Certifying Authority eMudhra is helping the government and businesses digitize their processes. It has now come out with a new product emSigner. V. Srinivasan, chairman, eMudhra, speaks about the benefits of the product in the digitization efforts
V. Srinivasan, chairman, eMudhra
Mohan: eMudhra has recently come out with emSigner, a digital workflow solution. Can you give a brief description of this tool and how it enhances productivity?
Srinivasan:emSigner is a paperless workflow solution leveraging the use of digital signatures and eSignatures to eliminate the need to print, sign, scan, upload, and send. Needless to say, this saves a lot of cost on paper, but it also improves productivity in multiple ways. Here are a few:
- It eliminates the need to courier documents, thus speeding up a given workflow.
- Since it captures the data and signature digitally, it can be integrated with various systems within a bank to eliminate or significantly reduce the operational work involved thus improving TAT.
- It eliminates the need to physically manage and refer back to archived paper documents which can be a time-consuming effort.
- It can facilitate online fulfillment (where regulation permits) of various offerings thus reducing branch footfall thus improving productivity.
Which all sectors do you think emSigner can be an ideal platform that can be used to enhance efficiency?
emSigner was originally created with a focus on transforming the operational processes in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sectors. Overtime, it has been enhanced and today, the solution is being used also by eCommerce companies, companies in the manufacturing sector, services sector and even SMEs across multiple sectors. The solution really has wide scope because it addresses a very basic problem of replacing wet signatures which is applicable across any sector. Further, we have already done some of the work and set up various sample workflows for HR, Finance, and other departments that our customers can readily adopt.
Can the tool totally eliminate paper? In which all departments it can be easily deployed?
For the workflows that are managed through emSigner, paper can be fully eliminated. The only circumstances where we see paper still being retained in some form is where regulation mandates the same. We’ve had customers use emSigner across accounts, HR, legal, pperations, and in some organizations, their retail division. Some of the larger companies use it for bulk invoice signing and bulk signing of certain types of documents.
Banking in one area where there is large scale digitization happening. It is also one sector where there is huge amount of manual processes still happening. Do you think emSigner can be a recommendation for this sector?
Absolutely. We have experimented with the concept of paperless account opening, paperless loan origination, and few other areas within a bank already. In fact, some banks are already our customers for emSigner where they use the software for legal signatures across various areas in their organization.
It is mentioned that emSigner can be a facilitator for Good and Service Tax implementation. Can you explain?
In the context of GST, the relevance of emSigner lies in its use for digitally signing invoices that need to be uploaded in the GST system. Many organizations are using emSigner for bulk signing of invoices which are then uploaded onto the GST portal.
How much training would be required for a seamless integration of the tool in the existing system of a corporate, say for example, in the manufacturing sector?
There is not much training required. emSigner has an Open API ecosystem with a sandbox environment where any system can consume emSigner API’s, test it within the sandbox environment, and deploy quickly to production environment. The technology used adheres to global standards and is widely known across the IT sector so integration is seamless. Further, we have multiple models of integration depending on customer preference. emSigner gateway is very much like integrating a payment gateway and is extremely easy. emSigner API Integration Platform is more sophisticated and caters to more complex use cases.
What are the other areas where you are focusing to bring out digital tools, especially for the banking and financial services sector?
We are working on a few areas, some of which are ready propositions and some of which are in the R&D stage at eMudhra Labs. We are working on Big Data driven solutions using our emStream platform to adequately address various areas of risk management and customer insight driven marketing. Namely, we are looking at enhanced fraud detection in the loan disbursement process and cross-channel customer marketing in the credit card management process within a bank. Both the platforms use data from Social media, permissible systems within the bank, customer support interactions, and other channels to provide greater insight into the customer (or prospect) and help the bank make more automated and educated decisions.
