Telecoms is a fast paced industry, with many organisations working with multiple partners across multiple disciplines to provide communications services to consumers and businesses. Time is always of the essence. In this blog, we discuss the many benefits eSignatures offer the telecoms industry.
Much of a telecom provider’s time is taken up with contracts, including customer mobile and broadband contracts, business accounts and partnership agreements.
When this process is paper based it is expensive, resource heavy and time consuming. An industry that is powering businesses and consumers to communicate better should be looking to eSignatures to improve internal processes.
How telecoms companies can accelerate the approval process with eSignatures
The approval process currently takes a significant amount of time, and a paper-based process only makes things slower, especially for in-store customer contracts.
Electronic signatures rapidly reduce the time it takes to get a contract from initial signature to final approval. Documents can be sent to a customer’s email address to sign or brought up in-store on a tablet to review. The signer’s signature is embedded in the document, providing proof of signing. The document can then be emailed automatically to the contracts team to start the next step in the approval process.
Bulk signing for telecoms companies
Managers and accounts teams tasked with authorising and validating new contracts can accelerate this process with bulk signing. Bulk Signing enables multiple documents to be signed in seconds. With thousands of new or renewed contracts needing to be processed daily, this automated process makes a significant difference in productivity, giving teams time to focus on activities that drive business growth.
Electronically signing with an eSeal – where the signing key belongs to a legal entity rather than a person – can be used for business account contracts. For example, when signing multiple business mobile contracts for employees, HR departments can be provided with an eSeal to sign on behalf of their company. It eliminates the need for senior management to oversee and sign each individual contract, mitigating the delay in new customer sign-ups.
Ensuring compliance
Telecoms companies store sensitive customer data, so it’s vital that organisations are compliant with GDPR and other global privacy laws. Electronic signatures, which include a timestamp stating when the document was signed and guaranteeing it hasn’t been altered, are invaluable as part of a GDPR compliant data strategy.
As well as providing GDPR compliance, it is important that electronic signatures are eIDAS-compliant. Advanced and Qualified Electronic Signatures provide legal certainty across the UK and EU.
To be eIDAS-compliant, an Advanced Electronics Signature must be:
- Uniquely linked to the signer
- Created using electronic signature creation data that the signer can, with a high level of confidence, use under his or her sole control
- Capable of identifying the signer and linked to the signed data in such a way that any subsequent change in the data is detectable
A Qualified Electronic Signature must adhere to the above, and also be signed using a Qualified Signature Creation Device (QSCD).
For larger contracts and trade deals with third-party providers and others in the industry, eIDAS- compliant signatures provide assurance and legal certainty if contracts are disputed.
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss the benefits of eSignatures for your telecoms business and how SigningHub's easy to use interface can be branded and integrated into existing business applications for a seamless user experience.
