Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Digital Signatures Enhance Nintex Workflow for SharePoint

Friday, November 4th, 2011

What happens when you take a market-leading business automation tool and adorn it in a way that enables you to meet your most precise business needs spot-on? Magic. Unlocking the true power of automation, your business transforms in ways you didn’t even know were possible.

Nintex, a leading global innovator of software products that extend Microsoft® SharePoint®, doesn’t use any tricks or illusions in the innovative solutions it offers for enabling SharePoint users to achieve the exact functionality they require. With Nintex Workflow, users can quickly and intuitively design advanced workflows in SharePoint without requiring additional client software or coding knowledge. Even better, Nintex Workflow allows a best in class digital signature capability so that even signature­­­­­­–dependent workflows never have to resort to paper. The digital signature component, which is compatible with any major document type, even notifies participants when their signature is required, thus enabling business to continue moving forward quickly and effectively. Learn more about digital signatures with Nintex Workflow.

Digital Signatures for SharePoint Mobile

Friday, July 8th, 2011

The wave of mobile is upon us. More and more, professionals across fields are taking their work outside the office, and new technologies that enable this are surfacing constantly. The way we work is changing, and it’s changing fast.

Keeping astride with changing times, CoSign® digital signatures for SharePoint – the digital signature solution that enables SharePoint processes to remain electronic from start to finish – is now available on your mobile. This means SharePoint users who are working remotely don’t have to worry about holding up processes, wasting time and money on paper approvals and scanning, or relying on their laptops to provide signed authorizations. With CoSign for SharePoint Mobile, they can add their digital signatures on-the-go to SharePoint list items and documents using an iPad, Android-based phone, or other mobile device – no laptop necessary.

CoSign Digital Signatures version 5.4 is here

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Listen up, people – I’ve got some exciting news! CoSign version 5.4, the latest update to ARX’s flagship digital signature solution, has arrived.

The recent update offers a lot of new features and enhancements, including a redesigned graphical user interface that makes digital signing easier than ever. With CoSign 5.4, an unlimited number of graphical signatures is supported for every signer. In addition, engineers can now easily add their digital signatures and seals to multiple pages of any document with a new, easy-to-use click-through signing feature.

If you’re not already using CoSign and enjoying these and other new features, you can try out the free digital signature trial and experience first-hand the benefits of paperless signing. To learn more about what’s new in CoSign 5.4, check out the press release. Enjoy!

Digital Signatures Enhance Organizational Web Portals

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

These days, there are endless ways to take advantage of the vast capabilities the internet offers. One of the more interesting uses that organizations are adopting is external-facing web portals, which provide a secured area over the internet where internal employees and external partners, collaborators, clients, etc. can connect and manage documentation and other information.

A case study on Duke Realty’s use of digital signatures highlights how one of the largest owners, managers and developers of commercial real estate in the United States enhanced their web portal with digital signatures to increase collaboration and employee satisfaction. By doing so, they eliminated the need to print and route documents solely for the purpose of obtaining approvals (as well as the delays this process typically incurs), and enabled internal and external employees and collaborators to quickly, easily and securely sign off on documents online. Can you imagine how thrilled external collaborators were with the new capability to submit forms like payment applications so easily?

Check out the Duke Realty case study to learn more about how digital signatures can enhance organizational web portals.

Self-issued certificate? I think not!

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

There’s a reason that most enterprises (like corporations, banks, universities, etc.) have an HR or similar department for issuing employee IDs, or a customer-screening department to do the same for customers. These departments have been established to verify a person’s identity when establishing them as part of the organization. I doubt whether any enterprise that takes itself seriously would allow an employee to use a self-issued Employee ID, and rightfully so! The idea even feels iffy.

When it comes to digital certificates, a self-issued certificate is as untrustworthy as a self-issued Employee ID. That’s because a self-created digital certificate is one where the same person that created the certificate also signed off on its legitimacy. As such, the identity of the digital signer can never be established or trusted, making this type of digital certificate useful only among businesses that operate solely on a leap of faith.

For this purpose, it’s preferable to use digital certificates that are centrally issued and managed by a designated authority within the Enterprise. This good practice for digital certificate management is essential for trusting that the person using the digital certificate is indeed who s/he claims to be.

Digital signature vs. Electronic signature… It’s all the same, right?

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Did you know that every time you sign an email, you’re using an electronic signature? In fact, an electronic signature can exist in a number of forms – like a sound recording, a process that conveys assent (thumbs up!), or a JPEG image of your name.

Just as writing instruments vary from pencil, to marker, to pen, there are a variety of signing tools in the electronic world, such as the digital signature. Similar to the way that ink pens have become the standard for signing in the paper world (you wouldn’t sign a contract with a pencil, would you?), digital signatures, which are a secure form of electronic signatures, have become the standard for signing in the electronic world. That’s because, among other things, digital signature technology is the only electronic signing technology that’s supported by mainstream document formats and business applications like Microsoft® Word, Excel®, Adobe® PDF, and others. Anyone who receives a digitally-signed document has the ability to verify the signature without the need for any special, additional verification software. Further, not only do digital signatures offer the ability to sign a document, they also ‘seal’ a document so that any change made to the document after signing invalidates the signature.  Thanks to this security feature, digital signatures ensure signer identity and intent, and document integrity. Those aren’t things every electronic signature can offer!

So, next time you’re wondering whether to go with an electronic signature or optimize to a secure digital signature, think about whether you’d sign a contract with a pencil or pen. Which would you choose?