Did you know that this month has been a busy one for electronic signature in the news? Going paperless and using DocuSign was named the number one way to use technology to save time and money in Inman News.

Inman News: 5 Ways to Use Tech To Save Time and Money by Katie Lance

1. Go paperless. One of the biggest trends I am seeing are agents using DocuSign. DocuSign is an amazing product that really helps agents be more efficient and save more time and money. Clients love it, and as a bonus, it helps you to go “green.”

My biggest piece of advice for agents is to embrace technology. It’s not always easy, but we are living in an amazing age. Think of the world before we had the Internet, compared to now — isn’t it amazing?!  Don’t be afraid of technology; embrace it and it will save you more time and money in the long haul.

DocuSign has partnered with many other real estate technology providers to enable you to keep your processes paperless. Click to learn more about our real estate partners.

Recently, Adobe announced an e-Signature SaaS offering, which prompted commentary from our own Tom Gonser. TechFlash published Tom’s response, following their reporting on Adobe’s new electronic signature service.

TechFlash: DocuSign to Adobe: Thanks for validating the e-signature market by John Cook

Last Friday, we reported on Adobe’s new offering in the electronic signatures arena, a move that we suggested could strike some fear into the hearts of the folks behind DocuSign. But the Seattle electronic signature startup is hardly running scared. In fact, founder and vice president of product strategy Tom Gonser said in a follow-up statement that his initial reaction to Adobe’s new offering was: “What took them so long?”

“Seeing Adobe enter the market validates what we’ve known for years—this is a huge market, and our SaaS-based product delivers tremendous value very quickly. Seeing Adobe abandon software-based electronic signature software in favor of this new service-based approach illustrates the rapid decline of software-based PKI digital signature solutions, which are too complex and costly to administer and manage. As the trusted leader in SaaS-based electronic signatures with over four million users, and the established standard in important markets like Financial Services and Real Estate (where the National Association for Realtors (NAR) has named DocuSign as the exclusive provider to the entire REALTOR market), we have a sizeable market lead over Adobe.

If you compare our service to the new Adobe service, it is immediately obvious that we have a sizable product lead also. DocuSign provides much more than just a signature. We also provide authentication, workflow, data collection and collaboration—all critical components of a business-class e-signature platform. The Adobe service has none of this. So we see this announcement as the best of both worlds. A large company just validated the market we created more than six years ago is huge, and it offers a solution that is not competitive. The awareness created by Adobe will accelerate DocuSign’s business even more.”

If you want to try DocuSign’s free electronic signature service, DocuSign Lite, go to DocuSign.com and use the widget on the right hand side of your screen. You can also use DocuSign Lite as a Firefox plug in or as an iGoogle gadget.

Mortgage Technology Magazine mentioned DocuSign’s “Designed for Mobile” functionality, as it enables users to eSign from their mobile devices, including iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile phones.

Mortgage Technology Magazine: Mobile Technology Boom by Anthony Garritano

DocuSign has taken it a step further by allowing users to e-sign on their iPhone. With the recent release of DocuSign Version 9 and the newly deployed ‘Designed for Mobile’ functionality, DocuSign users can now view and e-sign documents on Android-based handhelds, such as Google Nexus One, T-Mobile G1 and more than two dozen devices, and access a new status console optimized for mobile browsers. This expanded functionality ensures business transactions are completed faster and easier—from anywhere, anytime.

Today busy professionals are demanding services that offer the convenience to conduct business while on the move. These services must be cost effective and flexible, with the ability to adapt to any environment, including quickly-evolving mobile platforms. Analysts predict that Android will become the world’s most popular smartphone platform by 2012, with estimates of more than 31.8 million Android phones and 126 million Android-based portable products to ship in 2013. DocuSign’s interoperability with Android technology offers users the ultimate in global on-the-go signing flexibility.

Learn more about DocuSign’s mobile eSigning capabilities and see specific “Designed for Mobile” content on the DocuSign blog.

DocuSign also enables loan lenders, such as credit unions, to close loans paperlessly and stay ahead of Regulation Z. eDOC Innovations chose DocuSign to add eSignature to its ProDOC solution.

Credit Union Times: eDoc Adds Online Signatures, Hosts User Meeting by Marc Rapport

eDOC Innovations said it has added online electronic signature capabilities to its lending documentation platform and that a group of customer credit unions have just held their first user meeting.

The Utah-based company said it partnered with DocuSign to add the signature capability to its ProDOC solution and that $838 million, 85,000-member Idaho Central Credit Union is a first user.

The digital signature capability allows for a paperless loan closing, the document management company said.

Click for more information about how DocuSign speeds up the loan closing process and helps credit unions stay ahead of Regulation Z. Learn more about credit unions that have integrated DocuSign eSignature by clicking here.

Last Friday, Adobe, the largest proponent of PKI based digital signature software, announced a CLOUD based electronic signature solution that allows users to upload PDF documents and send them for eSignature – no confusing PKI or Software to deal with! This is a dramatic departure from the Acrobat Software Centric PKI Digital Signature approach that they have been pushing for so long.

We at DocuSign are happy to see Adobe join the market for Cloud based electronic signing – a market that we created more than 6 years ago. Adobe’s dramatic shift from software oriented PKI certificate based signing signals what we’ve known for a long time: PKI & software based electronic signing is just too complicated. Adobe’s endorsement of SaaS based electronic signing, is an indicator that certificate based document signing is not the best electronic signing technology.

While Adobe’s efforts are headed the right direction to the clouds, their first solution is far short of any being able to have any meaningful business impact. Their customers will discover that merely uploading a PDF and sending it to an email to sign is just not enough to satisfy mainstream business process. The Adobe offer actually does less than our own ‘DocuSign Lite’ sending tool that we offer for free from our web site. At least with DocuSign Lite, you can eSign on the dotted line – you can’t with Adobe.

What DocuSign has learned over the years has made us the Trusted Standard in the Electronic Signature market. We learned that in order to have REAL BUSINESS ROI, you need to deliver much more than just a signature. You need to provide an entire suite of capabilities that work seamlessly together to enable businesses to manage the whole transaction including authentication, workflow, eforms, and integration – and you need to hide complex technology behind a familiar user experience.

Adobe certainly CAN develop a full function esignature platform – they are a $17B company with millions of users. This is also not the first time another company liked/copied our approach — DocuSign has been showing the way in this market over the years, and we’ll keep leading and innovating this market as we have always done. Adobe can even leverage some of the capabilities they have in their underlying server software called “Livecycle,” which is currently used to run their Cloud ESIGN service. Their biggest internal struggle will probably be how their Cloud based model impacts their ability to sell their Lifecycle server software, which sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This makes me wonder if they can ‘afford’ to provide a real business solution that does enough to have a business impact as a Cloud based service – especially a free one.

Adobe, we’re glad you’ve joined us in the Cloud. Perhaps we can work together sometime.

– Tom Gonser

This video will show you how to use DocuSign’s Freeform signing feature to drag signatures, initials, and form fields to any location in the document to complete the signing.

• Open the email sent to you from the DocuSign eSignature Service.
• Click the “Review” button to open your envelope.
• Click the “I Agree” box for the consumer disclosure statement.
• Click the “I Adopt” box to adopt or to modify your signature, click the “Modify your Signature” link.
• Click “Continue”

Your document appears in the window. Use the palette on the left of the document to click and drag signatures, initials and form fields to any location in the document.

The example in the video shows the selection and dragging of the signature and date signed form fields to the document.

You can reposition or remove any form fields you had previously added before you complete your signing. You can stay and review your document. Click the “Complete Signing” button when you’re done.

The completed window appears. Here, you can download or print a PDF of your signed documents. Click “Done” when you’re finished. That’s it!

For more information on how to use DocuSign Electronic Signature Services, take a look at our other helpful “How-To’s”, sign up for a weekly training, or see other how-to ESIGN videos on DocuSign’s YouTube Channel!

• 73% eSign Market Share
• 20,000+ DocuSign Customers
• 54 Million eSignature Events to Date – for the updated number of e-signature events, take a look at the DocuSign home page.

**DocuSign’s estimate based on market share data collected using compete.com and comparing the usage at the leading SaaS vendors’ applications in 2009 calendar year. For more information on ESIGN market leader methodology, click here.

Why do so many people who use electronic signature use DocuSign?

We have the customer stories from American Airlines, EDGAR® Online, LinkedIn, Yamaha and many others. DocuSign also has the honor of being the official and exclusive provider of ESIGN Services for the National Association of REALTORS® 1.2 million members under the REALTOR Benefits® Program and offer the special ESIGN Advantage Promotion for REALTORS®.

What Makes DocuSign Electronic Signature the ESIGN Industry Leader?

Delivered more than 480 customer-driven features while concurrently deploying the eSign industry’s only fully redundant data centers supporting high availability and immediate disaster recovery. We look for user testers via Twitter and have released features such as husband-and-wife signing, uploading one’s own signature, templates and Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR), Designed for Mobile, and many others.

Deployed a 10X upgrade in processing power and storage while consistently maintaining 99.993 percent system availability over the past 24 months. This system availability exceeds our SLA – we enable you to securely send, sign and manage your digital documents with confidence.

Offer live trainings via webinars every Thursday at 10am PST. We strive to provide you with the knowledge and understanding to use DocuSign so you can save time. Other options to learning more about DocuSign’s eSignature capabilities include a DocuSign YouTube Channel with plenty of how-to videos as well as this blog on which we regularly blog tips and tricks. If live webinars, videos, and blog posts aren’t enough, we also have FAQ’s, forums, and product updates and other documentation.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – 2010 is going to be a GREAT year for ESIGN. If you’re a current DocuSign customer, become a fan on Facebook. Leave us a comment. Let us know if you want to test features before the official release. Tell us about your event and let us know how we can help.

If you’re not yet a DocuSign customer, ask yourself if you’d like to save time. Ask yourself if you’d like to provide your clients with even better service. Ask yourself if you’d like to close deals faster and when you’re ready, let us know. If you want to try free electronic signature, try DocuSign Lite and send a document for esignature, FREE!

Designed for Mobile™: DocuSign’s Designed for Mobile signing process enables smartphone users with data plans and internet access to view and e-sign documents from their Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile, Google Android, and Blackberry phones. With no app to download, DocuSign users simply navigate to DocuSign and sign in by clicking the “I am on a mobile device” link to see their status console optimized for mobile browsers.

Fax Support: Signers can now elect to print and sign on paper, returning the documents by faxing them back into the DocuSign envelope. For example, notarized documents can be executed on paper and returned securely to the sender through the DocuSign transaction, and stored electronically.

Signer Attachments: DocuSign users can now request additional documentation from their signers such as a copy of a driver’s license, W-2 or other required documents right from the DocuSign envelope. Signers can upload or fax any of the required documents and complete the transaction online, creating a secure transaction with all necessary documentation inside the DocuSign envelope.

Signature Sizing: DocuSign users can now easily re-size their electronic signature and initials to fit into smaller forms. The resulting signed documents are neater and easier to read – no more information covered by an electronic signature.

DocuSign Lite: DocuSign Lite allows anyone to send a document to be signed electronically with an e-signature — completely free. Available directly from the DocuSign home page, DocuSign Lite is fast, easy-to-use, and does not require a user to register for an account, provide credentials or enter credit card information. Anyone who needs a document signed can simply come to the DocuSign Web site and send a document for e-signature absolutely free — no paper, no account and no cost. Why did we create DocuSign Lite?

As the industry leader, we are actively educating the market on the tremendous benefits of e-signing. Once people are educated through the free use of DocuSign Lite, experience tells us they subscribe to one of our paid service plans that include such powerful features as tracking document status, sending to multiple recipients, sending multiple documents, secure long term storage and instant retrieval of documents. However, if you really only need to get a simple document signed every once in a while, this is a great resource to help save time, money and the environment. – Tom Gonser, Founder and VP of Product Strategy

With so many great features released in 2009, we’re looking forward to creating even more powerful features in 2010, to save you even more time when you securely send, sign and manage your documents with confidence using DocuSign’s electronic signature services.
For 2010, we have several releases scheduled including features such as…

… did you think we’d let the cat out of the bag this soon? Check back with us and we PROMISE to let you know about exciting innovations in electronic signature!

Want Free Electronic Signature? Try DocuSign Lite

We think everyone should be able to get a document eSigned with no paper, no account and no cost – that’s why we created DocuSign Lite. You can access DocuSign Lite from the DocuSign home page and DocuSign Lite does not require account registration or credit card information – it’s FREE e-signature!

One Email Address, Two Individuals…Multiple Signers with ESIGN

Some documents require more than signatures from more than one person. How can you ensure you get the electronic signatures you need in the online contract execution process? DocuSign’s electronic signature and electronic contract execution system supports multiple signers – a necessary feature when one of the system features includes sequential signing!

Work Smarter with a Tool Your Mom Can Use

One of the fascinating elements of social media is the ability to spark conversation. Conversations we’re interested in concern electronic signatures and electronic contract execution. Nick Bastian, a DocuSign power user, wrote about DocuSign in a blog post, Work Smarter, Not Just Harder.

Second Century Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in DocuSign

We’re excited to announce that Second Century Ventures (SCV) has made a strategic investment in DocuSign, the leading electronic signature service provider. As part of the investment, the president of Second Century Ventures and chief executive officer of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), Dale A. Stinton will join the DocuSign Board of Directors.

How-To Use DocuSign on Your Mac

Imagine this: You’re at the Apple store, and you’re in line at the Genius Bar, waiting for your MacBook Pro to get looked at. You overhear a customer and a Genius talking, wondering if the MacBook is DocuSign compatible.
This really happened to Robert Sanchez, DocuSign’s Regional Sales Director. The couple behind him contemplated the purchase

From new electronic signature innovations, notable partnerships with industry leaders and inclusion at conferences to share information and answer questions about e-signature, DocuSign’s industry leadership during 2009 will continue throughout 2010. Keep an eye out for some exciting initiatives throughout next year!

Did you miss Part One of the Top 10 Real Estate and Electronic Signature Moments in 2009? Just click the link! This is also the last week of the “ESIGN Advantage Promotion for REALTORS®” available to all NAR Members. Ring in the New Year with a new tool that helps you save time!

• We kicked off October with our Fall Release, bringing additional powerful functionality to DocuSign’s electronic signature services. Key features include Designed for Mobile, Sign on Paper (Mixed Mode Signing), Request Documents, Fix on the Fly, Resizable Electronic Signatures and more
• Stories about fast tracking sales, increasing access to working capital, or cutting costs and accelerating workflow with DocuSign for Salesforce
• Time Saving Tips to help you take advantage of workflow rules and Advanced features and tips on how to integrate DocuSign with your forms creation software – zipForms, WINForms, Adobe and others
• A presentation by Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer, about the Legality of Electronic Signatures in Real Estate. Ken gave this presentation at the California Association of Realtors EXPO (CAR EXPO) to share some key information
• DocuSign Lite, a free electronic signature service that lets you try the power of electronic signature without account creation or a credit card

Next month, we have more up our sleeves – you’ll have to check in with us in-person at NAR EXPO, RE BarCamp San Diego, or Dreamforce. Otherwise, you can always check in with us via this blog, Twitter, or Facebook!

Last week, Coachella Valley Escrow’s weekly Tech Tuesday post featured a video discussing DocuSign and electronic signature. Did you know that DocuSign is compatible with zipForms, WINForms, TrueForms, Realfast, DocCentral and Transaction Point? If you want to learn more about using DocuSign with your current forms creation software, take a look at this How-To.

In addition to the video interview conducted at the CAR 2009 Conference & EXPO earlier this month in San Jose, Coachella Valley Escrow also highlighted some of our more popular blog posts, including: “The Legality of Electronic Signatures”, “Why DocuSign Electronic Signature Might be a Realtor’s Best Friend”, and “The DocuSign ESIGNControl App by Smart Mobile Solutions”.

Want to Learn More about DocuSign Electronic Signature?

Other popular posts from the DocuSign blog include:

Want Free Electronic Signature? Try DocuSign Lite: With DocuSign lite, you can get a document eSigned with no paper, no account and no cost. You can also try the Mozilla Firefox plugin, LOOP to PDF tool, or iGoogle Gadget.

FHA and Lender Acceptance: With background information about the federal ESIGN Act, HUD and FHA policy, and frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) about electronic signatures in real estate transactions, this post is a valuable resource for those who have questions about electronic signatures, the FHA and lender acceptance.

How-To ESIGN: In-Person Signing with DocuSign: If you want to leverage the power of DocuSign electronic signature and preserve the face-to-face interaction with your clients, you can use DocuSign’s in-person signing feature. This means you can keep all of your files DocuSigned and consistent! You no longer have to keep track of paper copies, and your clients can download their signed, easy-to-read copy.

If you missed meeting us at CAR EXPO in San Jose, the DocuSign team will be at REBar Camp San Diego November 12, 2009 and NAR EXPO in San Diego November 13-16, 2009. Stop by and say hi!

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!

To use DocuSign Lite:

1. Go to the DocuSign home page



2. Enter your email and name as well as the person you are sending to
3. Upload your document for signature by clicking on the “Browse” Button
4. Click “Send Now”



5. Signers open their email from DocuSign to click to esign

DocuSign Everywhere

Today, thousands of companies utilize the DocuSign on-demand electronic signature service as a standalone web application or as an integrated part of business critical applications such as zipLogix, Salesforce.com and Ariba. In addition, DocuSign is the only electronic signature service that enables access to the sending and esigning experience via options that include a DocuSign Desktop Client, a broad range of Blackberrys and the iPhone, in addition to the web browser experience.

More Choices!

Most recently, DocuSign with partner Smart Mobile Solutions announced the availability of the ESignControl iPhone App in the iTunes App Store. Another example of a business partner integration resulted in DocuSign Express For Drawloop.

DocuSign and Drawloop Technologies, Inc. offers a free esign experience as part of Drawloop’s free PDF conversion tool. You can access DocuSign for Drawloop via web, as a Mozilla Firefox add-on, or as an iGoogle Gadget. Take a look at these instructions for using DocuSign Express for Drawloop via web. You can download the Mozilla Firefox add-on or embed the DocuSign Express / LOOP to PDF iGoogle Gadget.