Companies That Use eSignatures to Innovate & Save Money

“Once in a while you can get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.”
-- The Grateful Dead

OK, so maybe I'm harkening back to my college days, but this quote does ring home for me. As we all know, it's quite common for engineers or programmers to develop a new form of technology or a new application that may sound impressive, but at the end of the day does it really help anyone? Many years ago a friend of mine bought his kids a small robotic dog that could understand voice commands. It would do things like roll over or sit down. Big deal. The kids lost interest after a day and now that toy is collecting dust somewhere in the back of the closet.

Since we started DocuSign over three years ago, one of our goals has been to create easy to use technology that streamlines the contract and document signing process...a service that fundamentally transforms business processes like the Web and Federal Express and UPS have and, most importantly, provides real business benefits. Our service helps companies close deals faster, increase revenue, lock out the competition and helps make a positive impact on the environment. But what are the other interesting ways that eSignatures are being used?

Recently DocuSign announced that Aloha Airlines had become the first international airline to use eSignatures as a core part of its flight operations. That means Aloha Airlines' pilots and dispatchers are using DocuSign to quickly and easily file and electronically sign mission-critical flight plans at the Honolulu-based carrier. Take a moment to check out Rob Willers' blog, TheAirlineHub, to get his take on this recent news and to see how eSignatures are positively impacting the airline industry.

eSignatures help keep Aloha Airlines' planes on time. In fact, on October 3, Aloha Airlines announced that it had reclaimed the top spot as the most punctual of the nation's airlines with a record-breaking 97 percent on-time record for August 2007. That is the best monthly performance posted in the past two years among all the airlines that report to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

What other ways can eSignatures help improve the way your company works? Yamaha keeps the pulse and shares information with over 7,200 resellers and channel partners using our eSignature service. Expedia helps close deals with its travel partners on a global basis. But one of the best, and most surprising stories, comes from our own backyard in Bellevue, Wash.

For many of us, the start of spring means Little League baseball and the start of fall means soccer season. While the kids are happy, what does that actually mean for the parents? It means running kids to ball games, and for coaches and volunteers, it means lots of paperwork getting documents such as release forms signed. Even in kids' sports leagues, data has to be collected and documents signed by parents and coaches alike. With insurance, liability risk and governing bodies to worry about, leagues can't begin play until everyone has signed on the dotted line.

For the Bellevue Boys & Girls Club Pony League and my colleague Brit Skinner specifically, it meant getting 45 coaches applications filled out and signed immediately. To ensure accuracy and to be as efficient as possible, Brit decided to use DocuSign. In a matter of minutes Brit was able to sign up for the service, upload the release forms, and put tabs to indicate where we needed the coaches to provide information and to sign. With the DocuSign dashboard, she was able to see who had signed the document and when. She also was granted access to the admin at the Boys & Girls Club, so she didn't have fax all the contracts over the place, or manually go through and try to figure out who they were missing.

It's great to see that all the hard work we put into making DocuSign powerful and easy to use is making life easier for companies and people in areas we never imagined. Have some ideas or suggestions for how we can help you? Give me a shout and let's talk.