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Electronic Signatures
Electronic signatures comprise digital signatures. Electronic signatures enable one to sign documents and authenticate the user. It’s a technology used by people to affix signatures electronically when consenting to agreements online. Industries that will adopt electronic signature the fastest include the Health industry, the Legal industry, the Engineering and Construction industry, and the Government industry among others. Electronic signatures can be used to protect data, encryption and description, and user authentication among others.
Methodology
After conducting an extensive search on industries that will adopt electronic signature the fastest over the next 5 years, we were able to identify five industries including the Healthcare industry, Government industry, and the Legal industry among others. For each industry identified, we have provided evidence of use and how the electronic signatures will be applied in the industry. We scoured through credible sites such as Statista, Market Research, Markets and Markets, CSE Engineer Media, NSPE, Globe-News Wire, Persistence Market Research, and Transparency Market Research among others. However, we were not able to find statistics on the individual industry adoption rates rather, we provided the general market size of electronic signature and its expected growth rate. Information provided is from industry reports and impact reports for the various industries outlined.
The digital/electronic signature market was valued at $517 million. The market size is expected to grow to $3,440 million by the year 2022, at a CAGR of 30% between 2016 and 2022.
INDUSTRY SEGMENTS THAT WILL ADOPT THE USE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES THE FASTEST
HEALTHCARE
Healthcare organizations acknowledge the importance of adopting electronic signatures. Some benefits outlined include the elimination of paperwork, the expedition of the signing process, strengthening security and compliance, improve staff productivity, and customer care among others.
According to Forrester Research Inc., the electronic signature is a practice driven adoption and promotes quality management and audit trail in the various manufacturing steps in the pharmaceuticals. The electronic signature will be required to be used by hospitals, doctors, and manufacturers in the coming years for handling controlled substances.
FINANCE SERVICES AND INSURANCE
Banks and financial entities are quickly shifting their operations from the traditional one-on-one interactions with clients to using digital platforms including mobile devices, ATMs, kiosks, and online banking. This shift poses a huge risk to attacks and threats including identity theft, fraud, cyber threats, and fishing. Electronic signatures reduce the risk in the transactions conducted digitally, at the same time increasing the speed of transaction, improves customer service, and cost reduction. Alok Nittal, the CEO and Founder of Indifi Technologies stated that technology change would continue to accelerate in 2019 as more innovations continue to come up including electronic signatures, as more startups in the insurance industry, lending, and investments are formed.
GOVERNMENT
The government sector is predicted to grow with the second highest CAGR by the year 2022. Both the central government and the local government of most countries were shifting to digital solutions from the basic paper-intensive mode of work. Adopting electronic signatures in this industry facilitates decision traceability, control, and informed audit trails. The adoption of digital signatures by the government will reduce the governments' operational expenses. In 2015, North America and Europe were responsible for 70.2% of the worldwide electronic signature market in the government sector. North America alone accounted for 42.8%.
LEGAL SERVICES
The legal industry seeks innovative ways to streamline their daily processes, considering most of their work is paperwork. Electronic signatures replace the processes of faxing, email, scanning, and printing of documents. This promotes visibility, efficiency, and enforceability.
Some legal firms that adopted electronic signatures include Linklaters, Cederquist, and Ellis Jones. Cederquist is convinced that electronic signatures ease the legal work. According to a Study conducted on a legal firm by AIIM in 2013, the turn around of document transactions was reduced by 80% if electronic signatures are adopted. Given this, a majority of legal firms are set out to include electronic signatures in their work.
ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION, AND ARCHITECTURE
Electronic signatures are vital in the Engineering, Construction, and Architecture industries as it allows end-to-end electronic document workflow. According to Peter McConaughy, a structural engineer, electronic signatures help reduce paperwork, improves the document processing speed which results in customer satisfaction. The Engineering, Construction, and Architecture industry will be one of the fastest to adopt electronic signatures. This is depicted as they are curious to a point of organizing events to learn more about electronic signatures and digital document delivery.