DocuSign it with eDottedLine! Add Electronic Signature to Your Outlook

What an overwhelming response to @Ware's launch of eDottedLine TM!  This innovative new electronic signature application quickly extends DocuSign's functionality within Microsoft Outlook so you can work smarter, not harder!

Some of you wanted to know more about @Ware and its founder, president and CEO, James Harvey. Here are answers to a few of your questions:

What do you do?

Harvey: @Ware is my own software consulting firm and I've been doing this since October 1993. I love it. Many of the products I've developed over the years have involved the IMAP/OutLook/Exchange technologies. In fact, I've focused primarily on this area for the bulk of my career because I enjoy it so much.  Outlook is fascinating and challenging because it is a platform onto itself—an operating system within an operating system, if you will. You'll often confront some very interesting problems when developing a product for Outlook and/or IMAP.

I was lucky to have participated in three such product efforts for RIM—way before anyone had heard of the BlackBerry. I was also fortunate to develop the Extended IMAP SMTP Transport Provider that shipped with the 2.0 and 3.0 versions of the Netscape Navigator product. I finished this the day before Netscape went public! These two experiences were incredible opportunities and I see many parallels with my experience with DocuSign.

Why did you create the DocuSign eSignature / OutLook email add-in?

Harvey: DocuSign has ascended rapidly as the gold standard for online eSignature technology. Outlook has been the gold standard for desktop communications for the past 16 years. Bringing these two technologies together seemed too obvious to pass up. After all, Outlook is a natural context for performing e-signature transactions. I just made sense.

Did you encounter any challenges?

Harvey: There were only a few. Getting the workflow model right was the most difficult. With Outlook, there are many ways to come at a problem with each strategy having a subtle trade off. The other challenge was that DocuSign's approach to security requires more work than other SOAP APIs, which indicates that DocuSign is serious about security. I believe if you're going to spend more time and effort on anything, it should be security.

What future development plans do you have?

Harvey: I am considering the idea of porting the capabilities of eDottedLine to other email clients. I'm also working on some Outlook form customizations so that users can view DocuSign envelopes within their Outlook task receipts.

Where can I get eDottedLine?

Harvey: Just go to the @Ware site at www.atware.com/esignature.html. You'll find a link to down the add-in plus links to videos and other material.

eDottedLine Sign-Offs

eDottedLine was created using the DocuSign API and SDK. Interested in registering for a free DocuSign Developer account to inject electronic signature capabilities into your existing technology? Sign up now at the DocuSign Developer Center for free access to the DocuSign API and SDK and register for the weekly developer webinars!