While many consumers seem to crave and almost instantlypurchase the latest technology, the same can't always be said forbusinesses – including credit unions. It's prudent to be cautious,but when credit unions don't keep up with proven tools that helpthem better serve members, time and money are quickly lost.

One such tool is the e-signature, which not only makes it moreconvenient for members to do business with their credit union butalso eases compliance burdens, improves efficiency and saves money.Here's how to approach e-signature adoption in the credit unionindustry:

Research the different types of e-signatures.The first step in fostering adoption is getting the righte-signature solution. A simple Google search will reveal a largeselection of e-signature vendors. To help narrow down your searchresults, divide them into the two main categories of e-signatures:Independent and dependent.

• Independent e-signatures and theircryptographic information (the data used to verify thee-signatures) are permanently embedded in signed documents. Thismeans that advisors have complete ownership and control of theirdocuments, transparency through a comprehensive audit trail,longevity due to published standards and safety through heightenedownership and control. Because of third-party regulations and steepsecurity needs, independent e-signatures are an ideal fit forcredit unions.

• Dependent e-signatures link back to thee-signature vendor for verification, and they also can't beverified offline. That's because dependent e-signatures' legalevidence remains stored on a vendor's server – which also means youwon't have complete ownership and control of that evidence. Theyalso may be based on proprietary standards and may not be validlong-term.

Prepare for any questions that may arise from yourmembers. Although e-signatures are convenient and easy touse, your members may not be initially comfortable with a swipe ofa finger or a click of a mouse versus a traditional pen-to-papersignature.

Make sure you can answer these four questions in order to besthelp your members become comfortable and confident in usinge-signatures:

• Are digital signatures legal?
• Is my personal information protected?
• How do you protect against document tampering?
• What's in it for me?

Bite the bullet. By adopting legally compliantdigital signatures for the financial industry, you can answer thechallenges of today's economy – the need to control costs, improveefficiency and improve the member experience – while adapting tonew technologies.

Try starting with a pilot program. Use the e-signature platformdiligently for a few weeks and monitor employee and/or clientfeedback. Then, think about what the next logical step is. Developa policy, implement it across the credit union and choose aninternal advocate to make sure it's correctly carried out.

When you roll out your full-fledged e-signature adoptionprocess, it's important for all employees to be trained on properusage. They need to be familiar with the software and comfortableenough to use it both internally and with clients.

After adoption, here are some of the many benefits you canexpect immediately:

• Members can sign online on any device, anytimeand anywhere.
• Employees can send and track documents fromany device, and, with mandatory signature and other fields,documents that are “not in good order” are reducedsignificantly.
• Credit unions will see quicker on-boardingprocesses, happier members, more efficient processing andsignificant cost savings.

Don't miss the chance to improve your technology utilization.Now is the time to implement efficient workflows by usinge-signature solutions.

Pem Guerry is executive vice president for SIGNiX. He can be reachedat 423-305-7041 or [email protected].