DocuSign Version 9.1 Is Here!

The demand for on-demand electronic signature and online contract execution continues to grow in 2009. DocuSign has hit some tremendous milestones as we help our customers completely replace the expensive and inefficient processes of printing, transporting, signing, tracking, storing paper contracts and capturing business data.

Our customers report:

• Immediately lowering operating costs up to 80%,
• Eliminating Not-In-Good-Order (NIGO) rates,
• Reducing contract cycle times from 24 days to 24 hours or fewer.

DocuSign has:

• Over 25 million signature events
• 56% increase in use of our electronic signature and electronic contract execution (ECE) services from Q4′08
• 300% growth over Q1′08

DocuSign version 9.1 offers significant new and unique features, and continues to simplify the user experience in order to further accelerate the widespread adoption of electronic signatures and ECE. New features include:

• Electronic Signature Personalization—DocuSign delivers the only online electronic signature experience that offers signers the ability to create and save their own unique electronic signature.  With this new release, DocuSign now offers signers the ability to load an exact image of their handwritten signature for use as part of their DocuSign e-signature, creating an even more personalized process.
• Simple and Powerful Sending—The new experience of sending documents for electronic signature is even more familiar, easier and more powerful. Using the familiar paradigm of drafting an email, a single screen guides the user through the simple process of sending documents for signature.
• Intelligent Document Recognition™ (IDR)—The proprietary new feature analyzes documents loaded into the DocuSign system and automatically applies all ‘sign-here’ and other data tabs based on pre-defined customer workflows. This innovation is a dramatic time savings for power users that often send the same contract or agreement for signature multiple times a day, or for complex contracts.
• Support for Additional Document Formats—The new service now automatically provides real-time conversion of a broad range of document formats to secure PDFs on the fly.  Customers no longer need to convert documents to PDF, saving a step in the process.
• Improved In-person Signing Experience—Electronic contract execution is becoming more common during in-person signings with multiple signers—especially for real estate, insurance and financial services customers. Using the new in-person signing process, DocuSign introduces a ‘Signing Host’ who acts much like a notary, authenticating the signers and administering the process.

We recently unveiled the new electronic signature and contract execution capabilities available in DocuSign Version 9.1 at our Executive Customer Council (ECC) in Washington D.C. DocuSign’s ECC represents many of the world’s largest and most successful companies, including Fortune 500 customers and partners from financial services, insurance, telecommunications, supply chain, procurement, technology, manufacturing, travel and real estate.

Ariba, the world’s largest supplier of automated supply chain software and services, and one of the key strategic partners for DocuSign, was introduced to Version 9.1 at DocuSign’s ECC. Last month, we announced a strategic partnership with Ariba, the world’s largest supplier of automated supply chain software and services, to revolutionize the entire contract execution process by integrating DocuSign Version 9.1 within Ariba’s platform.

“With the volume and complexity of enterprise contracts on the rise, no company can afford delays in contract execution or unauditable offline procedures. Adding DocuSign’s electronic signature capabilities to Ariba Contract Management enables completely paperless contract execution and a fully automated contract lifecycle,” said Tim Minahan, chief marketing officer at Ariba. “The combination of Ariba and DocuSign Version 9.1 raises the standard for security and visibility into arguably the most critical step in closing your business agreements–the final signature.”

Tom Gonser, our founder and VP, Product Strategy, shares these words:

We have a customer-oriented culture which guides our development and new product delivery.  DocuSign’s latest release is a mature SaaS product that reinforces DocuSign’s position as the market leader and is a complete solution for eliminating the manual processing of paper contracts and forms. By focusing on cutting operational costs, accelerating revenue, and immediately impacting efficiency and profitability, our customers are driving tremendous business results for DocuSign.