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E-signatures and electronic signing solutions are garnering greater recognition and acceptance in the business world today. They are convenient, provide significant cost-savings, streamline business operations, and save time on administrative tasks and logistics.

However, not all electronic signatures are built the same. E-signatures can be used to sign business contracts, and employment agreements. Digital signatures which are a type of electronic signature that has advanced security and verification features recorded in an audit trail are used in cases where there are higher security and regulatory requirements. 

Similarly, not all solution providers are built the same. Your ideal electronic signature and solution provider will depend on your business needs. To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled a list of questions to consider before choosing your potential or when evaluating your existing electronic signature provider.

1. How secure are your documents and E-signatures ?

For anyone switching over to electronic signatures, this is usually the foremost concern. Wet ink signatures carry with them a sense of familiarity and security, as the signee usually must be physically present and be witnessed as they append the document. However, wet ink signatures can be forged, and such cases of falsified signings are not uncommon. There is also the possibility of document tampering or other fraudulent activities. Overall, there are still security gaps when it comes to traditional wet ink signatures.

Secure electronic signature platforms usually come with multiple security layers dedicated to verifying user identity, safeguarding the integrity of the document to prevent tampering, and provide an audit trail to ensure robust authentication and record keeping. When choosing a vendor, it’s important to ask and understand how they offer such security and check if they have adopted best-practice international security standards and are accredited accordingly.

Document and data storage and residency should be another concern for anyone looking to move to electronic or virtually signed documents. Many sectors especially in certain highly regulated sectors handle sensitive or confidential data in signed documents. To guard against data leaks or unauthorised access to this information, you should understand how documents and data are handled. It is important to clarify if your e-signature solution provider has the flexibility to provide customised solutions that allow for on-premise, hybrid or bring-your-own storage data solutions. This ensures that you have true ownership of your data. It’s also important to find out how they comply with increasingly stringent data laws. These are critical considerations you should have when comparing different solution providers.

2. How Convenient Is the E-Signing Solution To Adopt?

While security is the main priority, ease of adoption is another important factor to take into account when choosing an electronic signature provider. It’s essential to remember that at its core, electronic signatures are meant to make your lives easier, not more cumbersome.

Consumers now more than ever before expect seamless digital experiences. If signing processes are complicated or time-consuming, consumers are likely to switch to a competitor quickly. Even for in-house processes, choosing the wrong electronic signature platform might end up costing more time and resources.

An electronic document signing solution should make it easy to prepare and send documents for signing. Learning the platform should be intuitive and user experience, responsive. Important features like document verification, versioning and audit trail should be easily accessible and user friendly to the admins. At Dedoco, we believe this should be made available to users and even authorised third parties to verify the validity of signed documents. Overall, the platform should also be accessible to all signers without going through too many hurdles and resistance.

Learn More: 9 Ways to Make Document Workflow Digitisation Easier

3. How Is The Support?

With the wide range of electronic signatures use cases, you are bound to chance upon situations where you will need to contact customer support. Check with potential solution providers to understand the level of support and turn around times you can expect. The following are also some key considerations:

1. What is the onboarding process like?
2. Is there live chat support?
3. What are typical response times?
4. Are there resources such as FAQs available online for you to troubleshoot and self-service queries?

Getting the answers to all these questions and more will ensure that you are choosing the right provider who will be able to provide you with the assistance you need in a timely manner.

Taking the time to find the right secure electronic signature provider with a platform that caters to your unique needs will accrue dividends in the long term. It’s a decision that has a direct and potentially long-lasting impact on company processes and requires that you do your due diligence.

At Dedoco we’re invested in making a better product for our customers. Our digital signing solutions provide privacy and tamper-proof verification while being easy to adapt and implement into your overall workflow. Talk to us today to find out more about our ready-to-use signing solution or custom solutions made accessible to organisations of all sizes.

The emergence of Web3 and the potential it offers has captivated businesses worldwide. Web3 represents innovation, automation and disintermediation, creating a rise in a new kind of business; Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), is a collectively-owned, blockchain-governed organization that is working towards a shared mission. Web3 technology offers the potential to transform existing businesses as they look to incorporate AI and blockchain into their current processes.

What is Web3? 

Web3 is the next step in technology evolution that offers a decentralised experience for businesses. Data, and documents are no longer controlled by a central owner or repository but are rather collectively member owned. Any changes on the blockchain requires voting and tallying by all members, and if all agree, the activity is added and secured onto the blockchain, thereby enhancing security and keeping the network tamperproof. A shift to decentralisation has led to the growth in DAOs,  where geographical boundaries are blurred and remote collaboration enabled, with an added level of security. 

Blockchain Beyond Crypto

Although traditionally associated with cryptocurrency and DAOs, blockchain also has extensive business applications, with the potential to revolutionise business processes. Enterprise blockchain application drives automation, resulting in increased productivity and higher standards of security and compliance. 

Digital document signing is one such application of blockchain technology. Digital document management has gained popularity over the last few years, thanks to COVID and increasing remote collaboration. ‘High-trust’ sectors like public sector, legal, finance and healthcare are adopting such signatures due to high standards of security and compliance. 

Built on Web3 technology, Dedoco enables customers to have total document residency and regulatory compliance, all while still delivering the respective productivity and efficiencies to customers via their suite of enterprise apps.

Web3 is the next-generation technology that the future will be built on. Advancements in such technology will add more trust, flexibility and opportunity to businesses. Business landscapes will become efficient and optimized as blockchain technology simplifies tech stacks, data storage and business operations like document signing. Web3 is reshaping how businesses can innovate.

In addition to document solutions, Dedoco also offers blockchain training and consulting through its research & development arm, deLab. deLab aims to amp up blockchain adoption for real world business use cases and use blockchain to make a positive change for enterprises. 

Are you ready to transform your business? Contact us here.

Case Study: Real Estate

Efficient Signing of Documents While on the Move

Problem to Solve

The client has an existing platform to manage the voluminous agreements through the App. Agents needed an efficient way to have their clients to sign and submit the tenancy agreements and supporting documents while on the move.

Dedoco Solution

dSign

Automated and digitized the signing process integrating ‘Sign with SingPass’ ID into their existing app, allowing agents to easily send for signing and returning of agreements. Saved operational time and resources to process, check and verify the agreements.

Results

• Quick and efficient way to sign trusted and verifiable tenancy agreements
• Reduced time to deliver the paper documents and get it signed
• By Deploying Dedoco's API- Sign, ERA has till date (from Nov 2020-11 Aug 2022) completed over 3800 projects whereby reducing the signing time to just one day, thereby boosting the productivity of its employees and has saved over 32,000 sheets of paper

"The advent of proptech technologies in ERA has helped increase the productivities of our trusted advisers while sharpening their competitive edge. As the first in Singapore’s real estate industry to adopt this digital signing solution from Dedoco, we have successfully streamlined our workflow and built clients’ trust by providing a secured and convenient solution for them. This is also in alignment with ERA’s vision to provide evolutionary solutions and services to clients.”

Marcus Chu, CEO, ERA Singapore & APAC Realty

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Streamline document workflow and increase productivity with our App Suite

Industries We Power

When working with key sectors and large organizations that require ‘high-trust’ handling, Dedoco ensures that these documents reside securely with our clients, while protecting the integrity of their records on-chain. Set new industry standards for security and verification with a document platform that is flexible enough to let you lead. We support:

Government and public

Financial Services

Real estate

Healthcare

Logistics

Professional Services

Need more flexibility to match the way you work?

Dedoco APIs integrate with your existing apps to avoid complex migration or downtime. Choose one app or the entire suite, to scale and match demand with trusted, verifiable and connected documents. Our non-invasive setup allows easy integration with existing platforms, so you work on your terms, not ours.

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Digital signatures are a type of electronic signature that has advanced security and verification features recorded in an audit trail. Where e-signatures can be used as a convenient and efficient alternative to wet-ink signatures for business contracts, and employment agreements, digital signatures are used in cases where there are higher security and regulatory requirements.

The key feature of digital signatures that distinguishes them from e-signatures is the additional layers of security, especially for verifying and validating the signatory’s identity and signature. Dedoco’s dSign solution for example uses decentralised blockchain technology to hash signatures with document data, making them tamper proof and allowing for document tracking and verification in real time. This open architecture provides organisations with true ownership of their documents and digital assets via verified sharing, tokenization and smart contracts, facilitating regulatory compliance and adherence to document residency requirements including that of high-trust sectors.

The high standard of security that digital signing solutions offer coupled with unparalleled convenience and efficiency over wet-ink signatures, provide a competitive edge for businesses and enhance the document signing and approval process. With such benefits, it’s no surprise that organisations are moving away from wet-ink signatures and adopting electronic and even digital signatures, especially when working with sensitive and confidential information. Curious about and have more questions about digital signatures? We have addressed some frequently asked questions below.

1)   Can Someone’s Digital Signature be Forged?

Can digital signatures be easily forged and altered as wet-ink signatures are on paper documents?

Digital signatures are just as legally binding as traditional signatures and they even go further to fix the inherent weaknesses of wet-ink signatures. To protect against forgery, digital signatures have sophisticated methods of authenticating user identity before their online signature is affixed to a document. A prominent example of user identity authentication in Singapore is SingPass which is used for a wide range of government services.

In November 2020, SingPass launched a digital signature feature which greatly increases the convenience of signing legal documents. Working with digital signing application providers like Dedoco, the feature helps businesses and government agencies save on costs and manpower. To prevent cases of fraud or forgery, cybersecurity measures in line with industry best practices have been implemented in the digital signing feature and supported by application providers.

2)   How Does a Digital Signature Work?

A digital signature is recognised globally, e.g., by the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA) in Singapore if it involves the transformation of an electronic record via cryptographic encryption and hashing. To satisfy this requirement, an entity should be able to determine whether this transformation was created by the intended signee of the document and if the initial electronic record has been modified since the transformation was made.

To protect the integrity of the document signing process, the digital signature must be created during the operational period of a valid certificate and the certificate must be issued by an accredited certification authority acting in compliance with the ETA.

For example, when a document is signed on the Dedoco platform, a document hash is registered. Once the document is complete after the digital signing process, a check hash function is performed to ensure the integrity of the original document and verify that no changes have been made, making the process tamper-proof.

A Dedoco signing certificate is issued and can be retrieved from the blockchain for verification to view the timestamp of the document creation and review the project status, signatures gathered, their timestamps, and the IP addresses involved.

3)   Why A Digital Signature Is More Secure Than A Wet-Ink Signature

Wet-ink signatures rely on a traditional and technologically backward notion that it is unique to you. However, these signatures are not secure as skilled forgers are able to replicate handwriting and signatures.

Digital online signatures on the Dedoco platform however come with a digital signing certificate that contains evidence that the document has not been tampered with. The audit trail shows the timestamps of signatures and device IP addresses. This level of tamper-proof integrity cannot be achieved with paper documents and wet-ink signatures. Some solutions that have national and/or private Identity Provider (IdP) Integration, like Dedoco with SingPass, offer an extra layer of authenticity for user identification.

Many businesses have digitised, gone paperless and are already reaping the benefits of secure electronic signatures. These include cost-effectiveness and efficiency as they speed up transactions and approvals and ultimately improve the bottom line. Beyond that, they also add a strong layer of security, document integrity, and an audit trail that allows companies to adhere to stringent regulations and reduce instances of fraud or forgery.

If your business operations involve sensitive information and you require stringent security standards, in-line with regulatory requirements, then Dedoco could well be something you can consider. Powered by our next-gen Dedoco Trust Engine, our digital signing solutions ensure trust, traceability, and verifiability for every electronic record. Contact us today to learn more about how the Dedoco Trust Engine can inspire your business transformation.

Written by Dr. Ernie Teo,

Co-Founder, Dedoco, Head of deLab

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Just as a caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis to transform into a butterfly, the last couple of years has been formative years for Dedoco. In 2021, we not only focused on developing our products but also strengthened our business model. 

At the start of 2022, we spun our cocoon and went into the pupa stage, preparing for our transformation. With a number of key senior hires, we were able to strengthen our company structure and organisation, and at the same time, improve our  diversity across all dimensions (notably our female-to-male ratio has improved from the previous 1:4 to 1:3 currently). 

Product enhancements were also planned and executed, leading to the release of a number of key products/features, including VideoSign, Admin Portal, Instant Sign, and integrations with various cloud drives (including the integration of our first Web3 technology partner Akord) and video conferencing tools such as Webex (which will be our first enterprise marketplace listing). 

The engineering team has been hard at work implementing these upgrades, resulting in more than 3700 commits in our code repository! The Dedoco platform has also been gaining traction from our efforts. There were more than 40,000 projects created in the Dedoco platform in 2022, 4 times more than in 2021! The industries we serve now span across finance, fintech, government, real estate, professional services, e-commerce, and more.

We are also launching dCert, a verifiable certificate issuance platform in 2023 with Global Fintech Institute, Blockchain Australia and the Australian Fintech Association as its first users.

Another key initiative was Dedoco’s rebranding and the refresh of our user experience. In October, we broke out of our cocoon with the launch of our new branding. This was followed by the new UX on our platform in November. This refresh didn't come easy, hours and hours of hard work were put in by our marketing and design team, working tirelessly with our branding agency Shift. With the rebrand, our product team took the opportunity to give the SaaS platform a new breath of life, re-invigorating the user experience. 

The end products are nothing short of amazing and we have received much positive user feedback. The new branding signifies a new outlook and our commitment to creating the next-gen business applications, leading to the launch of deLab, our innovation and research arm.

deLab’s role is to grow the network and ecosystem for Dedoco through research and development. We aim to release a sandbox for our Trust Engine APIs to our partners in early 2023. This will allow multi-faceted user led use cases to be built on top of our engine. The sandbox will be released concurrently on both Polygon and Hedera Hashgraph, giving our users choices over blockchain networks. Our APIs will work like traffic controllers, taking away the need to deal with each blockchain at the network level. At the same time, we will work with our partners to consult and co-solution for their specific business processes. We’re excited for more blockchain-based features and Web3 integrations from deLab in the year to come.

Dedoco has metamorphosed in 2022, ready to spread its wings and fly in 2023. Dedoco’s vision for 2023 and beyond is to create a Web3 business document process ecosystem that is easy to integrate, use, as well as flexible, adaptable and agnostic. We look forward to meeting new partners in every part of the world; delivering next-gen document process management solutions, exploring the innovative use of distributed ledgers in business processes and integrating with their technologies. 

Overall, we had an eventful 2022, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made Dedoco what it is today. Employees, former employees, investors, partners and customers, we thank you for your support and effort! Hope you have a good festive season ahead and we will be engaging with you soon!

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In the wake of the COVID pandemic, the future of work discussion has become a much discussed topic among employees, researchers, students and teachers, etc in the hopes of transforming the way we collaborate to make it secure and convenient while connecting remotely. Many businesses are now focusing on this more heavily, as they look to digitally transform themselves for the better. However, the question arises, who in the business is responsible for the future of work? 

For work to evolve, a solid plan of action needs to be allocated across the organisation to ensure success for the future. All departments: HR, Finance, IT, Management and Operations have a role to play to help their organisation embrace the new future of work. 

The way businesses operate is in a constant state of change. The adoption of hybrid work models has presented businesses with new opportunities as well as challenges. A study by ELMO software found that flexibility or remote working ranks second for employee priorities when searching for a new employer. Moreover, in 2023, workplaces are predicted to be more diverse, distributed and virtual than ever before.  Top management and the people management teams like HR need to ensure it understands its staff’s working priorities and have clear communication with employees on what work models the office will adopt. 

A lean into digital transformation cannot happen only through hybrid work models. Businesses also need to consider employing different innovative solutions that can future proof their operations & processes. A major challenge that corporations are expected to face in 2023 is the beginning of security ramifications of a widely distributed workforce connecting to corporate networks. Business functions that handle sensitive and confidential information such as HR, finance and operations have to take extra precautions against data breaches, security risks and ensure that an audit trail is available for forensic evidence. This way, they can uphold the highest standards of security and keep their most sensitive documents watertight. 

Solutions like Dedoco revolutionise often overlooked yet essential document management processes like document signing, where users can sign and certify documents from desktop or device without complex setups or data sharing. Data is protected with advanced signature encryption and verification, without sharing data online.

Furthermore, Dedoco solutions  facilitate security and regulatory compliance whilst every organisation and user retains true data and digital asset ownership by harnessing the power of Web3 technology. Dedoco’s suite of enterprise apps and APIs are built on next-gen technology that is blockchain-enabled for verifiable, trusted and connected documents. This gives high-trust sectors such as government and public, financial services, real estate and professional services ease of mind, as they are able to achieve complete regulatory compliance with data laws whilst enhancing their future work operations. Digital transformation solutions pave the way for the sustained success of a business. 

When different areas of a business come together to identify vulnerabilities, streamline processes, and implement digital transformation solutions, businesses are future proofed and are able to to build sustainable and efficient operations, ultimately having a significant positive impact on their bottom line. 

To learn more about how your organisation can use Web3 tools, read this article written by our Co-Founder and Head of deLab or contact us here.

Case Study: Government

Complete Signing within a Day

Problem to Solve

Unable to use centralised solutions (e.g. DocuSign, Adobe Sign etc.) due to infrastructure, data residency, and security concerns. They needed a solution that provides a platform that all public agencies can access and use.

Dedoco Solution

Whitelabel SaaS

Dedoco’s flexibility to leverage the agency’s document repository, enabling complete regulatory compliance. This flexibility, along with our “hashcheck” value proposition for document verification was crucial to decision-making. As a National Digital Identity (NDI) Digital Signing Partner, Dedoco is a secure, efficient, and convenient solution with required security/privacy protocols for all public agency users.

Today’s digital economy necessitates more flexible and secure solutions that can benefit everyone – from enterprises to individuals. GovTech is delighted to partner Dedoco, to provide secure and convenient digital signing capabilities for all Singpass users. We will continue working with industry partners across sectors to create offerings that improve digital service delivery and productivity gains.”

-  Senior Director of National Digital Identity GovTech Singapore

Results

Decentralised, on-premise document storage & document verifiability.

With Dedoco's SaaS product deployed for the public sector, 73% of the users have signed through e-sign, and the rest through digital signature and completed signing within a day.‍

Streamline document workflow and increase productivity with our App Suite

Industries We Power

When working with key sectors and large organizations that require ‘high-trust’ handling, Dedoco ensures that these documents reside securely with our clients, while protecting the integrity of their records on-chain. Set new industry standards for security and verification with a document platform that is flexible enough to let you lead. We support:

Government and public

Financial Services

Real estate

Healthcare

Logistics

Professional Services

Need more flexibility to match the way you work?

Dedoco APIs integrate with your existing apps to avoid complex migration or downtime. Choose one app or the entire suite, to scale and match demand with trusted, verifiable and connected documents. Our non-invasive setup allows easy integration with existing platforms, so you work on your terms, not ours.

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