How the Paper Shortage Hurts Your Business

As if using paper wasn’t already cumbersome enough, now there’s another reason to make the switch to electronic signatures: paper shortages.

Over the past year, global supply chains and shipments have been impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, causing shortages and in turn driving up costs of goods around the world. Cargo containers full of consumer items were stuck on the shores, leading to long delivery times well after they were ordered. Printing paper was no exception. Paper mills slowed production or shuttered due to labor shortages, impacting envelopes, paper bags and beyond. This means that printing paper is not only in short supply, but it’s also cost much more this year to procure.

Businesses still dependent on paper to communicate information or close deals will no doubt feel the pinch of the supply chain crisis, which could extend well into 2022. The current shortage can cause bottlenecks in your existing workflows and impact the speed with which you’re able to do business. Rather than being at the mercy of fluctuating supply and costs of paper, companies should use this opportunity to evaluate the benefits of electronic signatures.

eSignatures: Supply Chain Proof

Electronic signatures allow businesses to keep important information strictly digital, requiring no physical paper whatsoever. Requesting approvals through eSignatures are an efficient way to circumvent the paper shortage issue. Whether you’re requesting signatures from one counterparty or 10, the economic cost to do this is still zero. As paper costs continue to rise, every sheet must be accounted for, which means document errors become more burdensome to fix. With eSignatures however, errors discovered on a contract, such as an incorrectly spelled name or wrong address, can be swiftly corrected without a single reprint or reshipment.

Heavy paper users such as banking and insurance industries will certainly benefit from the reduced overall business expense that an eSignature solution brings. By eliminating paper in your business process, you’re also removing paper costs as a line item on the income statement, which improves the overall profitability of businesses.

The Right Solution

Expense savings aside, there are a flurry of other reasons why eSignatures is the smart choice. By adopting an eSignature solution, the numerous liabilities bared by paper processes is substantially reduced if not removed altogether. In addition to the uncertainty of paper supplies costs, damaged or lost documents in transit, missed signature or initial fields by the recipient, and slow or delayed delivery are just a sample of risks that your business unfortunately absorbs by relying on paper to close important deals. Instead, don’t leave your most important deals to chance. Adopting an eSignature solution puts you in control, especially when time-sensitive deals are on the line. Having urgent documents sent instantly over and then signed by the counterparty within an hour, or even minutes of reception minimizes the possibility of lucrative deals falling through.

Foxit eSign delivers the right solution when it comes to replacing paper workflows, offering a secure, automated, and legally binding platform for you to sign and request signatures for important documents both conveniently and at scale. Comprehensive audit trails combined with multi-factor authentication (MFA) diminishes chances of fraudulent signings. Moving into 2022, paper shortages and high costs should be one less factor to consider, so businesses can focus on delivering the best – and most cost-effective – service.