Here’s a 2015 problem: you’ve binned your fax machine. It was so passe it was embarrassing. Yet it also provided an easy way for someone to sign a document, then send you a copy.
You can replicate the same procedure with a scanner. But as Adobe Asia Pacific President Paul Robinson tells NBR, many people in lower-socio economic groups don’t actually have a scanner. And in fact the Adobe executive – presumably not on a lower-decile salary – admits he doesn’t usually have one on hand either.
Enter Adobe’s latest cloud foray, Document Cloud, which aims to make it easier to process and share documents saved to the company’s Adobe Acrobat format.
Mr Robson says Document Cloud isn’t a competitor to the many file sharing services out there like Dropbox, and its Apple, Google and Microsoft equivalents.
Rather, it’s for document processing. The idea is people will use it to create, review, approve, sign and track documents whether on a desktop or mobile device.
Document Cloud includes several tricks that aren’t new to the Adobe universe, but which have been adopted for mobile with the new service. One party trick: when using Document Cloud on a smartphone or tablet, you can use the device’s camera to take an image of a document, which is then converted to editable text.
But what’s the situation with those digital signatures?
“E-signatures have been proved under Australian and New Zealand Law. It’s the intent to sign not the physical act,” he says.
Lowndes Jordan partner Rick Shera, agrees, with one proviso.
“Online signature systems are perfectly valid for almost all situations, including those involving witnesses, unless the law specifically requires a physical signature – wills being just about the only example of that in New Zealand,” he says.
Adobe is not the only game in town when it comes to e-signatures, incidentally. Auckland startup Secured Signing has developed a digital signing service that’s being used by Mitre 10, H&R Block, Manpower and several councils. If you’re after an e-signature solution only, it’s worth checking out.
Adobe Document Cloud will cost $A14.99 per person per month (as with the company’s Creative Cloud, one $A price is charged across Australia and New Zealand). It’s expected to launch in around a month.
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Adobe pushes e-signatures, smarter PDF sharing with Document Cloud
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