28 Aug Balancing user experience and security compliance at scale
Carrie Peter, Managing Director, of Impression Signatures, looks at the challenges of scaling up the use of digital signatures and meeting security compliances.
One of the key challenges in embracing a digital environment is balancing how users interact with technology and each other while ensuring total compliance. In many instances, one side of the coin is often achieved in excellence, while the other is found to be lacking. Whether it’s a bad user experience or poor compliance, the consequences can be dire. Today, businesses must focus on balancing the coin to ensure both sides’ needs are met – empowering teams to operate at scale while minimising risk. When organisations get this right from the start, they are effectively minimising (if not eliminating) the chances of fraud, abuse and data security violations. When digitising from the first interaction with solutions like eSignatures, paper processes are transformed, users enjoy the ease of use and risks are mitigated.
Digitising workflows
eSignatures (or digital signatures) allow processes that are usually paper-based to be digitised at the onset. When a document is generated, it goes through a signature workflow configuration and is passed through conversion services while confirming identity authentication and securing consent. With a strong audit trail, and legally compliant document archiving solutions, these signatures are nonrefundable with digital identity certainty underpinned by a private key. As part of this process, a digital identity must first be created. Although this may involve complexity in the backend, the user experience around the creation of this identity is not. Customers should not feel the complexity of the business’s need for identity certainty. Very simply, the creation of a digital identity includes verification, confirmation that the user is the correct signatory, a declaration of confidentiality, a request to confirm consent and, finally, the final document to be stored and wholly compliant. The process can be simple and seamless.
Boost user experience
The goal is to maximise the value of a single interaction. With eSignatures, single-touch interactions enable multiple digital processes without creating complexity. With one touch, eSignatures offer the power to identify authorised organisation representatives, supplying a document for signature in a secure viewer with total auditability, while driving data security. When the user agrees to sign electronically, with a sound digital identity, ID verification is proven and the document is returned, executed, and carries total compliance. Adding to the ease of use, the right eSignature solution will offer advanced integrations, being embedded and connected with subject matter experts. The solution must integrate with: the Microsoft ecosystem; process management tools like Sybrin Onboarding, AppWorks, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, XDS, and Striata; document management systems like Sybrin Nitro, OpenText, OnBase, and DocFusion – to name a few. The legal obligation is compliance. When it comes to eSignatures, this is achieved through consent and agreement. Compliance and trust require that all parties are identified. The practical obligation is to deliver a user experience that fosters adoption and drives efficiency. When this balance is achieved, businesses will experience a marked return on digitisation, achieving improved process and regulatory compliance, time savings through efficiencies, reduced costs, rapid implementation, and phased embedding into their own infrastructure and environment.