Sign, Seal, and Deliver with E-Signatures
Improving sales, saving time, and cutting costs are good reasons to implement e-signature applications, but they aren't the only ones. Global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca needed to ensure compliance standards were met in internal workflows. Its research and development organization maintains high volumes of contracts, which require careful management when transferring documents back and forth between suppliers, explains Jay Merenda, AstraZeneca's head of procurement and technical capabilities.
The company must also ensure that the document being signed is, indeed, the latest version of that document. Fortunately, e-signatures are recorded in real time through time-stamping and with signature verification to ensure the person signing it is the proper holder of the document. This creates a level of transparency within the document or contract that is vital for auditing or regulatory purposes.
Because an e-signed document has to fit into a particular business process or workflow, storage is a key piece of the puzzle. "We're using Ariba Contracts as a repository where people can search and find contracts," Merenda says, and because DocuSign has a prebuilt connector into the contract management system, this would be a natural fit for the organization.
After e-signatures are rolled out for research and development, Merenda says the company's procurement team would be the next area of adoption. Considering drivers like productivity, efficiency, and compliance, electronic signage lets "you see the latest status of your document and you get some level of standardization, as well." Merenda says he expects a full rollout of e-signatures by the end of the second quarter in 2013.
Driving Adoption
When considering the overwhelming popularity of tablets in the enterprise and the fact that many e-signature applications are available in the low-cost Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model, analysts expect the technology's popularity to climb. In 2009, the SaaS delivery model facilitated less than 5 percent of all e-signature transactions, according to Gartner. The research firm expects this number to jump to 50 percent by next year.
Among the vendors in the SaaS e-signature market are Adobe, AlphaTrus, AssureSign, Dictao, DocuSign, eLynx, Keynectis, RightSignature, RPost, Sertifi, and Silanis.
Adobe, which acquired e-signature start-up company EchoSign in July 2011, is positioned as a SaaS market leader by Gartner. The company plans to continue building vertical solutions for healthcare and insurance companies, according to Adobe's Lynch.
DocuSign, which Gartner identifies as a leader in the North America region, is also investing in solutions for these verticals as well as for financial services companies, according to Dustin Grosse, DocuSign's chief marketing officer.
While experts agree that the market for e-signatures will continue to proliferate, "e-signature as a market [in and of itself] can't exist," Silanis' Petrogiannis argues. "It has to be integrated into some sort of a process to make an end-to-end transaction happen."
Gartner indicates that the most common integration points for SaaS e-signature solutions are enterprise content management platforms, ERP, and CRM systems.
With the integration points established and the availability of low-cost e-signature SaaS solutions, the market is primed for growth. And the growing popularity of tablets in the enterprise should serve as rocket fuel to propel the technology's adoption.
Common E-Signature Questions
Because e-signatures have the ability to alter the way enterprises conduct business and the manner in which individuals sign off on mortgage agreements or file insurance claims, there can still be a fear factor in the unknown. Pen and paper may be the tried and true way to sign contracts, but experts say e-signatures are just as—if not more—secure because they are legally binding and trackable. Unless a paper document is sent as certified mail, there is no guarantee the recipient ever received the form or contract. E-signed documents, however, can be tracked in real time. Providers like DocuSign, for instance, are internationally certified as information security management systems, and regularly undergo third-party audits. Here are some common questions enterprises have when considering implementing e-signatures:
Is it safe? Adobe Senior Product Manager Mangesh Bhandarkar says this was an early-stage question for e-signature prospectives, but that the buyer is now much more educated. "Security is becoming more of a check box than an objection question," he maintains. Once Adobe satisfies customers' security concerns, questions like "How do you automate my processes?" and "What integrations do we need to use?" usually follow.
Are e-signatures legally binding? In 2000, the federal E-Sign Act signed by President Bill Clinton legitimized the digital signature and guaranteed a transaction could be upheld in courts of law. For highly regulated industries such as health care, insurance, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, e-signatures provide an extra layer of protection in meeting regulatory standards. And, with the advent of mobile signage, further context can be added to a transaction through geolocation information.
Who is the purchaser? As small teams within the enterprise, such as human resources or sales, adopted e-signatures, there was a domino effect as other teams in the organization saw the benefits of the solution. DocuSign's senior vice president of worldwide sales, Joe Fuca, says the adoption conversation occurs within every level in the enterprise, from chief information officers to heads of sales operations, human resources, or procurement teams.
Where can my organization benefit the most using e-signatures? Gartner's Kreizman says the clear winner is operational efficiency. "It shows itself in many colors, from reduced cycle time to completing a transaction and saving." As he points out, any time a company can execute more quickly than its competition, it can onboard customers faster and increase sales and visibility.
Associate Editor Kelly Liyakasa can be reached at kliyakasa@infotoday.com.