New Delhi, Jul 30 (IANS): To reduce the paper-dependency of smaller businesses, software giant Adobe on Tuesday integrated its "Sign" feature into the desktop app of its document management system Acrobat Reader which would enable e-signature capabilities.

According to a new research from Adobe, even in this digital era, small business employees rank paper-based processes as a top impediment to running their business more efficiently, with 75 per cent reporting they still sign documents with pen and paper.

In a survey of 500 businesses, 42 per cent of small company employees report that paper-based processes slow their productivity

This integration would allow Acrobat Reader users send two documents for e-signature each month, free of the subscription charge.

"Millions of small businesses already rely on Adobe to simplify document work - converting paper to digital with Adobe Scan, creating, reviewing and editing PDFs with Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Sign for small business now completes the toolbox for small companies to fully digitize their business," said Ashley Still, Vice President and General Manager, Adobe Document Cloud.

With Adobe Sign's integration with other services, users would be able to sign and pay for services in a single step and bulk send a single form to hundreds at once and get e-signatures.

An existing research from Forrester suggests that each document signed manually costs 1.3 hours and $11 in time spent.

Adobe Sign's integration into the Acrobat reader would help small business employees in the US save both, time and money by using electronic signatures.

This functionality would soon roll out globally as part of the latest version of Acrobat Reader.