Small businesses across the globe have been forced to pivot their operations and embrace digital technologies like never before. Consider the corner café that abruptly moved to contactless service, or the Pilates studio that shifted to online instruction, or the family-owned factory that suddenly needed a web presence.

COVID-19 accelerated the need for millions upon millions of businesses, operating in a paper-based world, to suddenly go digital — fast.

If you’re running your own shop, chances are you don’t have a dedicated IT person, or an HR department, and wearing multiple hats comes with the territory. As SMBs look to streamline operations to meet the urgent shift to digital-first customer experiences, we’re excited to unveil a brand-new offering to make this transition a little bit easier: Acrobat Pro with advanced e-sign.

This new all-in-one Acrobat solution gives small business owners powerful Adobe Sign functionality alongside the world’s best PDF tools. Now, small companies can take advantage of digital documents in more ways than ever to help them improve their digital footprint, reach customers online, and interact more professionally. These new Adobe Sign features make it possible to:

Easily embed customer forms into a website with webforms

Collect digital payments with PayPal/Braintree

Add custom branding to electronic contracts and invoices

Utilize advanced form fields for complex customer workflows

SMB owners are often strapped for resources, particularly time and money. We recently surveyed 500 small business owners and senior leaders in the U.S. Here’s what we unearthed:

Technology was the lifeblood for many SMBs during the pandemic: Small businesses cited digital payments (57 percent), virtual meeting tools (54 percent) and e-signatures (52 percent) as critical to survival last year.

Yet — productivity gaps remain with paper: 86 percent said they handle physical paperwork at least once a week, and 51 percent handle physical paperwork daily. The average small business owner signs and processes 16 documents per week, with an average turnaround time of 6 days to fully process a contract. And, only 40 percent of small business owners have digitized contract management with vendors and suppliers, including collecting e-signatures.

With a new appreciation for technology, small businesses are planning to invest: Small businesses expect to spend nearly $10,000 on software (i.e., digital tools, solutions, or apps) in 2021 — an increase from last year according to nearly half of respondents. The top 5 priorities for SMBs are digital payments, e-signatures, digital documents, CRM tools and remote work tools.

For small business owners, every minute spent on busywork is a minute lost on something more important. That’s exactly why we designed the latest Acrobat offering with a fresh and easy-to-use web-based interface. The most important tools are front and center and there’s no need to hire an IT person to get up and running. Administrative work is quickly digitized, without a steep learning curve or a major investment, and it can connect to existing software like Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, and more.

Acrobat with advanced e-sign gives small businesses what they need to ditch the pen, paper, and postage for good. Create and edit PDFs, collaborate with others, and manage e-signatures in one simple, digital solution. With Adobe, there’s no need to jump from app to app, or cobble together disparate PDF and e-signature point solutions to get the job done.