The other day, someone asked me “How do you know you are the Market Leader in the SaaS ESIGN Market?” Good question because in a new market nearly everyone claims they are the market leader.

What’s interesting is that with SaaS offers, it is actually fairly easy to come up with a proxy for market share by using the same tools that Web sites use. It’s a little more involved because we are not measuring your “.com” site. For example, DocuSign’s service is actually on a different server farm and is at DocuSign.net so it’s a bit more complicated, but attainable.

A Proxy for Market Share – Visits to a SaaS Application

At least in terms of overall activity, ‘visits’ to a SaaS Application online is a good proxy for market share. People do not visit a login page for an online ESIGN tool for fun. They go to log in and sign or send.

Companies like Quantcast, Alexa and Compete.com provide measurement estimates of traffic to sites. Most dismiss Alexa because they use a Web browser toolbar to count visits and this only works with certain browsers, only for users using the toolbar, only focuses on rankings of 100,000 and above (our competition doesn’t show up), and can be easily gamed. Quantcast does not have sufficient data yet. So, for today, Compete.com is the best source having the best data.

Using Compete.com to compare the total visits to the top 9 SaaS ESIGN applications is a fair proxy for measuring market share of these ESIGN vendors. The data is pretty amazing, and shows what we in the industry suspect. The overall market is growing and not surprisingly, more offerings are coming into the market.

The graph below shows the relative size of the top 9 SaaS ESIGN vendors for October 2009:

Here are the same 9 SaaS ESIGN vendors from September 2008:

First, my disclaimer! This is only a PROXY for market share information. There are variables that are likely not taken into account such as API calls, etc. But as a group, the data applies the same to all of these companies.

So what does this data say? Actually, it tells us some very interesting things:

From 9/08 through 9/09, the market has expanded.

• Overall application visits have increased 286%.
• More companies have entered the market.

This data is consistent with what we’re seeing at DocuSign. Our business is up over 350% over this same period.

DocuSign’s market share grew over the past 12 months from 57% to 70% —yes, we’ve had a great year!

This data shows that 2009 has been a big year in ESIGN, and we believe 2010 is gearing up to be even bigger. Want to check out the ESIGN market yourself? Visit www.compete.com and compare different company’s SaaS application sites total visits. This will show you the ‘activity’ level on a comparable basis.

It’s clear e-signing is quickly becoming the preferred method of conducting business. At DocuSign, we strive to give you the best electronic signature services possible with the most rich array of functionality so you can quickly get the signatures you need to close the deal. We make it fast and easy to DocuSign from anywhere, anytime.

Whether it’s sending a simple Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or a complex multi-page, multi-signer sales contract, we work very hard to give you the best e-sign services available. We’re listening. And here’s what we’ve heard so far:

The introduction of DocuSign into our collections process significantly improved DSO contributing to access to over $1M in additional working capital on an annualized basis. – Brian Frank, Director of Global Enterprise Operations, LinkedIn

DocuSign allows us to quickly generate documents and distribute them to the customer for execution and then get them moved on to the supplier to book the energy. It immediately goes from the customer’s office to the supplier so there is a very little gap in time for the market to move. DocuSign helps the customer lock in a rate at a low price and ensures that it gets preserved even if the market is moving quickly. – Scott Chilton, President & Managing Partner, Community Energy, LP

Just by the very nature of how much easier DocuSign is to get a document signed, get it completed and get it archived, DocuSign allows us to go from a couple of days or even a week, down to literally hours to get a contract executed. – Jim Roberson, President & Co-Founder, Drawloop Technologies

DocuSign significantly improved the company’s workflow cycle. With DocuSign, you can always look at the status in real-time and know if the contract is still out there. It makes your job a lot easier, keeping track of what contracts you sent out and what hasn’t come back yet. – Tressa Morgan, Sales Operations Database and Client Support Manager, EDGAR Online

The best part is documents could be signed in literally minutes versus months. I now have complete visibility. With a few clicks, I know who hasn’t signed. – Mike Machado, CRM Manager, Yamaha Commercial Audio

It seems the word is out! Using the Internet, not the Interstate, to get your documents signed is faster, less expensive and becoming the norm in many business segments. It really is inevitable! It will be interesting to see what the data is at this time NEXT YEAR. Stay tuned!

TG

1. “Make it easy and familiar for my signer – I am trying to close a deal, not train them on technology or law.” – DocuSign is the only system that uses the familiar yellow ‘sign here’ and ‘initial here’ tabs. As part of our patented process, these signature indicators are really familiar and our ‘one-click’ signing makes it both legally binding and simple to use. (Some ESIGN tools have some really odd ways they want you to sign[2]).
2. “Give me downstream reliability” – It is important that the solution not make ‘stray marks’ in improper places. My signatures, initials, and data need to be exactly placed, without odd ‘borders’ or ‘seals’ appearing in strange places. Downstream these will always get kicked back.
3. “Help me handle complex transactions” – Often the Real Estate transaction has a number of forms to fill out, initial and sign. DocuSign’s system can automatically recognize your documents and apply templates so you get the benefit of exact signature placement without having to do all the work!
4. “Integrate into my forms software” – By integrating directly into the software Realtors use to create and manage forms, DocuSign makes sending for signature a ‘one click process’. Talk about saving time!
5. “Allow me to sequence my documents to specific roles” – such as buyer & seller, and allow me to easily follow the industry standard practice.

So, these key points make DocuSign the clear leader for the Real Estate market. These and many other reasons explain why so many Realtors blog about DocuSign, tell their customers about DocuSign, and why the word ‘DocuSign’ is being used as a verb for electronic signature and online contract execution! You’ve probably heard it at conferences – you know “Hold on, I need to get my buyer to DocuSign it so I can close this deal”. [1] The same ‘wire’ – the INTERNET, silly! [2] Like ‘mouse cursive’ – ever try signing your name with a mouse? It is just silly. Nobody can – everyone hates it. Amazing waste of time that shows lack of understanding of what signing really is.

I’ve been building online contract execution services for a long time, and recently noticed a trend – for some strange reason, several companies have announced ‘biometric mouse-signing’ capabilities.  These companies are touting this new capability as if it were something special that has not been tried before. Before I tell you OUR story, let’s look into what THEY are saying..

First, they are saying that ‘now‘ you can use your PC mouse to make a ‘legally binding’ signature. A legally binding e-signature really doesn’t have much to do with what the signature LOOKS like; it has to do with a process of showing intent, authenticating the signer, locking down the process, etc. Using your mouse to make a signature has very little to do with this, other than frustrating the signer.

You see, it is EXTREMELY HARD to use a mouse to actually ‘sign’ anything that remotely looks like your signature. It is hard enough on those damaged signature pads at the store! Why is using a mouse so challenging? When you sign your name with a pen, you engage MANY small muscles in your fingers designed for minute movements and pressures against a surface with the right friction[1]. This explains why you can manipulate such small curves. Signing your name with a pen is a delicate thing.

When you use a MOUSE however, you use large muscles – all the way up to your neck! These are NOT able to make minute movements, and most likely, you have not tried it more than a few times because it is just too hard to get your mouse-signature to look anything like your signature. Anyone who has tried knows this.

My mouse ‘signature’ & The second time[2]

When you learn to write your signature, over and over through the years, your small muscles get ‘memory’. This important factor explains why some signature pads can actually collect the ‘biometric’ data about your signing – the pressure, speed, and stroke. Impressively, you will sign close to the same way every time. So ‘signature pad’ vendors actually do collect ‘biometric’ data. If they have a known good writing sample to begin with, this can have some value in case of a dispute.

What I REALLY don’t get is the word ‘biometric’ being used with this ‘new’ mouse-signing process. Unless I am missing something, there is nothing ‘biometric’ about scribbling with your mouse. No data is being captured, and there is no known good writing sample for comparison purposes. Even if we COULD, we don’t have the muscle memory because we don’t sign with mice.

So, why do I say it is the worst of both worlds? Well, signing with a mouse is frustrating – you spend way too much time trying to get it right, when you will never really be satisfied – AND it has no biometric value. In short, you end up putting your poor signer through an exercise of futility with absolutely ZERO benefit…

Some may be asking, “How do you know this?” or “What makes you the expert?” In 2003 when we started DocuSign, this is EXCACTLY what we tried, and EVERYONE hated it. Since it had no value AND everyone hated it, we decided to stop torturing our signers.

So, take some advice – if you are asked to sign with your mouse, you are just being tortured – cancel out and tell the person who sent it to you to use DocuSign.

[2] I can tell you that there is NO WAY I’d let my signature out looking like either of these. Neither is remotely close, and they make me look like I am 7 years old.

We’ve written about electronic signature and online contract execution as a green process previously and a recent article has us thinking about it again.

CNN/Money and Fortune recently published an article, entitled: “Is the overnight envelope anti-green?”

According to this overnight courier, they have networks to reduce the environmental impacts of their customers’ shipments. They even have a digital alternative, in which you can print from your desktop to a FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) in the place where the print product is needed. This eliminates the plane trip. At least ONE way. We think this is a little silly. Of COURSE you can print things at a FedEx Office/Kinko’s! That is how they make money! What did they think you were going to do? Print it at home, then scan it at Kinko’s and print it again? No way, they get at least $.05 per page on the low end at $1.00 a page for the color print outs!

Does this eliminate the car trip to have the print product picked up or delivered? This incurs a carbon cost and doesn’t save time on the recipients’ end. What if they have to make an extra trip to pick up the print product? What if they have to be in a specific, physical location to sign for the envelope when it arrives the next day? What about the toner cartridges used? Electricity used to run those huge machines for the “7×24” that those stores are open.

No, this is not an example of a ‘green process’, but let’s not be too hard on them. Those who are not yet web-published and live in the online world still may need to make flyers, brochures, etc. However, don’t call that GREEN, just call it living in the ‘paper world’. Kind of like the newspapers do.

On the Green topic -CERTAINLY there would be no excuse for a person to send their document to FedEx Office/Kinko’s, use the gas to drive there, print it out on some nice paper, and pay for an overnight letter to ship it somewhere using trucks and planes! THAT would certainly be ‘anti-green’! Especially when you can do all this with DocuSign at a fraction of the time and cost.

Acellion, a provider of managed file transfer solutions that enable business users to quickly, easily and securely transfer digital information, commissioned a report by Ryerson, Masterson & Associates. They estimated that the avoided CO2 emissions from an average overnight envelope were 2.28lbs CO2*.

Think about it. What is the greenest way to sign your contracts and execute your documents? What about electronic signature and online contract execution services, like those offered by DocuSign?

To use DocuSign, all you need is internet connectivity and a web browser. This means you can sign and execute documents where ever you are. I’ve heard stories of contracts being signed from a ferry via blackberry. No extra trips needed and no need to be in a designated place to sign for papers.

Electronic signature and online contract execution is greener than overnight envelopes and faster as well.

When I try to ‘sign,’ either the pad is slippery, or the surface so scratched, I cannot get anything to look remotely like my signature.  That does not appear to matter! 

Apparently, that scratched up signing device isn’t connected to anything that remotely protects my identity. Nothing is ‘validating’ my signature at all – this e-signature process is a total waste of time.

Digital Signature from Tom Gonser

The digital signatures above are actual signatures I provided when checking out!  NEITHER of these looks like my signature and they don’t even look like each other!  How exactly does this prevent signature theft and fraud?

Here at DocuSign, we take signatures more seriously. Our electronic signature process involves creating a customized signature, and adopting it for use online.  Then when you want to sign using YOUR signature, the sender can elect to require several different levels of authentication, thus connecting your electronic signature to YOU. The right authentication level depends on the document and risk.

Purple is opposite of Green. Technically, it is Magenta, but Purple is a meaner color. 

Why do I say Fax is the opposite of Green?

I was just talking to a ski school about the application process. To sign my daughter up for lessons, I needed to fax them a signed application to sign my daughter up for lessons. 

Faxing, a purple process, happens millions of times a day worldwide, and it is REALLY NOT GREEN. Many of the folks requesting that their customers use this purple process don’t even realize what they are doing…

The PURPLE process looks this: 

1. Download a form, or worse, get one in the mail.
2. Print out form with your printer using paper, toner cartridges and electricity.
3. Fill out form by hand and sign with my CC# and other sensitive information
4. Fax the form to a phone number on the form.
   1. Since most homes do not have a fax machine, this ALSO means driving somewhere, consuming gas and creating emissions.
   2. You also need to pay someone else to fax it.
   3. Faxing requires a ‘cover page,’ an additional sheet of paper.
5. The recipient then receives the FAX using more paper, toner and electricity.

What a hassle for customers! Getting through the process takes an hour!

So it should be immediately obvious why I say ‘Fax is purple’ from that above common process. It generates the need to use paper, toner, fuel, and creates exhaust emissions. Did you know this is totally unnecessary?

Let’s look at some other issues: 

1. What if you can’t read my writing? You could make a mistake on my order, and my daughter will have to change from size 6 boots to size 8 or something like that.  Hassle.
2. Can you really tell it was me? You don’t have my signature on file, and the only link back to me is the UPS fax #. This is not exactly a strong connection. With purple fax, fraud is easy!
3. What if I’m responsible with my financial information? Identity theft happens. A service provider just required me to send my credit card number via fax!  Imagine that somewhere at the ski chalet, a piece of paper falls on the floor with my CC#…  Pretty easy to see why that makes me uncomfortable.  I felt uncomfortable when my CC# was visible when I gave the form to the guy at the UPS store where I had it faxed from.
4. I think green is better than purple. We have finite resources and I try to be environmentally responsible.

What if a GREEN process existed?

Lucky for us, the DocuSign process looks like:

1. Open the form on my PC
2. Fill in the fields
3. Sign electronically
4. Instantly and securely, the ski area can access the form WITHOUT using paper, gas and creating emissions
5. Move the data electronically from the form to the ski area system without rekeying and security issues

For customers, this takes 2 minutes and is a breeze. For the Ski Area, they get their payment, contract and data instantly. The lack of manual handling processes helps keep data secure, protecting both the customer and Ski Area. Best of all, they adopted a green process.  

Are you ready to go GREEN?

Yamaha’s old process used to look like this:

1. Sending hard copy documents to Yamaha Dealers, often via FedEx (and we already know what a pain that is!)
2. Following up if a contract wasn’t returned
3. Generating new contracts if something got lost
4. Sending a district manager to follow up if necessary

Ouch! Thanks to an initiative by Mike Machado, the systems specialist in the music marketing group, Yamaha selected and began using DocuSign in May 2007. We now we host all of their documents and link them to Salesforce.com.

Since using DocuSign, Yamaha has:

1. Become more green – cut down on a gigantic paper trail
2. Stored secure copies of agreements – no more unique, one-of-a-kind documents
3. Eliminated mass-mailing costs
4. Attained 100% accuracy – forms are no longer returned with pages or signatures missing
5. Saved time – contract execution process time went from 1 MONTH to 1 DAY

I’m looking forward to a strong 2009, when DocuSign helps more customers attain this sort of success, with an easy “send for signature” rather than the old “print-fax/overnight mail-wait” process. If you are a customer, please drop me a line and let me know how you use DocuSign, and what you’d like to see…

First, the bad news:

Now, the good news: DocuSign offers companies a simple way to slash recurring express shipping expenses and accelerate business. We’re continuing our “Beat Rate Increases”  program through March 31, 2009. Through this program, you can send your documents for signature using the DocuSign electronic signature and contract execution service and reduce your express shipping costs up to 80 percent. This represents millions of dollars in immediate cost savings. In fact, more than 4,000 businesses have executed over 19 million signature events using DocuSign, resulting in dramatic cost savings. 

Why pay approximately $53.96 to one-way express-deliver an envelope from New York to Chicago?

The average cost of this one-way express-delivered envelope is approximately $53.96. If you were to send 5,000 express envelopes per month, you would spend close to $3.2 million annually. If you’re paying for the return envelope at the same rate, double the cost to $6.4 million. That’s a lot of money!

It’s not just rising costs…

Using express shipping, the best case turnaround time is two days or more. Once the package is delivered, the intended recipient needs to be located, sign for the package, open it, review and sign the document and return it to the sender. S-L-O-W.

Using DocuSign, you can complete the entire process online in minutes rather than days from any location in the world with greater security and at a fraction of the cost.   

DocuSign Wants to Help You

We’re extending our program through March 31, 2009 so businesses that sign-up for DocuSign’s “Beat Rate Increases” program receive DocuSign’s electronic envelope signing and sending capabilities at an 80 percent discount over their total 2008 express shipping bill for those documents.

In other words, if you spent $1,000,000 in 2008 for FedEx, UPS or other express shipping services, you can sign-up for the DocuSign program at an annual rate of $200,000. Additionally, DocuSign will provide every new customer with a complimentary cost savings analysis entitled, “How to Slash Your Express Shipping Costs by 80% or More”.

By automating the entire contract execution process online, we’ve enabled our customers to eliminate the paper-based “print-ship-sign-copy-return-scan” process and dramatically save on printing and express shipping operations costs. This means they can close more deals at a faster rate and quickly deliver on new ‘paperless office’ initiatives.

We’d love to hear what you think about saving up to 80 percent on express shipping costs for documents and contracts. You can visit http://www.docusign.com/beat-rate-increases, email sales@docusign.com, or call DocuSign at (866) 219-4318.

Welcome to 2009 Everyone!

I am often impressed when I talk to customers to hear how they have created workflows that we never even dreamed of when we built the service.

This month’s sneak peek is about our Forum. We are in the process of launching a new online community for users and developers called the DocuSign Forum. This forum will allow users to ask anything they want, and to get answers from the folks here at DocuSign, but also from the thousands of DocuSign experts out there who use the service every day. It is only now getting started, but if you have any questions, please check it out at at www.docusign.com/forums, and post away!

The Support team here monitors the user section, and the Professional Services team monitors the developer questions so answers are just a brief posting away. As you will see, I also spend time watching the posts and trying to help out.

Also, if you consider yourself a DocuSign Expert, please contact us. We’ll figure out how to make you famous as a moderator…
TG

The post communicates, “Thankfully, bailouts haven’t been extended to the overnight delivery sector yet. Deutsche Post, the parent company of DHL, announced that it was shutting down its US delivery operations and cutting 9,500 jobs. After several years of trying to boost its market share, DHL decided that the continued costs of operating their delivery infrastructure did not justify the benefits of having 4% market share. While no one ever likes to see job cuts, in a world when we can easily fax or email documents, how many national overnight carriers do we need? ”

I wholeheartedly agree and can expand on that sentiment by adding that eventually we’ll also be asking ourselves the value of fax and email as a reliable and secure way to ‘ship’ documents, especially sensitive and legally-binding ones. The answer is in technology like DocuSign. Now companies can literally save millions of dollars in overnight shipping expense with the use of electronic signature and online contract execution services like DocuSign. And besides the TREMENDOUS cost savings, companies can complete deals light years faster than traditional shipping and mailing process…meaning in hours and minutes versus days and weeks. Completed documents also come back error-free and archived for easy retrieval and review. And perhaps most important, leveraging this technology like DocuSign keeps companies environmentally responsible because it eliminates the need to use paper, faxes and/or fuel required for shipping and mailing.