Four questions to ask before you e-sign for the first time: Ken Grohe’s interview for CIO Applications magazine
Businesses today often tend to get stuck in sort of a technological paradox: on the one hand, they always want to be the first to use the latest and most cutting-edge brands of software. But on the other hand – they are hesitant and cautious to make such investments, because they want to be sure it will meet all of their business needs.
Businesses always have a long list of questions before committing to such software investments – How secure is the newest software? Is it legally compliant? Will it be compatible with our CRM system? Are there any equally efficient but cheaper options on the market? Are we not overpaying here?
In the latest issue of CIO Applications magazine (September 2018), Ken Grohe, the president of SignNow, answers all of these questions and provides other FAQs in an interview where he briefly describes SignNow’s journey from a simple online tool for notarization – to becoming a complete e-signature platform, with its own unique spot in the digital market. This includes its internally developed integrations for NetSuite and Salesforce.
Let’s look over the key takeaways from this interview:
Are you sure e-signing is fully legal?
Yes, e-signing has actually been legal since 2000, when the E-SIGN Act came into effect. As for compliance, SignNow is fully compliant with the rules and regulations under GDPR, PCI DSS, SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA. Moreover, all audit trail data in SignNow is fully admissible in a court of law (in simple terms, this data includes when a document is sent, received, and e-signed. This also includes what device was used and what the IP address was).
How secure is e-signing when it comes to malware and phishing attempts?
Since April 2017, every single step in SignNow’s e-signing process, has been fully covered by ATP – Advanced Threat Protection.
ATP is a microservice that takes less than a second to set up, but guarantees with 100% certainty, that all your documents will be “clean” at all stages – when just uploaded to your profile, when being sent for e-signing and also when they’re already e-signed.
SignNow’s ATP also protects all of its users from spoofing – fake e-signature invites from malicious third parties.
What is integration and do I really need it?
In a nutshell, integration is a merging of the functionalities of two (or more) high-tech solutions into one – mostly for the sake of quicker operations. In the case of SignNow’s integrations, it also means extra mobility.
Take Xerox, for example, (which is one of our largest customers). Xerox employees use SignNow inside both NetSuite and Salesforce. In both cases, SignNow’s integrations allow them to have direct access to e-signing whenever they meet with clients – this includes access on the screen of a smartphone or tablet. What’s more, these functions can be used when completely offline.
How can I know that we aren’t overpaying?
Many of today’s SignNow customer offers are based on API. That is, we first listen what the clients want from the e-signing process and what they want from the digital workflow process overall. And then we suggest the right combination of functionalities and features. We are also flexible in terms of business sizes and when working across different sectors.
The offer you get may be per-user and/or per-API. Both options are quite affordable. In fact, according to the most recent (Summer 2018) G2 Crowd data, 78% of all our clients report payback from their initial investment with SignNow in less than 6 months of use.
Full text of the interview with Ken Grohe is available here.
