Companies also can save time - up to three or four days for each transaction or contract completed entirely electronically, Underwood estimates. Businesses can cut costs internally, too, by adopting e-signature technology as a way for chief financial officers to sign off on expense reports, travel requests and other paperwork. And the E-SIGN Act even covers notary publics. If two parties electronically sign documents that require a notary's signature, the notary also can sign electronically. It throws open the doors.
Proponents have good reason to be optimistic about the new law.
For starters, the companies that provide the technology for electronic signatures have signed deal after deal since the law took effect. So companies are rushing to corner what they see as an emerging and profitable market. The software, patterned after the Adobe Acrobat Reader, enables people who receive a digitally signed document to authenticate the digital signature and close the deal. If you're in receipt of the document, then you can basically sign it for free, says E-Lock President Craig Bond. Already, there are converts to the e-signature gospel, WarRoom Research Inc. among them.