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Summary of the Analysis By: Gregg Kreizman

The benefits of implementing electronic signatures can include improved business process efficiency, enhanced user convenience and demonstrable record integrity. The operational efficiency gains can lead to competitive advantage when, for example, an insurance company that can take application forms signed online can get customers faster than a competitor who does not accept online forms. Electronic signatures are often implemented as important but small components of business processes automation, online forms acceptance, office document automation and collaborative workflows.

However, there is no single market for electronic signatures. When enterprises choose to augment established processes with electronic signatures, there is a range of solutions to choose from:

• Signature functionality might be built into the enterprise's current ERP, BPM, ECM or collaborative systems, or may be provided by these system vendors' partners.
• Enterprises may have a custom application fully deployed, but are missing functionality that executes the e-signature, and can purchase or develop a simple signing component.
• Enterprises can buy e-signature platform software from e-signature suite vendors that manage the entire process of authenticating a signer, managing signature workflow to multiple signers, gain consent, execute the signatures, send signed content to a content management system, and provide an audit trail for all events. These platforms tend to be favored by companies that have multiple processes requiring signatures and that are prepared to support a platform centrally.
• Similarly, enterprises can use e-signature SaaS offerings designed to provide comparable capabilities to suites.