If you have at least one client or one transaction with a Virtual Assistant (VA) or any online business, chances are, you might have heard the word, E-sign, Echosign and Digital signature. What are these?
An E-sign is when you type your full name in a legal binding document (agreement or contract) sent through email. Information to the nature of the document and the signature should be stated there prior to the agreement signing.
The most relied upon definition of an electronic signature comes from Echosign’s website itself.
It is “an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record … adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.”
Picture Source: https://www.echosign.adobe.com/en/home.html
The most popular method for gathering and managing electronic signatures uses people’s email addresses to identify each participant and associate them with a sequence of events that demonstrates intent to sign. EchoSign of course provides such system.
Then, there’s another term that got me confused. Digital Signature. Isn’t this the same as e-sign?
Again, getting Echosigns definition from their Echosign’s website
The term “digital signature” is often confused with “electronic signature”. In fact, a digital signature is one specific implementation of an electronic signature. A digital signature requires a signer to have a certificate-based digital ID, frequently contained in a token, smart card, or other physical device. Digital certificates are the key component of the technology known as Public Key Infrastructure (“PKI”) and are issued from a Certificate Authority (also known as a trusted authority) to be used in the digital signature process providing a high level of authentication, integrity and security with respect to the transaction and the identity of the parties signing.
Because of the infrastructure required to manage PKI technology, digital signatures are most commonly used in large governments and regulated industries for internal or business-to-business workflows. For instance, US Federal government agencies use certificate IDs associated with CAC (Common Access Cards) or PIV (Personal Identification Verification) cards. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies use certificate signatures that comply with the SAFE (Signatures & Authentication For Everyone) BioPharma industry standard.
Picture Source: https://www.echosign.adobe.com/en/home.html
Wow! Did you get that explanation? Seems like there’s so much more in Digital Signature that e-sign!
Good thing is, we don’t have to choose between them since e-sign will do for legal transactions. They have ways to authenticate the signer, like giving passwords to establish signer’s identity, social media and emails. all these are being taken care of by Echosign.
As I browse their website, I’ve seen a few things they can do to help your business legal documents secured and properly filed. Some of the features are:
1. Send and track E-signed documents on the go, (both for signatures and signed)
2. Keeps track of the documents history that you can view at any time and anywhere.
3. Collect legally binding signatures, valid and enforceable in all countries around the world.
4. Store documents to on their secured adobe platform.
Now that you know how to send contracts without having to go through the hassle of actually signing a document, scanning and sending it back to the other party, I’m sure that signing contracts will be as easy as counting 1-2-3…
Please note that web-based e-signatures as you have discussed were invented by Yozons and are discussed in our patent page: http://www.yozons.com/patents.jsp
We are very proud that our invention has enabled massive adoption of web-based e-signatures by a myriad of companies, including e-signature services as you have discussed, as well as many home-grown solutions for internal use.
That’s great to hear, David. Thanks for letting us know. Will check you site, too. 🙂
Thank you for this extremely brilliant ‘Echosign, E-sign and Digital Signature‘ blog! We really appreciate your blog post. There are actually a multitude of techniques we could put in to make really a good use of information without much efforts and financial resources. Thank you so much for giving light to many problems we haven’t come across before using your blog.
You’re welcome, esolutions. I’m glad that it’s helping you in anyway. Promise to write more posts like that to guide online entrepreneurs.
Awesome post. Simply said two huge topics. Good one to read about digital signature. Well did admin.
A special thanks for this informative post. I definitely learned new stuff here I wasn’t aware of ! I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming posts as well.