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Thanks to the eZsign e-signature team, a local business development centre was able to continue providing important services to its clients, helping to stimulate the local economy through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, e-signatures have become a key part of their process.
Helping local businesses
The Centre local de développement Beauharnois-Salaberry (CLD) is the local business development centre for the regional county municipality of Beauharnois–Salaberry, just a few kilometres southwest of the Island of Montreal. The CLD is a nonprofit organization that offers free business development services, helping and coaching entrepreneurs who want to launch a new business and owners who are expanding or planning for succession. It also helps administer financial assistance programs for businesses to get funds where they are needed to boost local commerce.
“This new reality meant that we needed to find new tools to be able to continue to do our work and serve our clients, who really needed our help,” said Linda Phaneuf, Director of the CLD.
A shock to the system
As you can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic meant a lot of businesses needed assistance—whether financial or otherwise. The CLD was busier than ever, but they had to close their office and start working from home to keep themselves and their clients safe. They were also put in charge of a special COVID emergency fund to help support local businesses through the pandemic. In short, completing closing their doors simply wasn’t an option.
The CLD handles a huge amount of paperwork, from various contracts and agreements to fund requests, payment authorizations, and more. It isn’t uncommon for the CLD to need signatures from a dozen or more signers. But with no way to meet face to face to sign these documents, they needed to find a solution.
“Maxim, one of our internal analysts, started researching electronic signature solutions online,” said Véronique Juneau, the CLD’s administrator.
Simplicity and security
For the CLD, security was a key factor in their decision. “We have our clients sign a lot of important legal documents,” Juneau went on to say. “Maxim was impressed by the two-factor authentication, which is important for us so we can verify who our signers are.” Simplicity was another. “You don’t need to be a tech whiz to figure out how to get it to work. We work with a lot of different people who aren’t necessarily great with technology, so that’s a big plus.” Juneau even said that one of the mayors the CLD frequently collaborates with expressed how easy it was to use eZsign. Plus, it’s available in English and in French, which is a major asset in Quebec.
Many of the businesses the CLD currently advises are working to modernize their processes, and improving their own has been a part of the CLD’s long-term goals, too. COVID-19 really kicked the need into overdrive, forcing them to find ways to make it easier to work remotely. One solution: electronic signatures. And the change has had an impact. Said Juneau, “Now that e-signatures are a part of our process, I think they’re here to stay. eZsign is a great tool, and we’ll keep using it even after COVID.”
The team has gone back at the office, but they have yet to start hosting clients on site. The truth of the matter is that it’s easier for everyone to sign important documents at their convenience, no matter where they are, even if they work in the same place. Signing on a computer or mobile device has huge advantages and can save a significant amount of time.
As more people get used to the shifts brought on by COVID, e-signatures will continue to become the new standard.
A valuable tool
The way we do business has changed, and going back to the way things were before almost seems impossible. The business world is becoming more tech friendly, not less. Even as we start to return to our offices, the ease and convenience of e-signatures means they aren’t going anywhere, and eZsign will be there to help make electronic signatures easy for you. When we asked Véronique to share her final thoughts, she said, “Even though it’s always possible to make improvements, eZsign really is a great application. I’m really happy with it, and it meets all our needs.”
If you’re ready to add e-signatures to your business process, let us show you what eZsign can do. Sign up for our free 10-day trial of our individual account offer or contact our team to discuss how we can serve all your company’s e-signature and payment capture needs
