Impact of Technological Advances on Digital Signatures
Technological advances can bring major changes to a business sector. Every company competes in using the latest technology to find new customers and to increase the company's profits.
Examples of Digital Trends
An example of a digital trend that is being carried out by companies thanks to technological advances is the use of social media and the increasing number of transactions made online. Many companies, for example, who used to sell their goods conventionally in offline stores and come face to face with their customers have moved online for convenience and ease of transactions.
Social media has become an important tool for marketing activities such as building a brand image, reaching more people, selling, and interacting directly with customers. The emergence of digital wallets and electronic money has become the latest lifestyle trend, and there are now many cloud-based applications and software in wide use.
In fact, document validation with digital signatures is not a new thing. Digital-signature technology has been used for more than twenty years .However, not many service providers can be trusted, despite having become increasingly popular during the pandemic, with the requirement for all activities to be carried out online.
Why Digital Signatures are Increasingly Popular
There are many reasons why digital signatures are gaining popularity today. Here are some of them.
1. Delivery Speed
Making a contract or agreement often takes a long time because it goes through a negotiation process. After the contract or agreement is finished, the parties to the agreement certainly want to get it ratified as soon as possible. Sometimes, however, factors such as bureaucratic red tape, unavailability of the signatory, and so on, serve to hamper the process. Digital signatures are ideal for work environments that require fast processing. They obviate the need to spend days waiting for the signatures to be done manually. What’s more, they can be legally binding.
2. Documents Easier to Check
It is very easy to double-check a contract to be validated with a digital signature because contracts can be mutually agreed in real time. Very practical!
3. Document Security
Documents created on paper run the risk of being lost or mislaid. Even in catastrophic events such as fire or flood, physical documents can be lost forever. This creates new problems for both parties, who may even have to prepare a new agreement. By using a digital signature, each party can store documents in a cloud-based storage that can be backed up, so that it is safe from these risks.
4. Cost Savings
Digital signatures, of course, make for increased cost efficiency. Companies do not need to pay for paper, printers, ink, thus minimizing waste. Sounds trivial, but if your business is big and processes hundreds or thousands of transactions every day, these savings will have a big impact on company finances.
5. Environmentally Friendly
Almost all companies encourage all lines of business to be more environmentally friendly in order to reduce the negative impact of hazardous waste or carbon. Digital signatures can reduce the carbon footprint and waste caused by the manual-signature process.
Tips for Choosing an Electronic Certificate Provider
These various conveniences, of course, have made digital signatures increasingly popular. If you have decided to switch to digital signatures, the next question is, how to choose the right electronic signature service provider? Here are some tips.
1. Legality Check
The main thing is to check the legality of the digital-signature service provider - also known as an Electronic Certificate Operator - which should be registered. Since VIDA already has a Parent Electronic Certificate Operator (PSrE) certification that has been registered with the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemeninfo), it makes VIDA an excellent choice.
2. Features Provided
In addition to digital signatures, another consideration is the completeness of the features provided by the service provider. Is it complete enough? Does the feature use the latest technology? Are the features provided compatible with the system used by the company?
3. Services Offered
The completeness of the service is certainly an added value as well as a Unique Selling Point of the company. In addition to its VIDA Sign service for digital signatures, VIDA also has a biometric verification service, VIDA Verify, and another service, VIDA Pass, that offers high security.
4. Service Fee
Competitive costs can be another consideration in choosing an Electronic Certificate Provider. Adjust your budget and make sure there are no additional costs and that the services offered can meet the needs of the company.
Sign Your Documents With VIDA
VIDA Sign is a digital-signature application issued by VIDA that makes it easier for customers to perform digital signatures safely and conveniently, anytime, anywhere. For more information about VIDA Sign's features and services, contact us here
