E-Signatures - Web Solutions

Why Yesterday’s E-Signatures Aren’t Enough

Organizations are being driven to minimize their reliance on paper as pressure mounts to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Yet business environments are more complex than ever with changing products and services, as well as increasing legal and regulatory requirements. The problem is further compounded with dated IT infrastructures and applications designed for paper processes which is driving the need for more mature solutions that go beyond simple e-signature capture.

A New Solution Class for Today’s Complex Requirements

Version 3.0 of ApproveIt Web Server responds to evolving market demands for greater compliance, control and flexibility. This new solution class goes beyond simple signing to control, execute, record and reproduce electronic transactions and business agreements from beginning to end.

This serves to both enforce business, legal and regulatory requirements and ensure that there are no gaps in straight-through processing, as well as produce the strongest possible electronic evidence.

Moreover, the solution provides organizations with unprecedented enterprise scalability. ApproveIt Web Server can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed across all business applications and sales and service channels, while supporting the unique requirements of each signing environment.

Find out how the solution supports straight-through processing 

Managing E-Transactions from Start to Finish to Enable Straight Through Processing

ApproveIt Web Server’s e-signature process management capabilities are driven by its Execution, Orchestration, and Evidence functional layers. Together, they provide the functionality needed to manage transactions electronically from start to finish to ensure there are no gaps in straight-through processing and to mitigate risk across all sales and service channels.

1. Orchestration Layer: Coordinates, controls and monitors all the people, documents, activities, events, notifications, system and services in a transaction. Learn More. 
2. Execution Layer: Captures user authentication data, presents documents for review, captures consent and signing intent, and delivers copies of signed documents to all parties. Learn More. 
3. Evidence Layer: Captures and stores extensive electronic evidence and audit trail information, including the exact web pages viewed and actions taken. Learn More. 
4. Architecture: Provides a flexible enterprise solution that can be easily scaled across all business applications and sales and service channels. Learn More 

Learn how to control e-transactions and mitigate risk 

Orchestrating E-Transactions From Start to Finish

Moving regulated and high-value transactions to the web without introducing new risks to the process is not a simple task. Business processes, documents and data vary according to the product or service, jurisdiction, channel and people involved - resulting in hundreds and even thousands of possible variations.

In each scenario, the appropriate documents and disclosures must be presented and specific actions have to be taken in the correct sequence. Exceptions often occur, such the need to update or correct information in the middle of a live transaction. Yesterday’s e-signature solutions are not designed to handle this level of complexity.

How the Orchestration Layer Works

ApproveIt Web Server, as a next-generation, e-signature process management solution, addresses the complexities of automating transactions with its unique Orchestration Layer. The solution:

• Simplifies the process of preparing e-transactions. The process parameters and documents needed to execute e-transactions in accordance with business, legal and regulatory requirements only need to be prepared once, and then the system dynamically builds each unique transaction on-the-fly.
• Coordinates all aspects of e-transactions. The solution brings together all of the people, documents, activities, events, notifications, systems and services needed to execute the e-transaction from start to finish in a timely manner.
• Monitors live e-transactions. The solution enables sales and service personnel to monitor the status of live e-transactions at every stage and identify any potential problems or delays. Corrective action can then be taken immediately from within the dashboard.
• Ensures e-transactions are accurate and complete. The solution receives documents and data variables from the controlling application to ensure that information corresponds with what was approved, while also ensuring that returned documents contain all required signatures and supporting data .
• Reduces the total cost of ownership. The solution reduces the effort and resources needed to design, build, implement, manage and update a compliant, e-transaction and e-signature system across the enterprise.

Find out how to execute e-transactions across multiple channels 

Executing E-Transactions Across Multiple Channels

The method used to execute transactions can differ greatly depending on whether the process takes place over the web, in a customer or citizen-facing environment, or whether it is driven by a call-center. Moreover, the need to make electronic signing easier and more convenient for your customers and citizens than its pen and paper counterpart is critical for ensuring high user acceptance and reducing drop-off rates.

Adding complexity to the requirements is the growing expectation that users have to be serviced across multiple channels in support of the same transaction. A one-size-fits-all electronic signature solution cannot support the diverse requirements of today’s cross-channel, transaction processes.

How the Execution Layer Works

ApproveIt Web Server provides flexible options for executing e-transactions across all channels, while supporting each channel’s unique usability requirements to ensure an optimal customer experience. The solution’s Execution Layer supports the following capabilities and options:

• Captures user authentication data. The solution supports a variety of user authentication and access methods, such as username and passwords, challenge-response authentication and 3rd party authentication, enabling organizations to choose the best method to balance security and usability for each channel.
• Presents documents for review. Documents can be presented electronically or in paper format. Electronic presentation of documents occurs directly within the web browser so that no special software is required to view them.
• Captures consent and signing intent. The solution supports multiple methods of signature capture, including ‘click-to-sign’ and signing on electronic signature tablets. Neither method requires users to download or install any special software to e-sign.
• Delivers copies of signed records. The solution ensures that copies of e-signed records are delivered to all back-end systems and parties to comply with e-signature legislation and industry regulations. Copes can be made available in both paper and electronic format.

Learn how to capture stronger evidence than possible with paper 

Recording, Securing and Reproducing Electronic Evidence

A common misconception is that authenticating the people involved in a transaction and securing e-signed documents are all that is required to enforce a contract. Most legal disputes, however, do not question whether a signature belongs to a person or whether a contract has been altered. Rather, they challenge people’s understanding of the contract terms and conditions at the time of signing. That is why reliable evidence of what took place during the entire e-transaction is needed, and why a solution needs to reproduce every step in the process.

However, capturing and reproducing this kind of evidence can be a daunting task. An enormous effort on behalf of the business, legal, compliance and IT teams would be required to retrieve all of the data needed to accurately rebuild the web page contents and reproduce the exact process that was used.

How the Evidence Layer Works

ApproveIt Web Server goes beyond simple signature capture to record, secure and reproduce the entire e-transaction from start to finish to produce even stronger evidence than paper. The solution’s Evidence Layer provides the following capabilities:

• Captures extensive electronic evidence. The solution records the entire e-transaction from start to finish. This includes all web pages and documents that were presented, viewed, signed or accepted; how long users spent on each page; audit trail information; and more.
• Secures the electronic evidence so it is tamper-proof. The solution applies digital signature technology to secure the entire e-transaction and each e-signed document so that they cannot be altered without visible detection.
• Accurately reproduces the electronic evidence. The solution enables the electronic evidence to be easily presented in either electronic or paper format to a judge, regulators or an executive team for litigation, regulatory or internal control purposes.

Discover how to lower your total cost-of-ownership  

A Fully Customizable and Scalable Enterprise Solution – Both Behind a Firewall and On the Cloud

Organizations have many lines-of-business, products, channels and partners that carry out transactions to acquire and service customers, each with their unique signing processes and requirements. Up until recently, the only way to address different signing requirements was to adopt multiple, disconnected point solutions, or worse - settle for a “one size fits all” signing process in order to take advantage of the speed and economics of deploying on the cloud.

ApproveIt Web Server, on the other hand, provides a fully customizable and scalable, enterprise solution that meets the unique requirements of any business process or channel, regardless of whether you are looking deploy e-signatures behind a firewall or over a public or private cloud. Its architecture was designed to provide:

• Enterprise Scalability: The solution provides a single platform and framework that reduces the time, cost and complexity of porting new applications to the system.
• Full Customization: The solution enables e-signing processes to be fully customized for the unique requirements of each business processes and channels.
• Uniform Compliance: The solution enables organizations to enforce a uniform approach to business, legal and regulatory compliance across the enterprise.
• Flexible Deployment Options: Organizations can choose between the licensed or cloud version with the assurance that the same implementation can be moved back and forth as needed.

See ApproveIt Web Server in Action. View the Product Demo