Digital Signature Technology

How to Choose a Digital Signature Software Solution

Don’t let digital signature technology have you scratching your head and searching for answers. There are ten simple points to consider when choosing a digital signature software solution for your organization. While not all are obvious, they are critical make-or-break factors for the smooth implementation, management, and use of such a system, impacting on every aspect of your business processes. To ensure a low TCO and a speedy ROI from your digital signature software solution, read on.

Seal documents This is the basic building block of a true digital signature software solution. It guarantees the document is sealed from changes, be they incidental or even the result of a late night hacking of your network. Tip: Make sure the digital signature software solution is based on standard digital signature technology (PKI – Public Key Infrastructure) and that the digital certificates are not self-signed certificates which create a highly potential repudiation problem.		Compliance Each regulation has its own specific requirements pertaining to electronic documents. For example, the FDA 21 CFR Part 11 regulation for the Pharmaceutical market has numerous requirements that are not met by most digital signature software solutions. Tip: Review the regulations for your industry and make sure the digital signature software solution covers all those requirements.
Multiple Application support Many applications (e.g. Excel) provide only minimal support for digital signature technology, so you’ll need to make sure the application support meets your actual requirements. For example, in Excel you would need to ask if the digital signature software solution you are evaluating signs a single sheet, a range of cells or only the entire document. If it’s two out of three, you need to keep on looking. Tip: Make sure the applications and file types you intend to sign in your organization are supported by the digital signature software solution.		Transportability (Worldwide verifiable) Do you want your customers or partners to be able to validate files you’ve signed digitaly? This seemingly trivial task is not so trivial after all. The truth is not every digital signature software solution may be transportable outside of your organization. In fact they are not always embedded in your document. Tip: You need to know if your documents may be validated by an outside user without them having to install a third party application.
Graphical Signatures Of the standard applications that have digital signature software solution support, almost all lack Graphical Signature support. This is a major shortcoming. Graphical signatures, while obviously ensuring the signature is visually noticeable, also have a psychological impact: the signer is reassured they have actually signed the document and that it is now legally compliant. Tip: Check to see if your industry regulator requires graphical signatures to be appended to signed electronic documents.		Seamless User Registration The implementation of your digital signature software solution must be as transparent as possible. You want to make sure that the moment the solution has been deployed, staff at your organization can start signing straight away without having to start a “wizard” to enroll or call on the IT department for this matter. Tip: If your CFO gets married and changes her surname make sure your digital signature software solution is capable of updating her user profile seamlessly in the background.
Multiple Signatures You now know your applications support digital signature technology and you can sign documents, but how many people can actually sign the same document? Unless your digital signature software solution has support for multiple signatures you can forget about your CEO digitally signing your leave form. Electronically, that is. Tip: A true digital signature software solution allows for multiple digital signings on the same document be it Word or even Excel, where different users may be asked to sign different cells within the same spreadsheet.		Simple-to-use Be sure to choose a system that is easy to use. You don’t want staff to run a Wizard application when they A) load the signature application onto their PC and then B) every other time they want to digitally sign a document. IT staff involvement should also be cut to a minimum, only stepping in when user information needs to be backed up. Tip: It should take a single click to ensure your document is sealed and legally compliant.
Zero IT Management Be aware the time to deploy a system is typically lengthy and resource-intensive. IT staff can find themselves spending weeks every year just managing the selected digital signature software solution. Then again, the company may opt to employ an additional staff member to manage the task, or implement a help-desk just to ensure users can digitally sign their documents. Costs can skyrocket. Tip: If you want to avoid this kind of scenario you need to ensure your digital signature software solution is operational the moment it is hooked up to your network and that the “Zero-Management” requirement on your checklist is met.		Total Cost of Ownership Not everyone considers TCO when purchasing a digital signature software solution. But to ensure you don’t get caught out in the long run you need to take the following into account: initial cost, deployment, help desk, digital certificates (which may be a recurring annual cost) and development of support for the application you’re going to sign with. Tip:Project your TCO three years into the future to reveal any hidden costs, such as renewal of annual certificates.

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