We often write about how electronic signature and paperless office processes can positively impact your business. One of our subscribers, Michael J. O’Connor, recently earned a byline in REALTOR® Online Magazine for sharing some of the changes he made in his office to save time, money and be more environmentally friendly.

In terms of bottom-line, in 2008 I spent over $5,000 on printing costs (paper, toner, printer drums, etc). In 2009 I cut this by about $2,000 while more than doubling my transaction volume. I am spending more on workflow tools but nowhere near the amount that I’ve offset in printing costs – in today’s constant battle to improve the bottom-line I am quite happy with these results. – Michael J. O’Connor, Diamond Ridge Realty

O’Connor shared these tips:

• Opt for PDF
• Use electronic signatures from DocuSign
• Share and store documents electronically
• Reuse handouts

DocuSign automatically converts uploaded documents into PDF for signature and enables you to store your completed documents in DocuSign as long as you remain a subscriber. You can access your documents at any time and download them as needed to share via email. With DocuSign’s sending order and sending roles functionality, you can even CC the other agent on the transaction when setting up documents for signature!

Want to know O’Connor’s thoughts about DocuSign?

Use Digital Signatures.  I am a huge – HUGE – fan of DocuSign.  This week I participated in a webinar where company executives shared the results of their March 2010 Executive Customer Conference and showed us some of the improvements in the works for their products – and they are very actively educating the mortgage community about the security of electronic signatures.  One great improvement will be an available link right on the electronically signed document that you can use to see the full document certification – very powerful improvement.  They will also be allowing a fax-back feature as well as an attach document feature which will also provide much greater usability to the system.  DocuSign has also partnered with the NAR to bring some key advantages for us into the product lineup as well as a special pricing plan.  If you are having any trouble figuring out how to use the DocuSign, they offer a FREE weekly ‘Jump Start’ interactive webinar that you can attend as many times as you would like.  Once you have the basics down, you should focus on how to create ‘templates’ so that you only have to modify a few bits of information when creating a transaction for signature.

With electronic signature from DocuSign and implementing a paperless office, O’Connor is “achieving fast turn-around times, less gas, less paper & toner costs, less physical storage requirements and higher customer satisfaction for my transactions.”

He isn’t the only one! How have other real estate professionals benefited from implementing eSignature from DocuSign?

Nancy Alert and Associates uses DocuSign’s electronic signature services to quickly and securely close deals for globetrotting clients. DocuSign expedites the average turnaround of real estate documents from days to minutes—even for clients travelling overseas. Metro D.C.‐based, Nancy Alert also leverages DocuSign’s speed and security as a competitive differentiator in a quickly changing real estate market.

Our First Nest Realty accelerates the signing process for real estate documents with eSign services from DocuSign. DocuSign’s eSignature services helps Our First Nest Realty enhance client satisfaction and demonstrate the company’s commitment to environmentally-friendly, green business processes.

REThink Real Estate implemented DocuSign’s eSignature solutions to accelerate its real estate document signing process. This leading San Francisco Bay Area-based real estate firm employs DocuSign’s electronic signature services as the primary vehicle to complete real estate transactions.  DocuSign expedites the average turnaround time of real estate documents from days to minutes. DocuSign helped REThink Real Estate successfully expand and leverage DocuSign’s green technology as a market differentiator and competitive advantage.

Want to learn more about how DocuSign’s electronic signature services can help you? Take a look at the DocuSign web site for more information about eSignature for real estate!

Lauren Bernstein, VP of Operations, ActiveRain

It’s the perfect partnership—ActiveRain gives real estate professionals the tools to use the Internet to extend reach and capture business opportunities. DocuSign’s e-signature service uses the Internet to accelerate business and close deals faster. Adding DocuSign as a sponsor offers our real estate community another tool to increase success in a highly competitive environment. – Lauren Bernstein, vice president of operations at ActiveRain

To kick-off the partnership, DocuSign will be a sponsor of ActiveRain’s Denver RainCamp to be held at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center in Englewood on Tuesday, March 9. The fifth in the U.S. tour, the Denver RainCamp is a full day conference offering valuable content, presentations and innovations that help real estate professionals with social networking, blogging and business planning. RainCamp was developed for real estate professionals seeking successful methods and tools to maximize and grow their online business in today’s modern day real estate market. DocuSign is the exclusive eSignature service sponsor of the event. More information can be found at the RainCamp Web site.

In this economic environment, employing technology is the most cost-effective method to grow a business. We are looking forward to extending our reach through ActiveRain and partnering to help real estate professionals learn how to effectively leverage technology like DocuSign’s electronic signature service to close deals faster, safer and more efficiently. – Dave Thorpe, business development director at DocuSign

More than 20,000 real estate professionals have used DocuSign to accelerate their business, with thousands more subscribing each month. Rather than driving across town to get a signature or forcing clients to find a fax machine, real estate professionals use DocuSign to execute agreements with buyers and sellers electronically, eliminating the antiquated process of printing, faxing and waiting for the return fax. As more than 95 percent of home buyers have Internet access, but fewer than 10 percent have fax service at their home, DocuSign saves agents time and money while providing client convenience. Real estate forms are signed in minutes, not days, from a PC, Mac or even a mobile phone. DocuSign real estate professional subscribers achieve higher sales, increase client satisfaction and maintain a competitive edge.

Safe and secure, the DocuSign e-signature process is also easy to use and legally compliant.

In 2009, DocuSign was named to the “Red Herring 100″ for excellence in entrepreneurship and innovation in North American technology companies from a list of 200 finalists, culled from a list of hundreds of candidates. We were proud to be named one of 2009’s most promising private technology ventures in North America and now have received a Global 100 nomination for the Red Herring Awards for our electronic signature solution.

Thanks to your valuable feedback about our electronic signature and online contract execution processes to enable us to innovate and continuously improve DocuSign’s offerings, DocuSign continues to lead innovation in electronic signature, eSign and digital e-signature services that enable you to electronically send, sign and manage your documents with confidence. Thank you to our global customers who nominated us for this honor – what a way to start 2010!

Why is DocuSign a great fit for real estate?

Real estate agents are busy professionals – landing listings, showing homes, helping buyers find the right home, helping sellers sell their homes, preparing documents for their clients to sign… I could go on. In addition to DocuSign’s integration with transaction management solutions specifically for real estate, the DocuSign system provides other advantages as well.

DocuSign’s electronic signature and online contract execution service provides:

Time Savings: DocuSign’s integration with the major real estate forms providers (ZipLogix, RealFast, DocCentral, Reveal, IRES…) means that you can use the technology you already have to create your documents.Templates from DocuSign Professional Advance enable you to save even more time if you repeatedly send many standard documents. Just create the document once, save it as a template, and use the template moving forward. This saves you even more time.

DocuSign also automates reminders, so you don’t have to remember to call or email to follow up every few days. DocuSign automatically reminds your signers that they have documents awaiting their signatures!

Increased client satisfaction: DocuSign’s senders report that signers also appreciate the convenience and ease of electronic signature and online contract execution. Imagine this: your client is suddenly called away on business and things start moving. Do you really want to ask your client to print out copies of the papers for signature, sign, and then fax back? It’s one more thing for your client to do when he or she is very busy.

Instead, you can send your client an email with a link that takes him or her to a secure site. Your client can log in, adopt his or her signature, apply it where indicated by the yellow stick-e-tabs. Once your client has finished the process, you receive an email notification that the signing process is complete. No more hunting for a fax machine, no more phone tag to confirm that the fax arrived to the right hands, and best of all, no more putting life on hold because you have to get papers signed.

Clear, completed documents, every time: The yellow stick-e-tabs make sure that senders get the signatures and initials they need. This means that you don’t have to fax and re-fax documents because page 21 is missing some initials. Faxes also aren’t as clear – the document quality gets more and more degraded as papers are faxed back and forth. With DocuSign, senders can see what documents are still in process and which ones are completed, all from one dashboard.

What other reasons have you experienced that show the fit between real estate and electronic signature / electronic contract execution?

Enjoy the questions and answers – as always, please feel free to head over to the DocuSign forums to ask us your questions about electronic signatures, share your expertise developed from your early adoption of electronic signatures, and give us feedback on what features you’d like to see in future releases!

Q: Is there any way for signers to be able to read rather than jump to next tab, during the online contract execution process?

A: Signers can use the navigation bar to scroll through the document at their leisure. The signer can also print or download the document. Another option for signers is clicking on the “printable version” button near the top of the screen once they are viewing the electronic document. A menu will pop up and the signer can select the ‘envelope PDF’ and either save the PDF to their computer or print out a copy.

Q: I got an email saying that my document had been signed… how do I get the copy?

A: Once the document is uploaded, tagged and sent, it stays on the website. The client(s) get a notification to sign, and then you get a notification that electronic contract execution process was completed. No actual documents are ever transferred back and forth because emailing sensitive documents as email attachments is against many state and federal laws. “Solutions” that actually email documents back to signers after they have been signed create some potentially serious legal issues for the users.

Also, you can check the status or retrieve your documents any time by logging into your DocuSign account, going to your Sent Items folder, and selecting the envelope.

Q: I have opened a document that was signed by DocuSign and it says “problems with one or more signatures”. How can I correct this?

A: There is nothing wrong with the DocuSign signatures on the document. The message you’ve encountered is usually caused by Adobe Acrobat not automatically trusting the VeriSign PKI Certificate (digital signature) on your DocuSign document. This is fairly easy to remedy. Follow the steps below:

*Adobe Acrobat 9

- Log-in to DocuSign
- Open up the DocuSign Envelope and double-click to open.
- Click on PRINTABLE VERSION in the upper right.
- Adobe Acrobat will launch in a new window with your file displayed in PDF format.
- Click on “Signature Panel Button” (upper right) and the signature panel opens to the left
- Right click on “Rev.1: Signed by DocuSign, Inc.”
- Click on “Show Signature Properties”
- Click “Show Certificate button” (under the summary tab) – the Certificate Viewer opens
- Click “Trust” tab.
- Click “Add to Trusted Identities”
- Adobe Security window opens, click “OK”
- Click OK again until you exit from the all the dialogue boxes.

Next time you open up a PDF, the DocuSign Signature should be valid (trusted). Find more information from Adobe about digital signatures, changes and improvements.

Come to the DocuSign Forum and join the discussions about electronic signatures and electronic contract execution.

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.

The “Best Evidence Rule” provides that in order to prove the content of a writing, the original writing is required. An “original” is defined as the writing itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by a person executing or issuing it. If data are stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight, shown to reflect the data accurately, is an original.

The Federal Rules require that all documentary evidence be presented in admissible form, including that the evidence must be properly identified and authenticated. The party seeking to introduce an electronic record into evidence must present declarations or other evidence showing that the document is what it is purported to be. Authentication may require evidence proving the genuineness of signatures or a declaration from the document’s custodian laying a foundation for admissibility. Genuineness is provable based on the character of the signature, and the elements of character will be established by the facts surrounding the signature event.

In the case of an electronic signature, then, it is important to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the finder of fact that (a) the appropriate level and amount of information surrounding the signing process was retained, and (b) the system used to retain the information is itself reliable.

Additional requirements arise in a situation where two substantively different documents purport to genuine. The finders of fact will seek to determine the identity of the true “original” document. In the paper/ink world, this would be accomplished in part by expert testimony about the handwriting, paper and/or ink when comparing the two documents. Where the documents are electronic, the proof will lie in the logs, timestamps, encryption/hashing, etc. associated with the creation and storage of the document and signature(s).

Further, chain of custody will be critical for persuasive argument that the document introduced is the true original, or a true copy thereof. If the current custodian is also a party to the litigation, there will be higher burden on that party to demonstrate that the document has not been altered. Any proof offered must relate specifically to the record whose veracity is at issue. However, where a secure, third-party electronic signature system is used to create and store the electronic record, the burden on the defending party is reduced substantially, often allowing the party to merely demonstrate that the system can reliably produce a verifiable copy of the original signed document.

The factors to consider include, at a minimum: fulfillment of the original writing requirement, presentation in admissible form, retention of appropriate information regarding the signing process, and reliability of the system used to retain the information. Of course, specific relationships with third party providers and/or vendors, if applicable, will change the burden on the challenging party.

DocuSign’s electronic signature and electronic contract execution solution is one of the few that addresses all of the above. Before signing the document which fulfills the original writing requirement, DocuSign includes an authentication process that satisfies the presentation in admissible form requirement. DocuSign also retains logs regarding the signing process and custody of documents throughout the electronic contract execution process, reducing the burden on the defending party.

The blogger, Jon Griffith, brought up two great points. The first discussed emailing attachments of large files. The second concerned electronic signature and online contract execution.

E-mail Attachments – Really?

According to Jon, e-mail’s initial purpose is to send and receive short messages electronically. Then someone invented the attachment feature. Attachments take up bandwidth, especially when you’re emailing large file to multiple recipients. If you want to share a file with multiple people, Jon suggests creating a central repository such as a Web site or file sharing site where those interested in your content can go download your files at their leisure.

YouTube and Vimeo hosts users’ videos that they can then share through other social networking or sharing sites, including flickr, Del.icio.us, Facebook, and Digg. Those interested in the videos can also watch them directly on the site. Flickr enables its users to share their photographs. By publishing their photos to the Web, Flickr’s users can avoid sending emails with 20 photographs attached. If you want to share slide decks, such as those made with Power Point, Slideshare is worth checking out. I could go on ad infinitum, but I think you get my point.

Digital Signatures – They Just Make Sense

Jon is a smart guy:

DocuSign is an absolutely brilliant tool that allows you to send anything you have on your screen through a printer driver to a digital signature Web site. The recipient clicks a few tabs on the document and the document is stored online permanently for you to access at any time.

In addition to his discussion about the ease of DocuSign as a E-signature and electronic contract execution (ECE) tool, Jon also shares his perspective on handwritten signatures. We’ve previously written about the security flaws of wet signatures and Jon expands on that discussion, pointing out that scanning a wet signature, using a photo-editing program and inserting it on to a document is fairly easy.

For example, with wet signatures, you (1) download (2) print, (3) sign, (4) scan, (5) re-attach, and then (6) send. Then the other party has to do the same.

With DocuSign, you (1) print to DocuSign, (2) indicate needed signatures, (3) click to sign, (4) send. However, the other party only needs to click and can do it from anywhere in the world anytime they want. As the sender, you are immediately notified when they’re done signing. It’s fast and easy. You can complete the process even in your jammies.

From sharing content online and therefore saving hosting and bandwidth costs to using online contract execution services like those provided by DocuSign, you can leverage technology to save on operating costs and accelerate your business.

The blogger, Jon Griffith, brought up two great points. The first discussed emailing attachments of large files. The second concerned electronic signature and online contract execution.

E-mail Attachments – Really?

According to Jon, e-mail’s initial purpose is to send and receive short messages electronically. Then someone invented the attachment feature. Attachments take up bandwidth, especially when you’re emailing large file to multiple recipients. If you want to share a file with multiple people, Jon suggests creating a central repository such as a Web site or file sharing site where those interested in your content can go download your files at their leisure.

YouTube and Vimeo hosts users’ videos that they can then share through other social networking or sharing sites, including flickr, Del.icio.us, Facebook, and Digg. Those interested in the videos can also watch them directly on the site. Flickr enables its users to share their photographs. By publishing their photos to the Web, Flickr’s users can avoid sending emails with 20 photographs attached. If you want to share slide decks, such as those made with Power Point, Slideshare is worth checking out. I could go on ad infinitum, but I think you get my point.

Digital Signatures – They Just Make Sense

Jon is a smart guy:

DocuSign is an absolutely brilliant tool that allows you to send anything you have on your screen through a printer driver to a digital signature Web site. The recipient clicks a few tabs on the document and the document is stored online permanently for you to access at any time.

In addition to his discussion about the ease of DocuSign as a E-signature and electronic contract execution (ECE) tool, Jon also shares his perspective on handwritten signatures. We’ve previously written about the security flaws of wet signatures and Jon expands on that discussion, pointing out that scanning a wet signature, using a photo-editing program and inserting it on to a document is fairly easy.

For example, with wet signatures, you (1) download (2) print, (3) sign, (4) scan, (5) re-attach, and then (6) send. Then the other party has to do the same.

With DocuSign, you (1) print to DocuSign, (2) indicate needed signatures, (3) click to sign, (4) send. However, the other party only needs to click and can do it from anywhere in the world anytime they want. As the sender, you are immediately notified when they’re done signing. It’s fast and easy. You can complete the process even in your jammies.

From sharing content online and therefore saving hosting and bandwidth costs to using online contract execution services like those provided by DocuSign, you can leverage technology to save on operating costs and accelerate your business.

Image courtesy of flickr user Mzelle Biscotte under Creative Commons.

Another presentation that day was from DocuSign’s Professional Services group. This is a highly skilled and experienced part of our business. In fact, they are one among many things that distinguishes DocuSign as an enterprise-class, web-based electronic signature service. Our Professional Services group has executed over 75 successful implementations of DocuSign for customers. Listening to our Professional Services team outline and give examples of what they have developed and executed for customers at the ECC meetings, it made us realize that much of what they have done constitutes best practices for electronic signatures across dozens of industries and an equal number of business processes. As such, we thought it was time to give our Professional Services group their due.

Through occasional posts under the title of the Transforming Business Series, they will share what they have accomplished for customers, the how and the results. I hope you enjoy reading these. You will be getting a peek at one of the things that makes DocuSign a fun and interesting company.