Green Signage

Go paperless and go green seems to be the new mantra for organizations that want to reduce paper dependency and automate their business processes to bring about efficiency and speed in their operations. And, they want to do this through a secure and legal way. Moving from a traditional business model to a new and innovative concept like 'paperless office' is often difficult but it is catching on. Many organizations today are moving towards automating their business processes and document workflow procedures including government agencies such as Information Commission which has successfully migrated to a paperless office in less than three months. All of them are seeing immense benefits in terms of productivity improvement and lower costs.

Digital and electronic signatures have replaced the concept of traditional paper-based signing with an electronic one. Signing the original electronic document saves the companies on labor, faxing, mailing, and archiving costs. The emergence of digital signatures is proving to be a boon. Efficient and affordable, digital signatures are helping organizations to go paperless and green in a secure and legal manner.

Digital signatures allow businesses to contribute to the green cause in a successful way. Special laws have been enacted globally to make digital signatures and digitally signed documents legally valid.

Digital signatures safeguard electronic documents and files by allowing the authentication of the signatory and verification of the original document. By embedding these solutions in their business, organizations will no longer need to print documents for signatures, therefore establishing a fully digitized process.

Green is the color of Money

Many banks and financial institutions have already gone the green way with digital signatures. As the environment and processes in banks include a considerable amount of paper and forms, they need to struggle with an excess of paper related tasks just to obtain and manage customer and internal signatures. Going paperless helps them add to their customer support initiatives.

Today, e-banking powered by digital signatures is making digital signing of bank statements/reports and online loan applications an easy and cost effective process. Digital signatures are helping both customers and banking institutions save lots of money and time by going paperless. Digitally signed statements/reports can be sent to the customers in bulk via e-mails in an encrypted format. To decrypt the sent data, a decryption password is provided to the customers to maintain statement privacy and data integrity. The entire process becomes faster and more convenient for the customers.

The customer is the core of all financial and banking transactions for a bank, therefore having a competitive advantage is the key for getting more business. By embedding eMudhra Digital Signature solution from 3i Infotech Consumer Services, accounts can be opened faster and withdrawals completed more efficiently. Signing and sealing financial agreements are performed electronically, and these can be automatically sent to the customer using the provided e-mail address. This way, verification of the authenticity/integrity of the documents and storage problems will no longer be an issue for the bank or financial institution and its customers.

The idea of a paperless office is gaining momentum slowly and steadily, and efforts are being made to reduce paper dependency for the daily tasks. Digital signatures have made it possible for business, irrespective of size and vertical. Go green and go secure in a smarter and cost-effective way.

Ravi Jagannathan
The author is MD and CEO, 3i Infotech Consumer Services