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25/06/2026 12:54 am
TL;DR: Email-only signing workflows slow agreement completion, reduce visibility, and miss mobile-first users, while SMS reminders can improve completion rates and speed time to close according to OneSpan and cited market research. The identity lesson is that customer-facing workflows now need channel choice, consent controls, and auditability, not just message delivery.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by OneSpan: How multi-channel notifications are redefining agreement turnaround eSignature Ralitsa Miteva, September 4, 2025
By the numbers:
- 84% of consumers have opted-in to receive texts from businesses in 2025.
- SMS boasts a 98% open rate, with 90% read within 3 minutes.
- 72% of finance brands have embedded SMS into their communication strategies.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should organisations govern SMS notifications in eSignature workflows?
A: Organisations should govern SMS notifications as part of the identity and transaction workflow, not as a standalone messaging feature.
Q: When do email-only signing workflows become a problem?
A: Email-only signing becomes a problem when recipients are mobile-first, time-sensitive, or likely to miss inbox messages in high-volume environments.
Q: What do teams get wrong about SMS in regulated agreement flows?
A: Teams often treat SMS as a delivery upgrade instead of a governed communication channel.
Practitioner guidance
- Map notification channels to transaction risk tiers Classify eSignature flows by business criticality and regulatory exposure, then define which channels are permitted for each tier.
- Implement consent-aware channel routing Capture explicit opt-in and opt-out preferences before sending SMS reminders, and store those preferences alongside the signing record.
- Log every outbound signing message Record timestamp, recipient, channel, template purpose, and delivery outcome for each notification.
What's in the full article
OneSpan's full post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The message-state examples used in signing flows, including document ready, reminder to sign, and agreement signed.
- The compliance framing for SMS notifications in US and Canadian markets, including opt-in and opt-out requirements.
- The white-labeling approach for keeping the sender brand front and center during the signing journey.
- The product-specific implementation context for teams that want to embed multi-channel notifications into existing eSignature workflows.
👉 Read OneSpan's analysis of multi-channel notifications for eSignature workflows →
Multi-channel eSignature notifications: what it means for IAM teams?
Explore further
25/06/2026 9:59 am
Multi-channel notifications turn the signing channel into an identity control surface. The article is not really about messaging efficiency. It is about the fact that customer and third-party identity journeys now depend on whether an organisation can deliver the right prompt through the right channel at the right time, with auditable consent. That shifts eSignature governance closer to identity lifecycle thinking, where delivery, approval, and completion form one controlled path.
A few things that frame the scale:
- The average estimated time to remediate a leaked secret is 27 days, despite 75% of organisations expressing strong confidence in their secrets management capabilities, according to The State of Secrets in AppSec.
- Only 44% of developers are reported to follow security best practices for secrets management, exposing a significant developer behaviour gap, according to The State of Secrets in AppSec.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who is accountable if a signing notification process causes compliance issues?
A: Accountability sits with the organisation that designed and approved the workflow, not with the recipient who missed the message. Identity, compliance, and application owners should jointly define the permitted channels, retention rules, and audit evidence for each agreement type. If those controls are absent, responsibility remains internal.
👉 Read our full editorial: Multi-channel eSignature notifications reduce agreement turnaround delays
