If Your Business in Saudi Arabia, You Must have your E-signature!
By Norhan Gamal – Technical Content Creation Team
22/04/2024
Businesses across the globe are embracing digital transformation, streamlining processes like never before. If you’ve recently encountered terms like e-signature or electronic signature on bank forms or business contracts, you are likely witnessing this change firsthand, as electronic signatures have become globally recognized and legally binding in countless sectors. They are a key element in the movement towards a paperless, efficient, and environmentally responsible business model.
Electronic Signature vs Digital Signature Software
Before exploring key criteria, let’s clarify some terms. Though electronic and digital signatures are sometimes mistakenly used as synonyms, they are distinct concepts.
An electronic signature is a digital version of a handwritten signature representing the signatory’s agreement to abide by the signed contract’s terms. As a digital process, electronic signatures provide numerous advantages including better document and contract management, the ability to streamline business processes, and a super easy-to-use signing experience.
On the other hand, Digital signature refers to the encryption/decryption technology used by electronic signature software. The digital signature is used to prevent individuals from tampering with a digital document after signatures have been applied.
How is Saudi Arabia implementing digital transformation according to Vision 2030?
Digital transformation is about changing how the government works and delivers services by using digital technology. It’s a key part of achieving the goals set in Saudi Vision 2030, with the recent issuing of the final Implementing and Transfer Regulations for the upcoming Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) by Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the use of e-signature has become one of the most important digital solutions to facilitate and secure signing and data protection processes.
Brian A. Meenagh and Lucy Tucker. (2023, December 5). Saudi Arabia’s Data Protection Law Enters Into Force.
The Digital Government Authority oversees this transformation in government services, ensuring agencies meet digital standards through a system called Qiyas, which is a tool created by the Saudi Digital Government Authority to observe the process of the government agencies while becoming more digital, in aims for a digital government that supports a strong digital economy.
Qiyas as a tool helps the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia obtain a better ranking in global digital comparisons, by assisting government agencies to work better and more effectively, developing digital ways of working, and improving services provided to people, in order to ensure that government agencies follow digital rules and duties.
Achieve Digital Government Excellence!
The Saudi government has already built platforms that increase transparency and enhance trust. For example, 24 million people have used the Absher platform, which supports Saudi Arabia’s e-government services. Likewise, the Najez portal offers 150 e-government services, cutting red tape and reducing the average length of procedures from 248 days to just three weeks.
Samia Melhem, Anila Graupp & Fatimah Alotaibi. (2023, April 5). A people-centric approach to digital transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
One of the main areas Qiyas measures is “Digital Trust”, focusing on two things; internal use which is digital signatures for their internal documents and data, and external use which is digital signatures for documents/data shared outside. DigiNation, one of the leading technology consultation firms in the Middle East, was able to establish various e-signature projects in Saudi Arabia in collaboration with Signit which is the first company in Saudi Arabia to provide an e-signature platform in the Arabic language, as it works to simplify the process of signing and implementing agreements and contracts for employees, partners, customers, supply chain vendors, and everyone in between.
To sum up, e-signatures have revolutionized the way businesses handle documents, providing secure, authenticated, and verifiable means of signing electronic files. Digital signatures have reshaped the way organizations handle documents. By implementing a robust digital signature solution, businesses can improve efficiency, enhance security, and comply with legal requirements. Whether you’re looking for a way to digitize your onboarding process, improve document tracking, or elevate your user experience with a paperless process, you need to start using e-signature solutions within your organization.