E-Signatures are a way to speed up legal paperwork by replacing physical contract documents with electronic alternatives. In this case, the signatures are made electronically by the parties involved in a safe and secure manner. Besides this, e-signatures are also seen to be massively cheaper than physical paperwork. In a study on the benefits on e-signatures, Ombud Research came up with the following numbers:
| Parameter | Average Change |
|---|---|
| Turnaround time | 80% savings |
| Cost | $20 per document less |
| Customer Loyalty | 5x increase |
According to a report on Celent, the e-signature industry has grown multifold in the past five years. The usage by life insurance companies has increased from 47% in 2007 to 74% in 2013. Even the US army today has deployed an esignature solution from Silanis for their over 1 million personnel. Here is how the various e-signature approaches have grown.
| E-signature type | 2007 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|
| Signature pad at POS | 34% | 36% |
| PKI | 34% | — |
| Voice signature | – | 30% |
| Clickwrap | 34% | 70% |
| Handwritten mouse signature | – | 15% |
| Username & pin | – | 45% |
| Shared secrets | – | 15% |
Research firm, G2 Crowd reviewed the market share held by various e-signature providers among small business (1-50 employees), medium (51-1000 employees) and Enterprise (>1000 employees) which showed the following results
| Provider | Small | Medium | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Echosign | 34% | 43% | 23% |
| DocuSign | 41% | 33% | 26% |
| Silanis | 34% | 33% | 33% |
| AssureSign | 21% | 43% | 36% |
| Right Signature | 53% | 27% | 20% |
| Sertifi | 31% | 31% | 38% |
In terms of deployment method (cloud vs. on-premise), this is how it worked out:
| Provider | Cloud | On-premise |
|---|---|---|
| Echosign | 77% | 23% |
| Docusign | 77% | 23% |
| Silanis | 79% | 21% |
| AssureSign | 100% | 0% |
| Right Signature | 75% | 25% |
| Sertifi | 85% | 15% |
| Average | 85% | 15% |
In terms of user ratings and recommendations, the G2 Crowd found the following
Rank, Provider, % customers likely to recommend
1, Silanis, 95%
2, AssureSign, 88%
3, Sertifi, 87%
4, Right Signature, 86%
5, Docusign, 81%
6, Echosign, 76%
