No. This should be seen as a positive change toward digitising manual processes. There are many benefits to migrating to Digital signatures for all organisations and education are not exempt. As Microsoft’s preferred e-sign solution, Adobe Sign works seamlessly with Office 365. 

Forrester research suggest an organisation can save 90 minutes per transaction by simply migrating to a digital solution. The ability to collate large amounts of documents, often in complex workflows requiring multiple signatures can be very time consuming and can be prone to errors, by automating you save a significant amount of time, and able to manage everything from a single pane of glass.

There are some obvious benefits to digitally signing documents as opposed to physically signing them and it seems surreal that in 2020 physical signatures are still the more common method. We had been seeing a slow migration toward digitising this process, however one of many implications of staff working from home is the lack of access to printers and scanners which would have been integral to them signing contracts and documents historically. This is forcing organisations to look at digital signatures to ensure staff still have the ability to get work done.

So, what are the benefits of using digital signatures…

• Save time – by automating manual processes

• Improve security – Adobe Sign is fully auditable and more secure than physical signatures

• Increase productivity –by shortening the time to turn contracts around and manage the process will improve efficiency

• Improve sustainability – by reducing paper and reliance on hardware

• Increase revenues – by shortening the processing of student enrolments, research grants, etc

• Integration – with O365 and the ability to integrate with other key applications with the enterprise edition, will further enhance the solution

• Improve flexibility – sign anywhere –even on mobile and no need for additional hardware

• Save money – reduce paper consumption and the need for printers/scanners, and saving time will allow for more efficiency