Inquiry Spotlight: E-Signatures, Q2 2009

The current economic and regulatory climate has made it more important than ever for firms to find ways of streamlining business processes while maintaining the security and integrity of the associated data. E-signatures combine the security of digital signing with the efficiencies of business process automation to lower the costs of acquiring and transacting with customers while bolstering regulatory compliance. Forrester's IT security and risk management team fielded 4,683 inquiries on a variety of security-related topics between January 2006 and February 2009 — 93 of which came from IT professionals interested in e-signatures. Nearly 60% of the e-signature inquiries asked how firms are using e-signatures; Forrester clients were also interested in which industries are the primary adopters of e-signatures and asked for assistance in navigating the landscape of e-signature vendors.