repository.
Step 4
Individual digitally signs electronic message with Private Key to ensure Sender Authenticity, Message Integrity and Non-Repudiation and sends the message.
Step 5
The receiving party receives message, verifies Digital Signature with the individual's Public
Key, and goes to Repository to check status and validity of Individual's Certificate.
Step 6
Repository returns results of status check on Individual's Certificate to verifying party.
Step 7
Digital Certificates
There is a great need for imporved cyber-security in regards to electronic signatures. Higher education is one of the areas in which digital signature technology would greatly reduce the risks of attacks, viruses, and spam that colleges and universities face on a daily basis. Not only does this protect information handled online, but it reduces paper waste.
Using PKI technology, digital signature software offers unique solutions to real problems.
With extensive deployment in the federal government and among notable industry giants, a sound foothold in higher education, and significant new developments.
Posted on Fri, Jul 16, 2010
When going paperless, the true commitment needs to come from the top. If the principals of the company aren't serious about wanting to become proficient in digital, it's not going to happen.
One point most businesses overlook when discussing digital signature solutions, is the reality of budgets and the understanding of how going paperless can really add to a businesses return on investment. Although we are seeing more and more of a shift these days businesses are typically only getting 1/4 of the budget they used to get. Going paperless can help add more money to other budget items while increasing efficiency.
From real estate offices to health care professionals, and insurance to education, all these industries can directly benefit from going digital. Digital signatures use a form of encryption technology called Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI. Each user has a pair of keys, one public and one private. When a person sends a document, a digital signature is generated from the private key. Then the recipient “authenticates” that signature by running a verification on the document, using the public key to ensure that the two pairs of keys click together to get validated. And when this is all completed the signature and document are forever all in one, not separated anytime, like other solutions.
Different industries have different needs as do different departments. Departmental solutions are available to address human resources, customer service, and many others. Discover how your organization can benefit from a digital signature solution, and how each department within the company can optimize business communications that require signatures.
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Free Report: Digital Signatures vs e-Signatures. Which is best for your company? Download it now.
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Posted on Thu, Jul 15, 2010
Rapidly Growing SIGNiX Appoints Former Bowe Bell+Howell Executive as Vice President of Business Development
CHATTANOOGA, TN, JULY 15, 2010 - SIGNiX, the leading SaaS digital signature solution, today announced that is has named John Lombard to the position of vice president of business development. Lombard brings over 25 years of extensive global management, business development and sales experience. In his new role at SIGNiX, Lombard will be responsible for expanding SIGNiX’s global strategic business development initiatives.
“This appointment signifies SIGNiX’s strong commitment to further expand its global presence, as well as strengthen the brand and presence worldwide. Lombard has a deep understanding and expertise in print and online business communications and the on-demand software space, and we’re pleased to add a widely respected executive of his caliber to our already deep executive team,” said Jay Jumper, CEO of SIGNiX. “His proven success and skill set will be critical as we continue to expand our customer base and partners and accelerate market growth.”
Industry veteran Lombard brings over two decades of management experience. Prior to joining SIGNiX, Lombard was the president of Bowe Bell+Howell, a market leader in complex document processing equipment, software and services for the transactional billing, credit card and production mail industry. “In just one click, SIGNiX automates the entire digital signature process I’m excited to join the company at such a pivotal time, and look forward to contributing to SIGNiX’s growth and continued success across multiple markets,” said Lombard.
Posted on Thu, Jul 15, 2010
The green businesses movement has certainly taken hold over the last decade. Until recently taking an operation wholly or partially paperless has met with varying degrees of success. many high By going paperless a business at least in part can join the going green effort and reduce costs.
A business can save massive amounts of paper through electronic documentation. Energy savings are just as important and can be found by minimizing the use of print and copy machines. Supporting the green movement helps the environment and shows clients that your business cares about affecting it in a positive way.
Traditionally businesses have spent countless dollars time and space maintaining paper business records. Recently more and more business owners have cut costs and improved their operational efficiency by going paperless. If this is something you've considered you may want to look into ways to incorporate digital signature technology to further reduce paper waste.
By using esignature software or digital signatures you can now know that the documents you electronically sign are trustworthy and are an authenticated paperless transaction. Digital signatures are inserted into the document and easily travel electronically to their destination assuring the sender the signee data integrity and overall trust. Digital signature solutions can be seamlessly integrated with any business application without needing to change the existing workflow.
Benefits
* Signer Authenticity
* Reduced Processing Time
* Reduced Operational Costs
* Security and Confidentiality for Documents and Data
* Enhanced Process Efficiency and Optimization
* Speedy Decision-making and Approval Process
* Non-repudiation and Integrity
Digital signature software can now meet the demands of large transaction-driven businesses that currently rely on manual or semi-automated financial and operational signing processes. Whether the signing processes are performed on a daily weekly monthly or yearly basis digital signatures can now be trusted.
Until now standard e-signature solutions have focused on low risk transactions and low volume applications. The next-generation solution delivers significant value to companies by allowing business critical applications involving important legal and financial transactions to be digitally signed as part of a fully automated electronic process.