Self Service Centers: New Pattern in DocuSign Application Delivery

I am on the plane coming back from discussing application development and electronic signature with an independent software vendor in Florida. Recently, DocuSign has been collaborating more often with companies that use DocuSign electronic signature services to extend their vertical applications. This particular partner specializes in form generation for credit unions and county governments.

During design sessions and analysis of the credit union and county government, we realized that many of the forms for county are self-service forms.

License renewals and various applications used to sit in the office. One had to stop by to fill them out. Recently, things have changed a little bit. Many of these paper processes went to “half paper,” meaning that a PDF was available on a publicly facing website. One can print out the necessary form, fill it out and then mail or fax it in.

To be fair, some of these processes went to full web-based applications with web forms. Unfortunately, changing one of these applications or updating the forms requires that the county work with the IT department and change the relevant web pages. After some software development, testing the new process, and deploying the updated web app, the county now has two radically different processes. One is the "half paper" process, or a form with pages. The web-based application usually looks like a web interview.

Fortunately, DocuSign integration gives you the best of both worlds! Here is the self-service pattern when you have DocuSign electronic signature integrated into the forms process:

1. The county stands up a self-service web page with a list of self service forms, and these minimum three elements: name input, e-mail input and “Send me forms” button.
2. Behind the scenes, DocuSign templates have a “Signer” role and a “Processor” role with a defined recipient.
3. The self-service web page has a form post handler that takes the information about which form was selected and the recipient information. The form post handler makes a call to CreateEnvelopesFromTemplates

What does the user experience look like?

1. A user goes to the self-service webpage and selects the appropriate form.
2. After filling out the requested information, the user clicks on “Send me forms”
3. The form handler directs the user to check their e-mail.
4. The e-mail contains a DocuSign envelope activation link.
5. The user clicks the link, taking them to an electronic form that looks just like the familiar paper form.
6. The user e-signs the form to complete the process.

With DocuSign's carbon copy feature, the processor gets a fully completed form with all the form field validation and a complete electronic signature.

All the automation and filing possibilities can take place from here. For example, if someone gets a large number of forms - you can leverage e-mail rules or web services to file the forms where appropriate.

The DocuSign API allows one to take the data fields and through web services, populate databases or kick off other workflow processes.

One of the common questions I get is: “How do I know that people are not just sending forms and signing using a fake e-mail?”

DocuSign's integration with RSA ID Verification technology enables you to set up ID Verification. The ID Verification can be set up on a per role basis and it can be dependent on a form.

In short, I'm seeing this very powerful, yet simple pattern starting to emerge. You can implement this solution for any organization with downloadable PDFs or a stack of forms waiting for customers to sign.
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PS: For IT folks - there is just one web service call to learn.