The game players in the economy (industries, companies, SMEs, and MSMEs) had integrated over 90% of their digital transformation activities. An example is an electronic signature, which has been fully recognized in most European nations for more than two decades and significantly gaining popularity. It has been an integral part of business digitization strategy among financial institutions of varying sizes, supported with the quest of reducing carbon footprint and encouraging a clean environment through the drastic removal of paper usage. Due to this, many financial setups such as commercial banks, lenders, and credit unions have accepted the electronic signatures for many uses.
There are many problems associated with running the industries’ activities that result in colossal working hour loss and, hence, production shortfalls. With digital transformation and, in particular, the electronic/digital signature, the processes have been made seamless and hitch-free. The following are the benefits of industrial process digitization using electronic signature:
- Dematerializing the contracting, procurement, sales, and technical support activities – With the use of electronic signatures, business streamlining processes are now possible. Simultaneously, the working environment seems more suitable for the employees and ensures better security and traceability of the documents.
2. Developing an e-commerce platform that is customer-centric with an easy-to-access sales path – Every online sale has to do with transactions that require trust, security, and integrity from both the customer and the company’s end. The sale may be in the form of an online catalog, complex market matrix, or a conventional e-commerce site. The electronic signature makes it possible to establish the sale transactions in a completely secured environment.
3. Protection of technical documents within the production cycles and ensuring zero-property theft – Intellectual properties are always binding on the parties involved, and sometimes contents of this critical document may be revealed through mishandling and leakages. Using an online signature makes it possible to secure documents like this by ensuring that their origin and originality are intact. It also does not give room for any forgery because the original form will not be in circulation, especially when the company needs to protect highly sensitive data. Also, manufacturing data may need protection from external persons who may want to reveal the content to competitors. Therefore, with online signatures, industrial documents are secured.
4. Ensuring 100% paper-less business processes of customer care or client services and maintenance services – Record-keeping of various client services and maintenance services are needed for analysis or troubleshooting trends of equipment. Also, regulatory compliance in assessing documents for maintenance, test, and examination reports ensuring their validity. A technician performing the maintenance action can use an electronic/online signature to confirm that the operation has been carried out, making it complying with the required regulations and giving it the legal substance. These are all done to have a good maintenance and tracking record needed for possible equipment optimization, history, and responsibility.
In general, digitization of the industrial processes has brought forth enhanced efficiency and productivity in commercial operations. It has made traceability, novelty, and personnel responsibility a habit, thus making employees integrate easily into the process. Online signature is just one of the many products digitization has brought to all sectors concerned. Other aspects, including online document generation, time stamping, and workflow automation, are gaining attention in the global digitization process.