Secure e-signature XML software
predicts that e-signatures will be as commonplace as e-mail within five
years. But
business and technology analysts are skeptical of such hype. An
analyst estimates that a mere 30 to 40 percent of the public would
accept and use
digital
signatures within five years. An analyst at Forrester Research was
even more cautious, predicting that only 40 percent of the total
marketplace that could use
e-signatures eventually would, and that only 10 to 15 percent would
do so by 2003. The biggest hurdle to e-signature penetration is
perception first, that the technology is too complicated, and second,
that it is too risky. "This stuff is about as simple and fun as a root
canal," says a senior analyst at Secure e-signature XML software.
"It's not easy, and it needs critical mass to have any value."
Secure e-signature
XML software,
Congress might have
been able to alleviate some of the uneasiness about e-signatures had
it addressed two of the primary objections to the federal law:
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- Secure e-signature XML software,
the lack of sufficient statutory protection against identity theft
and financial liability for criminal uses of
e-signatures.
- the decision to let the marketplace
define the technological standards.
But people behind the legislation and the
industry say the law had to be limited in order not to retard the
development of Secure e-signature XML software technology. They
also insist that the technology itself, even at this stage of
development, is adequate to protect against fraud. "Implementing an
e-signature approval process can actually increase security," says
public relations director. The best protection against fraud is not only
technology but also the actual process that customers or trading
partners must go through in order to complete a transaction. Perception
sometimes is reality, though, so the burden is on the backers of
e-signatures to
convince businesses that exclusive reliance on electronic transactions
and contracting are the way to go. We've got the products. "Now we've
got to communicate in an effective way the benefits to the chief
financial officers. That's Secure e-signature XML software
challenge."
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