This is a story of how DocuSign’s e-signature technology working with Salesforce helped Yamaha cut $10,000 a month in costs and accelerate its workflow.

Yamaha Corporation of America distributes and sells musical instruments via its nationwide network of 7,000 retail stores. For years, Yamaha’s contract process included courier costs, human errors and missing pages. Yamaha’s systems specialist, Mike Machado shares: “We depended on a lengthy signature process… Sometimes the forms weren’t signed in the right places and folks would strike things out. We often received incomplete agreements.”

So what’s an enterprise company to do when it comes time to update its master agreement with 7,000 retail stores?

Could it ask its sales reps to stuff over 5,000 envelopes and spend nearly $15,000 in courier charges? Of course, this course of action doesn’t account for time spent waiting for the documents to be returned as well as time spent following up and following up on the follow up.

Instead, Yamaha’s Machado spent three months researching various Web-based products that would preserve “the look and feel of a paper-based experience,” while cutting costs and expediting the process.

Yamaha chose DocuSign for its user-friendly interface and low cost. The DocuSign electronic signature service and workflow solution was implemented in a 30-day deployment across three of Yamaha’s sales divisions.

Before Yamaha signed the electronic signature line with DocuSign, Yamaha’s in-house legal counsel spent 30-days extensively researching the processes involved with e-signature capture, data storage as well as the electronic signatures themselves to ensure that electronic signatures captured via DocuSign would be legally binding.

Now, Yamaha’s dealers log on to a secure site and review a contract. The program automatically generates an e-signature that can be modified with different fonts or including a middle initial. Each electronic signature that is generated is also unique to each signer. Yellow “Sign Here” tabs instruct dealers where to eSign by clicking to place their signatures. Because only properly signed contracts can be routed further, this process ensures no more missing signatures or initials. For record keeping, completed documents can be downloaded and saved as a PDF.

Because Yamaha was both a DocuSign and Salesforce customer, they were able to use DocuSign Connect for Salesforce. This gave Yamaha the ability to track the status of the documents in Salesforce so they know when each document was delivered, opened and signed.

With Salesforce integration, they can also collect the data from the electronic contracts and automatically update Salesforce when contracts are completed.

So where did the $10,000 monthly savings come from? Yamaha did not have to send multiple contracts via courier. DocuSign’s software-as-a-service, or SaaS, electronic signature technology meant that no additional IT infrastructure investment was necessary to implement this solution.

So how long does it take to complete a formerly month-long, labor intensive contract signing process that includes approximately half-dozen approvals? “[It] can now be completed in minutes” according to Machado.

With visibility into where a contract is in the process, Yamaha’s sales representatives can address bottlenecks, so they can move deals forward.

So what are the primary benefits of electronic signature technology?

…turn-around time, cost savings and an improved regulatory posture – all of which benefit from economies of scale.” – Bill Nagel, Forrester Research

To learn more about how DocuSign electronic signature can benefit your company, take a look at the DocuSign web site and try DocuSign Lite for free. DocuSign will also be at Salesforce Dreamforce, November 17-20, 2009, in San Francisco – connect with us there!

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