In the current fiscal economy, organizations find themselves evaluating all conceivable means to reduce operational costs and gain competitive advantages. Transferring to an automated workflow that includes formal and legally-compliant approval processes is one of the key ways to accomplish these goals. However, any automated system that requires paper documents for an approval process can bring efficient business processes to a halt and increase operating costs. This white paper outlines the costs associated with a paper-based approval process and can help you establish the Return on Investment (ROI) that your organization can expect by deploying a digital signature solution.
The purpose of this paper is to help you establish the Return on Investment (ROI) that your organization can expect by deploying a digital signature solution. We do so by using a sample company with 200 employees that sign documents as a part of the organization's policies and procedures for approvals. For this sample organization we will identify and quantify the costs of using paper-based signatures, then propose a template for calculating the costs of implementing a digital signature solution (Total Cost of Ownership). Once these two elements have been established, calculating the ROI and payback period is possible. We also introduce the CoSignŽ digital signature solution and provide its costs so that its ROI and payback period can be calculated. This paper concludes with a chart summarizing all of the figures you need in order to calculate your own ROI, and we also provide an ROI calculation template spreadsheet.
INVESTING IN AUTOMATING Table of Contents BUSINESS PROCESSES INVESTING IN AUTOMATING BUSINESS PROCESSES 2 Organizations need to constantly seek ways to cut AUTOMATING APPROVAL PROCESSES 2 operational costs and gain a competitive CALCULATING THE COSTS OF PAPER-BASED SIGNATURES 3 advantage - otherwise their competitors will do CALCULATING THE TCO OF A DIGITAL SIGNATURE so, leaving them behind. Some of the ways SOLUTION 6 organizations do this is by automating their CALCULATING YOUR ORGANIZATION'S PAYBACK PERIOD AND ROI 7 workflows using office productivity applications THE COSIGN DIGITAL SIGNATURE SOLUTION 8 such as an enterprise content management system CALCULATING THE COSTS OF THE COSIGN DIGITAL (ECM). However, for processes requiring formal or SIGNATURE SOLUTION 8 regulated approvals, these organizations find that CALCULATING COSIGN TCO, ROI, AND PAYBACK PERIOD 9 their content management systems do not enable CONCLUSION 10 them to remain paperless. Instead, they must ABOUT ARX - THE DIGITAL SIGNATURE COMPANY 10 revert back to printing out paper documents that must be physically signed, scanned, archived, routed, and are sometimes lost. This brings efficient businesses processes to a grinding halt and at the same time increases operating costs.
AUTOMATING APPROVAL PROCESSES
Many aspects of an organization's workflow processes require formal authorizations or approvals. An ideal 1way to address this need is through an enterprise-wide digital signature solution , which can automate approval and authorization processes by allowing the organization to maintain a completely electronic workflow from document creation through approval (signature), archiving, and audits. This solution improves the return an organization realizes on the initial investment it made in business process automation, as the company no longer has to interrupt streamlined electronic processes by reintroducing paper into the workflow. Table 1 outlines samples of typical documents and processes that require formal authorizations or approvals.
1 Read more about digital signatures at http://www.arx.com/digital-signatures-faq.
ARX ? 855 Folsom St. Suite 939 ? San Francisco, CA 2 www.arx.com ? (415) 839 8161 ? sales@arx.com
Table 1. Samples of typical documents that require formal authorization/approval.
Executive Management / Board Actions, Corporate Communications and Public Reports, Investor Relations, SEC Board Documents Documents HR Documents Employee Actions, Employee Benefit Changes, Employee On-Boarding Documents, Employee Time Sheets, Employee Training Acknowledgements, Periodic Forms, Performance Reviews, Insurance Claims Legal Documents Contracts, Agreements, Work orders, Master Service Agreement Forms, and Sub-contractor Agreements Finance/Accounting Lease Agreements, Loan Agreements, Expense Reports & Re-imbursement Approvals, Documents Invoices, Tax Filings, Financial Spreadsheets (Data Collection and Aggregation), Disbursements (Check, Wire Transfer Orders, and ACH Transactions), Journal Entries related to Accounting and General Ledger, Purchase Requests, Gift Records Customer Service Customer service change orders Documents Procurement Documents Pu... [download for more]
