How to Reduce Contract Turnaround Times with eSigning

If you’re running a business in an industry where contracts are at the core of operations, then you know the value of obtaining a quick, authentic signature. Contracts drive critical workflows in real estate, legal services, financial services, manufacturing, and more, so when signatures get delayed, revenue does too. 

Manual signatures require printing, scanning, mailing, and waiting. In the digital era, your business can’t keep sales and operations in limbo for days or weeks because of these processes. The emergence of eSignatures has changed the game for organizations in contract-heavy industries. eSigning speeds up the signature process — saving time, preventing delays, and improving workflows overall. Read on to learn how to reduce contract turnaround times with eSignature solutions and get a competitive leg-up in more ways than one.  

The hidden costs of manual signing 

Requiring signatures on either paper or electronic files that are exchanged outside a contract management system creates a range of problems: 

• Bottlenecks occur if you’re waiting on physical signatures. Contracts can get delayed in transit or require multiple follow-ups — prolonging workflow completion. 
• Wasted time and costs are a result of staff having to chase down contracts and signatures. You may even see slowed revenue if the signatures are holding up transactions. 
• Compliance risks spike if documents get mishandled in the signature-obtaining process. 

eSigning addresses all these challenges. 

3 major benefits of eSigning solutions  

eSignature software enables you to move your contract processes online, so documents can be signed from anywhere, at any time, with ease.  

1. Prevent delays for faster operations 

With digital contract processes in play, your contracts no longer sit on the desk of the signer — waiting for them to get around to putting pen to paper. Automated workflows and notifications in eSignature solutions like Nitro’s ensure that contracts get signed and returned promptly. Not only do you reduce the risk of missed deadlines, you get contracts in ahead of time to expedite workflows. 

With such an improvement in efficiency, your business can make faster decisions and execute contracts seamlessly and rapidly. This new rate of work dramatically impacts organizations in sectors like real estate and finance. In property development for example, you can use Nitro’s eSigning tool to send contracts to multiple stakeholders in minutes. Automatic reminders and real-time tracking ensure faster closing and finalization of property deals. 

2. See better productivity and use of labor costs 

eSignatures free your teams from spending time on the signature process. Without having to pursue signers, hound third parties through email, or push deadlines and workflows because of delays, your staff devotes their time to higher value work. You hired team members for their skill sets, not so they could spend their days waiting for contracts to come in.  

This benefit is significant for sales. Your sales teams’ success hinges on signatures. When sales professionals have to spend time following up on manual signatures and resending documents with errors, they aren’t making the best use of their hours. They also risk souring a relationship if delayed turnaround times further delay their ability to deliver on their promises. eSignatures help sales professionals keep the focus on the exciting opportunity to work together — not the nagging need to sign the paperwork.    

3. Minimize compliance and security risks 

Secure signatures are required for many organizations to stay compliant with industry and regional regulations now. eSigning solutions like Nitro’s offer features such as encryption, digital certificates, and audit trails to ensure contracts remain tamper-proof and legally binding.  

Nitro’s eSign tools, for example, deliver a secure signing process and automatically generate a detail audit trail for each signed document. This feature gives your business the ability to maintain transparency and adherence to regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and more. 

Slash contract turnaround times today with Nitro 

Outdated contract processes will not support the growth your business is looking for over the next five to 10 years. Nitro’s eSignature solutions offer fast, secure, compliant ways to close more deals, get work done faster, and discover new levels of efficiency and productivity. Nitro Sign has been named a leader in eSignature for the second year in a row by GigaOm.

Learn more about our eSign tools here or get in touch with one of our experts.