Pen and paper is an inferior option for executing legally binding agreements. Yet a recent study commissioned by Adobe Systems Inc. found that 98 percent of surveyed managers "still rely on hard copy in the ‘last mile’ to deliver contracts to get clients and customers to sign on the dotted line." Such madness needs to cease. Electronic signatures are an idea whose time has long since come.
First, a confession of bias: I lose physical objects. At this point, family members gift me key finders for sport. They wager on how long it will take me to misplace both my keys (weekly) and the finder (immediately to three months). Paper, in particular, seems to vanish into thin air despite the fact that I use so little of it the 20 pages currently in my office are conspicuous and easy enough to sift through.
