Electronic signature software: A buyer’s guide

Having an efficient and secure way to collect electronic signatures enables teams to hire faster, expedite sales deals, and streamline contract approvals. E-signatures allow your organization to transition to paperless processes and scale operations while bringing convenience to employees, partners, and customers. 

In this buyer’s guide, we help you identify electronic signature software features to consider for your use cases. 

Why there’s an increased demand for e-signature software 

Markets and Markets projects the digital signature market to grow from $7.4 billion in 2023 to $34.8 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 36.4% in this period. 

Here’s why there’s a greater demand for e-signature software: 

• With accelerating digital transformation, businesses seek efficient and secure methods for signing documents remotely — plus, e-signature software offers significant time and cost savings compared to traditional paper-based processes, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity 
• With the global shift toward remote work, tools that facilitate seamless document signing from anywhere have become more important than ever 
• With evolving regulatory requirements, organizations are turning to e-signature solutions to ensure the legal validity and enforceability of signed documents while maintaining compliance with data privacy and security regulations 

As noted in a Box-sponsored IDC report, enabling remote signing is the primary driver for the adoption of those solutions. 

Here’s how different departments leverage electronic signatures: 

Learn how to create an electronic signature. 

Electronic signature features for businesses 

When searching for e-signature software, choose a solution that offers these features and capabilities. 

1. Electronic signature security 

Secure electronic signature software offers robust encryption, signer authentication methods, tamper-evident controls, secure audit logs, and compliance support for industry regulations applicable to your use case, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or 21 CFR Part 11, to protect the security and integrity of your documents. 

2. Ease of use 

Choose a platform that’s intuitive and user-friendly for both you and your signers. E-signature features like drag-and-drop, templates, and mobile compatibility enhance the user experience and streamline repeatable processes. 

3. Workflow automation 

Select a platform with the ability to automate parts of the e-signature process, like notifications, email messages, reminders, and tracking capabilities, as well as the ability to automate the next steps in the workflow once the transaction is complete. This way, you ensure faster turnaround times and improved communication. 

4. Integrations with document management and third-party apps 

The ability to integrate e-signatures with third party and custom applications also enables your organization to save time and money, as well as mitigate data silos and security and compliance risk. By streamlining e-signature processes where your content lives, you can maximize efficiency and productivity. 

5. Reusable templates 

E-signature templates help your team simplify repeatable processes for the completion and execution of standardized documents using pre-configured fillable and signable fields. With reusable templates, users don’t have to constantly upload documents, drag and drop fields, and configure signature request settings every time they want to send a request. Reusable templates also ensure consistency and accuracy in frequently used documents, minimizing errors and ensuring all necessary information is included. 

6. High-volume features 

In order for you to maximize efficiency and experience a quicker return on investment, you need the ability to address high-volume use cases that require the collection of e-signatures from hundreds of recipients, like employee handbooks and liability and release forms, at scale. That’s why you should consider e-signature solutions that offer bulk-sending capabilities and self-serve web form features to address these use cases. 

7. Branding customization 

With every signature request comes the opportunity to reinforce your organization’s brand, increase credibility, and build trust with external stakeholders. Custom branding options enable you to incorporate your brand logo, colors, and personalized messaging into the user interface and all email notifications. 

8. Unlimited signatures 

Most e-signature solutions charge customers by the document or offer user-based licensing that restricts the number of documents that can be sent per license. These options limit an organization’s ability to get the most out of its investment, preventing it from addressing multiple use cases in multiple lines of business. Prioritize vendors that offer unlimited e-signature deployments, enabling your organization to address your needs without being penalized for adoption. 

9. Audit log 

A secure audit log captures every event related to the signature request journey, from creation to signing to completion. This includes granular details associated with the transaction, such as: 

• Signature request creator 
• Signer name and email address 
• Signer authentication methods used 
• Date and time stamps for request completion 
• IP addresses and other identifiable information 
• The secure hash code for the signed document 
• All changes made to the document along the way, such as the application of signatures or the population of text fields 

This comprehensive record serves as evidence supporting authenticity and non-repudiation. 

10. Tamperseal 

Upon completion of the signing workflow, the fully executed document is digitally signed by the e-signature platform, creating a tamper-evident seal. This seal can be checked using standard PDF viewers to ensure that the document hasn’t been tampered with since execution. 

Accelerate your business processes with a powerful electronic signature tool 

Box Sign offers unlimited e-signatures at no additional cost to Box customers. Our powerful electronic signature tool is embedded in Box and the Content Cloud to speed up all your content flows. 

You can also use Box Sign with Box Relay to automate your e-signature processes. Meanwhile, with Box Shield, you empower admins to configure security policies that restrict sensitive content from being sent out for e-signature. You can customize signature requests to meet brand guidelines — or leverage reusable templates to streamline common use cases. And anyone can sign — from anywhere, on any device. 

Box Sign inherits the Box security, compliance, and data governance profile, helping organizations reduce business risks and support compliance requirements including HIPAA, FedRamp, 21 CFR Part 11, and more. 

Reach out to our team and find out all you can do with Box Sign as your electronic signature software.

While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blog post is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.