DETERMINE YOUR REAL ESIGNATURE SAVINGS
| The question "How do I calculate my ROI?" is to every sales meeting what Death and Taxes are to life: A Certainty. |  |
By: Rod Vesling, VP Sales and Marketing
As you know, the two certainties in life are death and taxes. When it comes to esignature deployments, there is one more certainty: People will always ask how they should calculate their ROI. And it's a good question:
No matter how or where the signing takes place, organizations must demonstrate and justify the value of a new technology investment.
Although industry standard formulas will often produce very impressive cost savings, I always approach the discussion differently. I encourage you to evaluate esignatures as more than a cost saving. Our technology can help generate revenue, improve compliance and security, and even attract qualified employees and representatives.
The following Q&A will help you go beyond generic numbers and put the many benefits of esignature technology into context.
Q. How should I analyze the cost savings from an esignature deployment?
A. Since you know your organization better than anyone else, look closely at one particular paper process for a set period of time and analyze where the inefficiencies occur.
After you've identified the pain points, you can more easily determine how to streamline the process and anticipate the savings in time and money.
Some of the hard costs to consider include: raw paper cost, storage costs, shipping expenses, and the impact of your own NIGO rate (not-ingood- order). You may also want to determine the amount of time employees spend on managing paper and calculate the benefits of shifting some of their time to more productive activities.
Q. How can esignatures provide revenue enhancements?
A. An esignature solution can have a significant impact on both the top and bottom line. Those who think of esignatures as simply a way to slash costs are overlooking how the technology can reduce processing times, which helps generate additional revenue, and increases your return-on-assets.
Enhanced productivity has a tangible value that must be considered in determining your overall ROI. Consider, for example, how much your bottom line is improved by issuing insurance coverage faster, closing a loan in fewer days, or generating a customer account in minutes instead of days or hours. What's more, these process improvements lead to higher customer satisfaction -- and that can help retain customers and sell additional products to them.
Since CFOs are like internal venture capitalists, they will invest in projects that have the greatest return to the organization. You should always discuss esignatures from a cost savings and revenue generating perspective.
Q. How can esignatures provide additional security?
A. eSigning brings additional security when compared to a wet-ink signature. If a form or document is modified post-signing, for example, the esignature will be visibly invalid. In comparison, an ink-on-paper signature is never invalid even if changes are made after it was applied.
In addition, paper documents sent through inter-office mail or courier are subject to being lost, misplaced or stolen. In comparison, an esigned document can be immediately sent by email for continued processing or archiving. Conclusion: a more efficient esigning process is also more secure.
Q. How can esignatures increase compliance?
A. Depending on your industry, you may have to meet certain compliance requirements. For instance the mortgage industry must respect the MISMO standards, while the healthcare sector must be HIPPA compliant.
But compliance can also refer to the steps and processes that your own organization must follow. By integrating esignatures within your eprocesses, you can ensure that all required esignatures are captured before a process can continue. This can greatly reduce your NIGO rate (not-in-good-order); eliminate the additional shipping costs incurred when documents must be sent back to customers or field offices for completion; and increase your ability to close business faster.
Q. What other esignature benefits are commonly overlooked?
A. eSignatures can lead to a better workforce. Nowadays, many of the most sought-after employees gauge potential employers partly by the strength of their technology. The best and brightest employees appreciate that esignature can enhance their productivity; they can focus on generating additional revenue instead of managing paper.
Q. How do I start an esignature deployment?
A. Many of our customers have initiated a pilot project with great success. Not only does it give us a chance to work together, you have a concrete and relevant way to demonstrate the value of the technology in the context of your own organization.
Q. How do I anticipate my changing esignature technology needs over time?
A. I always recommend we sit down and discuss your short and long-term goals. After companies see the benefits of capturing esignatures in one particular process, they often think of many other applications for the technology. After all, capturing a customer's esignature can happen in-branch, in the-field and even online so it can expand to any business requirement.
To avoid having to deploy numerous esignature solutions to verify signatures captured in various environments, make sure the technology scales with your needs.
Q. How do I leverage my current IT infrastructure?
A. eSignatures are often the "glue" that allows you to fully utilize other electronic processes and gain maximum value from your existing IT investments. Your document management and archiving system, for example, can only be fully utilized when they become true end-to-end electronic processes. Interlink's esignature technology helps you achieve this, bringing cost savings and enhanced productivity far above the initial investment in deploying your esignature technology.
Unfortunately, we can't do anything about death and taxes. Helping you calculate and achieve a strong ROI from your esignature technology is within our power, though. Because Interlink provides the full range of software and hardware for your esignature deployment, we help you gain flexibility and achieve the maximum value from your technology investment.