Electronic signature in the circulation of documents
2020-03-01
How to sign a contract online?
2020-03-22Every company, even the smallest one, struggles with organizing the circulation of documents, both those circulating within the company’s structure and those transferred outside the company – to contractors or business partners.
Traditional paper document circulation is not the most convenient solution – dozens or even hundreds of folders and binders take up a lot of space, paper documents tend to get lost, and each time they are printed, signed and sent is time-consuming and expensive.
How to organize the circulation of documents in the company so that each process of preparing contracts goes smoothly and without complications?
The importance of efficient document circulation in company
What is document circulation? Actually, it is a very broad concept. Traditional document circulation consists of:
- all sent and received emails related to the process of creating,
- reviewing and signing of contracts,
- document files stored on disk,
- printouts and mailings,
- valuable time spent on project coordination.
Electronic document workflow is a tool that allows you to collect all of the above elements in one place.
An efficient workflow system is one of the components of a company’s success. Order in documents, speed and efficiency in action and efficient coordination of processes are factors that directly affect the number of successfully signed contracts, finalized transactions or won tenders.
What to do to organize the flow of documents in the company?
How to improve the flow of documents in the company?
Streamlining and improving the flow of documents in a company should be done in three stages. Each of them separately will be effective, but implementing them in a set will enable fully efficient and effective document management in the company.
1. Implement electronic document workflow in the company
If your company processes 20 or more contracts or other documents per year, implementing an electronic workflow will be cost-effective. For electronically creating, reviewing and signing just 20 documents per year, a company will pay nearly half as much as it would pay to carry out the process the traditional way, using paper and mailing or courier.
A good document workflow program allows you to:
- store all documents in one place,
- work from anywhere and from any device, thanks to browser access,
- full control over the creation and review of documents,
- convenient grouping o organization of documents,
- use of predefined document templates.
However, the company’s workflow system will achieve its full efficiency only when combined with the ability to work in teams on the same documents (integration with Office 365®) and the availability of the execution of electronic signatures with a single click, from anywhere, at any time (integration with DocuSign®).
2. Teamwork in Office 365®
Working in a large team is sometimes not easy, especially if several or a dozen people are working on the final version of one document. Everyone has something to add, everyone adds their comments and everyone wants to change something. The result is a myriad of versions of the document that the person coordinating the project has to glue together. There is no need to explain how much time, energy and drank coffees he has to spend on this.
And it can be done differently. With an electronic workflow system integrated with Office 365, the entire team can work on one document, without having to create more versions. If necessary, several people can also work on that document at the same time – all the changes made will then be visible in real time to the other team members who currently have the file open (it looks similar to working on Google Docs or OneDrive).
The entire editing history of the document is visible, so there’s no problem getting to who deleted a passage or added another paragraph.
3. DocuSign® signature in the workflow
When the teamwork has gone quickly and smoothly, the document has been created and reviewed, and the final version is waiting for approval, the only thing left is the question of signatures. You can do it the traditional way – print it out and bring it to the authorized persons for signature by hand, or send the agreement by courier. It is also possible to send a link to the created document to the person concerned via email, so that he or she can sign the agreement at any time, from anywhere in the world, with a single click.
No dozens of emails or copies of documents, no printing, mailing or circulating around the office looking for the CEO – collecting signatures from colleagues or business partners with DocuSign® is quick, easy and convenient for both parties. Learn more about electronic signatures in document workflow.
Important! If the contract is for a contractor or external business partner, the latter does not need to have an account purchased on DocuSign® to sign the document. It is enough that the company creating the agreement has one. The other party will only receive a link to the document via email, on which he or she can affix an electronic signature – quickly, intuitively and securely.
Why implement an electronic document workflow system?
An electronic workflow system simply makes work easier. And who doesn’t want to work a little lighter and a little less to achieve the same or even better results? The regained time can be used to start more beneficial projects for the company, prepare detailed reports for current clients, tidy up your desk or have a nice small talk by the coffee machine.
Implementing a workflow management system is first and foremost a reduction in operating costs – giving up paper, sending documents in attachments, postage and other aspects associated with the traditional workflow model brings huge savings to the company. Automating the creation, review and approval of contracts also means
- greater efficiency, more effective work,
- the ability to monitor all stages of the process,
- easier communication,
- fewer misunderstandings among employees,
- better relations with business partners
- improved security of confidential data.
Just as important as the electronic processing and finalization of documents in the company itself is the electronic repository, which is a full archive of contracts, submitted tenders and other documents. No more digging through dozens of binders for hours in search of a contract that someone has lost among the documents on his desk. An electronic document workflow program will make it possible to find the needed file in a few moments.
Organization of the workflow in a company is extremely important – a mess of papers never translates into success. If you are interested in automating document workflow in your company, contact us – we will be happy to advise you on a solution that will make document processing no longer a problem.