Harnessing the future: How Adobe Acrobat's PDFs and e-signatures are helping digitize businesses in Africa
Digital transformation is inevitable for businesses of all sizes, but it's often easier said than done. Deloitte discovered that operational challenges in digital transformation are the top concern for directors, senior executives, and CEOs.
These challenges are particularly amplified in dynamic regions like Sub-Saharan Africa that are experiencing rapid population and urbanization growth, volatile commodity prices, fluctuating economic integration, service delivery issues, and escalating weather and domestic threats.
Digital transformation in polarized regions of Africa requires enterprise digital solutions that are best of breed but specifically tailored to the local context. Companies that originated in Africa are uniquely positioned to comprehend the contextual intricacies that impact organizations within the continent.
The journey of Learning Curve
Learning Curve, an Adobe Platinum Reseller, is a thought leader and a native African business. With over 15 years of industry knowledge, they continue to provide practical, transformative guidance that brings digital innovation to companies of all sizes.
As a rapidly growing business itself, situated within South Africa, Learning Curves’ journey is a model of innovative digital solutions transforming organizations within the contextual problems posed by the greater socio-economic landscape.
“Learning Curve has been at the forefront of innovative and specialized software licensing for over 25-years, and we’ve brought many firsts to the South African market.”
— Bishen Gosai, Learning Curve
Learning Curve’s e-signature specialist, Bishen Gosai, has helped over 500 businesses in Africa and Mauritius to streamline their processes, systems, and customer journeys with the use of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Sign software. Upon joining Learning Curve, Bishen was able to enhance their customer registration process by 2000 percent and reduce a 2-week process to just 1 hour, thanks to the 50+ superpowers of Acrobat and Acrobat Sign combined with Bishen’s experience and Adobe software expertise.
Image by Learning Curve — Customer registration form.
Helping customers stay at the cusp of innovation
Learning Curve prides themselves on staying close to the market and keeping pace with change. They offer products and services and hand in hand help for companies, educational institutions, and governments to grow in ways they hadn’t thought of. As their values state, “It’s this agility that gives us our client-centric nature, where we put you, the client, at the center of everything we do.”
In a recent conversation with a financial services company, Gosai uncovered that with over 1000 Acrobat seats, they did not see their expected utilization and process improvements. Gosai strategized with them to begin quarterly workshops that included hands-on use and review of the features available to them. “There were definitely some WOW moments,” Gosai states, “When they saw the redaction and optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, people got really excited.”
Maximizing the return of existing technology
At the core of Learning Curve’s approach is a diverse team that boasts over 60 years of industry knowledge. The ever-growing team of software specialists and product specialists are bonded by intrinsic values that prioritize offering support throughout the integration process.
An example of this support is the conversations they are having regarding e-signatures. Acrobat’s recently expanded e-signature capabilities includes unlimited transactions of basic e-signature use cases. Acrobat Sign, on the other hand, remains best suited for more bespoke use cases that need workflow, system integration or compliance features. According to Bishen, this has “entirely changed the conversation around e-signing”.
“Once we can get the client’s needs clearly stated, clients often realize they have the need for both solutions, but in very different manners,” said Gosai. Clients realize that they can address widespread, basic e-signing use cases and efficient document workflows with the Acrobat licenses they already hold, and address more advanced e-signature needs with Adobe Sign. Which is a mutually beneficial process.
Looking towards the future
Learning Curve is impacting businesses in this region with a steadfast approach. Using Adobe digital document solutions, clients are experiencing significant gains in digital transformation without the need for complex toolsets and massive projects. Using simple forms, Adobe’s electronic signature capabilities, and the effectiveness of Acrobat, businesses across Africa, regardless of their scale, are experiencing a level of digital transformation that they previously deemed unattainable.