Laila Robak

SigniFlow™️ Americas is an independent company, 100% woman-owned, located in New Hampshire, United States that holds the exclusive trade rights for SigniFlow (owned by PBSA – formerly known as Pitney Bowes South Africa) in the American Continents.

SigniFlow focuses on document, workflow and e-signature management; assisting companies to go digital with the benefits of heightened security, reduced costs, and less time spent on paper-based processes. Additionally, digitalization enables users to become more efficient and environmentally friendly by decreasing the usage of paper, ink and other sources that contribute to deforestation and pollution. Different from other solutions in the market, SigniFlow offers an out-of-the-box Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and a series of APIs that allow cloud, local and hybrid deployment options, all of which ensure compliance with industry, national, international, regional and internal security requirements.

An Enriched Industry Leader

Laila Robak is the CEO of SigniFlow Americas. She studied Computer Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and continued her education at Southern New Hampshire University where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies with a concentration in International Business. Additionally, Laila has completed a modest catalogue of continuing education courses and has certifications in Identity and Access Management, Cybersecurity Fundamentals, Computer Forensics, Business Management, and several other subjects. She has been in the IT industry for over 14 years and started her career as a Programmer. Over the years, Laila worked for entities such as the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, COPPETEC, and IBM Brasil. More recently, she worked as Vice President of Latin America at GlobalSign (where she was awarded the CRN Top Women of the Channel nomination in 2013) and Director of Partnerships at DigiCert, both companies focused on digital identities and encryption.

Laila started SigniFlow Americas in 2018, bringing a new, more flexible concept of e-signature to the American Continent. The company offers increased efficiency and digital security for industries such as banking, finances, healthcare, education, and many others by adding to their already successful platform features and processes required by the American market. She has been working in the digital identity and security industry for over 8 years and is proud to be able to apply her knowledge to the company’s platform, assisting businesses of all sizes with compliance, security, efficiency, and productivity.

Valuing Security Concerns

SigniFlow Americas’ primary concern is customer security. According to Laila, looking at the market from a worldwide perspective, there is noticeable concern surrounding data security. This has resulted in the emergence of new laws and requirements at all levels including industry (FICA, PCI, etc.), national (LGPD in Brazil, Patriot Act in the US, etc.) and regional and international (the EU GDPR). The lack of cohesion between levels and standards makes it difficult for companies to ensure compliance with all laws and requirements that may apply to them.

SigniFlow solves this problem. It is a solution that gives companies flexibility that no other e-signature solution does. The company offers multiple deployment options (cloud, local and hybrid) and several security layers, with end-to-end encryption and strong authentication throughout, assisting companies to digitalize processes without having to worry about separate security and compliance concerns.

Curating Success from Past Lessons

Laila feels being a woman in the IT industry is a challenge in itself but that is a great learning experience. “Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of resistance as well as diminishing behavior from some individuals that, at times, can make it very hard and has taught me determination, perseverance and, overall, that we need to believe in ourselves and stand up for what we believe in. That being said, behavior is important and I have always made sure to respect, listen and lead by example,” she added.

Ensuring Clients’ Security

SigniFlow is a cryptographic services provider; all processes going through its engine are encrypted from end-to-end. The cryptographic equipment it employs is NIST FIPS 140-2 Certified. The company also performs quarterly penetration tests, use the OWASP standards for secure development, and, hold the ISO 9001-2015 and ISO 27001 certifications.

SigniFlow Americas provides strong identity authentication and can add different layers of security according to customer needs. Furthermore, every electronic signature is sealed with a digital certificate in order to guarantee the integrity, authenticity, and non-repudiation of the document and the signature itself.

Overcoming Challenges to Stand Out in the Crowd

During her success journey, Laila expressed, “As a young woman in an Executive position you do face a lot of resistance at times. I think the biggest challenge was learning that other peoples’ behavior is their choice and that does not reflect on who you are; because you do start discrediting yourself as other people treated you wrongfully. If anything, the journey just made me stronger and overall gave me more of a purpose. No other girl—or anyone—will go through the same things as I have, as long as I can assist, I do hope to make a difference for future generations to come.”

The Future of Digital Security Solutions

Laila believes the industry is challenging in two significant ways: overall security and compliance.

According to her, the more digital the world becomes the more threats there are. Unfortunately, although we do have easy access to technology, especially with all connected devices inside and outside companies, there is still a lack of digital education and most people who use technology today are sharing information that they aren’t even aware they are sharing. In Laila’s opinion, one way to combat this is implementing digital security education into schools’ curriculums.

“With all the potential threats out there and the lack of education; industries, governments and companies are growing increasingly concerned and that concern is being translated into several different, decentralized, security policies; which, instead of being helpful, can make compliance difficult. Rather than being an investment, many companies now view security a financial burden. We hope to change that view and encourage companies to make an investment in security that they will actually see a return on. Because the safer you are, the more customers will trust you and the more customers you will attract,” she asserts.

Words of Advice to Leaders

In her advice to the emerging leaders, Laila utters, “Trust is the foundation for all and any company to be successful, make sure you invest time not only in developing an idea you have but actually knowing your customers, their pains and what they really need. Make it sure your solution is being well-communicated to each customer to show them you took the time to understand, after all, there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to digital security.”

She also advises leaders to be assertive, but listen to your team; be fair and overall, lead by example.