Berlin, 16 December 2020 – From electronic signatures to the growing shift away from mail correspondence: processes such as invoicing and day-to-day communication are already fully digitalised at many German companies. This is apparent from the “Digital Office Index 2020”, study by the digital association Bitkom¹. FP was involved in the study as an official partner. Companies are opening the door to digitalisation with solutions like the digital signature FP Sign. Digital signatures make it possible to sign contracts and important documents digitally, thus speeding up negotiations and coordination processes significantly. The solution can be integrated into company processes quickly and easily in the form of software. However, decision-makers and employees are often slow to respond to software-based applications because they are wary of changes in the context of digitalisation.
FP addresses their five biggest misgivings and explains how large companies, SMEs and the self-employed can achieve a digital uplift with simple, straightforward software solutions like the digital signature.
1. Excessive costs: 70% companies surveyed in the Bitkom study fear that digitalisation of business processes involves high investment costs. The whole company does not have to be digitally transformed. Many processes can also be digitalised with a simple software solution. In general, this is not particularly expensive, and can be quickly easily integrated into existing work processes. FP Sign itself is software-based, and enables workflow management as well as digital signing of contracts. This makes work processes more efficient – and companies save money and lots of paper, as well as time.
2. Data protection workload: Around a third of German companies fear that the introduction of digitalised processes will result in unauthorised access to sensitive business data. Data protection is a very serious topic for software providers, and they secure their solutions against unauthorised access in various ways. For instance, as an expert in secure digital communication, FP only uses the data centres in Germany certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Consequently, all FP software solutions are GDPR-compliant and no contract-related data is processed in insecure third countries. Therefore, with regard to software providers, the location of data centres should always be checked in advance.
3. Lack of staff: 62% of the companies surveyed by Bitkom assume that digital processes can only be established by qualified staff. Only a few digital software solutions require a special in-house expert or involve complex implementation into the existing IT infrastructure. Most solutions are really simple to use via a browser or an app. No trained staff are needed for FP Sign either, and all employees can use the digital application easily at work and benefit from its advantages.
4. Legal barriers: According to the Bitkom study, more than half of the companies surveyed are afraid of legal and regulatory barriers involved in the digitalisation of processes. The legal validity of digital signatures is a source of uncertainty, for instance. This kind of signature is definitely legally valid, even if it is not hand-written on paper. There are different levels of digital signature, from advanced signature to a qualified electronic signature, the highest available signature level according to eIDAS. The FP Sign software is also eIDAS compliant, which enables processes such as legally prescribed long-term archiving.
5. Lack of acceptance: According to Bitkom, 42% of companies questioned are afraid that digitalisation of office and administrative processes will not be well received in-house. However, the advantages of digital will soon become clear to the entire workforce. The use of digital tools makes laborious procedures and time-consuming coordination more efficient. Contracts and all internal documents such as holiday requests, pay slips, quotations, time sheets and health insurance certificates can be signed any time and anywhere with digital signatures. This results in faster – and, in the long term, more – transactions and makes processes more efficient. It ensures planning reliability within the company, and also has a positive effect on employee motivation.
¹https://www.bitkom.org/doi-2020
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