“Conserve paper and be green” is the mantra for the overwhelming majority (85%) of Americans, according to a recent survey of more than one thousand U.S. adults conducted by Harris Interactive® for DocuSign, Inc. The broad consumer survey reveals nearly three in four adults are frustrated with completing paper-based documents, and provides a compelling snapshot of consumer preferences and the growing role smart phones are having on the average person’s daily activities.

Goodbye Paper
With the proliferation of web-based applications, e-readers and mobile computing platforms that make it easy for consumers to do more online and stay connected 24×7, it is no surprise that most people want to say bye-bye to paper documents. The nearly three in four (72 percent) adults who are frustrated with completing paper-based forms, documents or business agreements cite the following reasons filling out hardcopy forms is a pain:

• 72% stated the fields in many forms and documents were often too small to write in
• 38% said it’s too inconvenient to return signed paper documents by fax or mail
• 34% said their handwriting was too messy for others to read
• 23% make too many mistakes

Forty-four percent agreed that overnight express services like UPS and FedEx cost too much and are too slow for signing business documents and agreements. More than a third (36%) would stop using an overnight express service if they could sign forms and business agreements online; this number spikes for people in their prime working years: 54 percent aged 18-34, and 40 percent aged 35-44 would stop using express services to shuttle paperwork around the world if they could.
For tech savvy consumers used to searching for and storing documents electronically, keeping track of paper can be challenging. For example, only twenty percent of all adults admitted to accidentally losing or destroying important paper-based documents, but nearly one in three (30%) young adults aged 18-34 have trouble keeping hardcopy documents safe.

Untethered and Always On
Eighteen percent of all adults said, in addition to a computer, the use of a mobile device—such as a RIM® BlackBerry® or Apple® iPhone®—was needed to conduct their day-to-day business. Nearly half (44%) were in the highest income groups (household incomes of $75,000 or more), suggesting that their high-powered professions were faster-paced and required immediate client responses or turnaround.

E-Sign Rising
Virtually all adults (96%) agreed that their handwritten signature is an important part of their identity. Yet, the majority (63%) preferred typing on a computer to writing by hand, and 2 in 3 (66%) wish they could complete and sign certain forms and business agreements online. The good news is that modern e-signature services enable consumers to upload an e-copy of their signature to better replicate the ceremony of signing and retain that sense of personal identity.
The types of forms most U.S. adults wish they could sign online include, among others (respondents could select more than one):

• Employment or HR documents— job applications, W-2 or 1099 forms, 401K enrollment, etc. (47% overall, 62% of those with “high-powered careers,” defined here as adults residing in households with annual incomes of $100,000 or higher)
• Child’s school documents—immunization forms, field trip waivers, absentee excuses, etc. (47% overall, 62% of those with high-powered careers)
• Insurance documents—enrollment forms, policy change authorizations, claims, etc. (44% overall, 65% of those with high-powered careers)
• Business contracts—purchase orders, approvals, etc.(38% overall, 55% of those with high-powered careers)
• Medical or dental documents—patient information forms, insurance carrier or coverage documentation, etc. (36% overall, 47% of those with high-powered careers)
• Real estate documents—rental or lease agreements, realtor contracts, inspections, waivers, etc. (30% overall, 49% of those with high-powered careers)

Steve King, president and CEO of DocuSign, provides his insight to survey results:

This survey reflects the changing behaviors among adults across the United States and their desire to complete and sign documents online to be more productive and environmentally friendly. DocuSign is seeing a tipping point of adoption of our web-based electronic signature service, and as a company we’ve processed roughly 80 million transactions to date. Consumers who use the service for the first time to secure a loan, sign real estate documents and manage other paperwork are usually surprised as to how intuitive DocuSign is and how closely it replicates the experience of signing documents the old-fashioned way, but without the delays and hassles of paper.

DocuSign conducted the survey on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) Act. The ESIGN Act validated the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce, and launched a decade of phenomenal growth in electronic commerce that made it easier for people to get things done and transact business. The survey enables DocuSign to better understand the views of mainstream consumers, including how they feel about the environment and their acceptance of online applications to do more things electronically. To view additional results from the survey, please visit the Harris Poll ESIGN Survey Results.

Today, we announced Lyric Opera of Los Angeles (LOLA) employs DocuSign’s award-winning e-signature service in contracting performers for cultural events. After thorough research and completing a trial of DocuSign, the Southern California non-profit musical performance organization selected DocuSign’s electronic signature service based on ease of use, quality, reliability and security. Laura Sage, executive director and founder of Lyric Opera of Los Angeles explains:

We first experienced DocuSign through a free trial and after using it, we were absolutely convinced it was the best e-signature tool available. DocuSign helps us reduce costs and achieve greater efficiencies in contracting talent, and it’s environmentally friendly. Plus, DocuSign customer service is by far the friendliest, most knowledgeable and easiest to work with. DocuSign makes the entire process an easy, positive experience.

LOLA will use DocuSign to contract vocal and musical talent for the 2010 performing season. Using a PC, Mac or mobile device, LOLA staff can quickly and economically send online agreements to performing artists, who can just as easily sign online and return the documents in minutes. DocuSign significantly reduces the time, environmental impact and cost of traditional paper-based contractual agreements to help this cultural non-profit stay green environmentally and financially.

It is gratifying to help this cultural organization increase efficiencies, streamline workflows and reduce costs. When running an organization on a shoe-string, every dollar counts. DocuSign provides Lyric Opera with operational cost-savings that let the opera focus on the performing arts rather than worrying about financial performance. – Steve King, president and CEO of DocuSign

Lyric Opera of Los Angeles was founded in 2002 to bring lesser-known operatic works to the stage. After the successful production of Mozart’s “die Entfürung aud dem Serail” and Marschner’s “Der Vampyr,” LOLA began producing a series of operatic performances in the Los Angeles area, including several West Coast premieres. It has garnered top musicians and vocal artists, returning year after year.  LOLA is an official partner with the Los Angeles Opera for the 2010 Ring Festival. For the festival, LOLA will be producing the rare, early opera “Die Feen” (The Fairies) written by Wagner when he was just 20 years of age. The Ring Festival features the participation of more than 50 arts institutions around Los Angeles that will produce exhibitions, concerts and educational programming related to Wagner and his music. LOLA is a noted partner among other highly recognizable institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Today, we announced an agreement with BECU, Washington State’s largest credit union, to deploy DocuSign’s e-signature service within the BECU consumer lending workflow. BECU, with assets of more than $8.5 billion, selected DocuSign to replace the time-consuming and costly paper-based loan signing process.

BECU is the largest not-for-profit financial institution in Washington State with more than 620,000 members and more than 45 financial centers. This member-owned financial institution is dedicated to seeking ways to offer members the best value and service in financial products, while also further enhancing the credit union’s environmentally-friendly paperless initiatives. As a result, BECU chose DocuSign to deploy a faster, less costly and greener method to sign loan documents.

At BECU, we put our members first by helping hard working people achieve their goals through competitive financial products and services. DocuSign’s e-signature service will help streamline and accelerate our loan signing process, and we can pass the cost- and time-savings onto our members. – Aaron Bresko, vice president of lending at BECU.

DocuSign will offer BECU members anywhere, anytime convenience to safely and securely sign loan documents online. Using a laptop or mobile device with Internet access, BECU members can electronically sign and return loan documents in minutes—thereby significantly reducing the time, environmental impact and cost of traditional paper-based loan processing. The DocuSign service will provide BECU members additional value and will complement the high quality of service members have come to expect.

Steve King, CEO and president of DocuSign, shared his thoughts:

We are pleased to be partnering with this innovative financial institution. We look forward to working with BECU to shave costs and accelerate the loan signing process, while enhancing member satisfaction.

Are you ready to save time, reduce costs associated with document processing and increase your customer or member satisfaction? Integrate Electronic Signature from DocuSign. In addition to BECU, customers include American Airlines, EDGAR® Online, LinkedIn, Expedia, Yamaha, Community Energy and others!

Are you prepared for 2010? We recently learned that one of our DocuSign Electronic Signature for Real Estate subscribers, Paul Silverman of Our First Nest Realty, will be implementing DocuSign for all of the contracts signed by his clients in 2010.

Using DocuSign will greatly reduce or eliminate the need for any printing, faxing or other methods that use paper, ink or consume energy.

In addition to minimizing the impact on the environment, DocuSign electronic signature enables you to provide great service to your clients. Clients no longer have to print documents and then find the time to fax or scan the documents. With addendums, multiple offers, and all of the associated paperwork necessary for a real estate transaction, the old method of faxing, printing and scanning is time consuming.

If you’ve tried to read a document that’s been faxed several times, you’ve noticed how document resolution degrades every time the document is re-faxed. DocuSign electronic signature service also eliminates multiple faxes of the same documents, ensuring that documents are clear and legible.

Paul recently had a client on her way out of town and she did not have access to a printer, fax or scanner. Using electronic signature from DocuSign, she was able to e-sign the contracts and submit them within minutes.

Anytime I can help streamline a process, provide an added service to a client and reduce my company’s carbon footprint, it is an easy decision to make – Paul Silverman

As Paul has discovered, electronic signature from DocuSign not only enables your business to be green and environmentally friendly but also allows you to provide even better service to your clients.

As the year comes to a close, don’t forget to take a look at the DocuSign ESIGN Advantage Promotion for REALTORS® for a special offer available now through the end of the year.

By communicating with our customers directly through Twitter, our blog, and other social networking sites about electronic signature and online contract execution, we’ve learned many new things about our customers and received great feedback. This feedback enables us to create an even better digital signature and electronic contract execution experience with each new release. Thank you for being open and candid with your feedback!

These conversations, online and off, got me thinking about how amazing our customers are and why.

Why Our Customers are so Great:

1. Our Customers are SMART

I’ve been fortunate to meet some of DocuSign’s earliest adopters, who have recognized early on how electronic signature and online contract execution services can save them time, compared to the expensive and inefficient processes of printing, transporting, signing, tracking, storing paper contracts and capturing business data. Not only are they saving time and able to turn around contracts in minutes, not days, they’re also realizing operational savings by streamlining their business processes.

2. Our Customers are SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

By adopting DocuSign for esignature and electronic contract execution, our customers have adopted a GREEN process. They’re able to reduce the carbon footprint created when shipping documents overnight. From pick up to drop off, overnighting documents involve driving and/or flying the documents to be signed and then making copies in duplicate, if not triplicate. All of this takes gas and massive amounts of paper. While we were named as a green office solution for electronic signature and online contract execution, our customers deserve recognition for implementing DocuSign in their businesses.

3. Our Customers give GREAT FEEDBACK

Again and again, I’m struck by the insight of their feedback. DocuSign forums, Twitter, service, blogs help us learn about what works and what could be improved from a customer perspective. Some of this feedback include suggestions on how to improve the user interface or user experience. Other feedback helps us understand misconceptions or misperceptions about electronic signature and online contract execution. This feedback leads improved or new features in future releases or to collaboration with policy groups to enable adoption of electronic signature and online contract execution technologies.

These reasons are only a few of the many you’re so amazing. What have we missed? Let us know in the comments!

From the blog:

With very little work you can reduce costs associated with transporting, sending and managing contracts (agreements). Using this virtual solution will help you to close sales faster…which is just what every professional wants, right!?

Closing sales more quickly frees up your sales people to manage more leads… which means more money and staying green… a great thing for your business! Don’t take our word for it – just ask our customers:

I am winning more deals and making more money using DocuSign! – Todd Waller, Team 366

or…

I’ve been using this in my business for about two years now and it’s been a fantastic tool and a key to me branding my business as green. Besides saving paper, this is a great tool to execute contracts and keep them ‘clean.’ – Derec Shuler, The Shuler Group

If you’d like additional information on DocuSign, electronic signatures, or online contract execution, check us out on scribd or ping us on Twitter!

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.

“@DocuSign @earthclassmail, but we’re glad you’re at #notatsxsw. Did you know that we’re virtually paperless? You gotta love that!”

Earth Class Mail

Earth Class Mail is a Seattle-based startup, changing how postal mail is delivered to individuals, businesses, national post offices and the planet. I am a customer, and ECM intercepts all my mail, and allows me to deal with it as electronic files rather than chasing paper around. I can even receive a document that requires my signature, and send THAT through DocuSign – 100% in the cloud, and I can do it from ANYWHERE.. Pretty cool stuff.

From Earth Class Mail’s Web site:

Earth Class Mail recycles mail AND has also developed an online postal-mail delivery system that scales for entire countries’ postal mail. By offering national posts the ability to deliver mail online, Earth Class Mail can move posts from their current energy-wasting physical-delivery model to clean electronic delivery for a significant portion of the mail they currently handle. Think of all the trees Earth Class Mail saves.

Various studies report that the average person recycles perhaps 20% of his or her mail, while Earth Class Mail customers recycle more than 90% of their mail.

For every ton of paper Earth Class Mail recycles, the company reduces the marginal air pollution generated by new paper production by 74%, and water pollution by 35%.”

Contxts

I also heard about Contxts, a Denver-based startup, which enables professionals to exchange contact information via SMS. By using SMS, or text messaging, readily available with mobile phones, you can easily and rapidly distribute your credentials.

“Exchange all of your professional information with a single text message
Keep all of your professional contacts organized in one place
It’s eco-friendly (text messages don’t kill polar bears)
Rid yourself of ‘old school’ business cards
Link with other professionals”

Instead of giving your new friends and professional contacts your printed business card you can save a tree (or many) and text them your virtual one. This action automatically places them in your Contxts online contact list and if they have a profile on contxts.com you both are connected.

Your text business card also serves as a request to connect profiles through the Contxts network. Every contact that you make is added to your virtual rolodex. From there, you can access to whatever additional information they provide, such as flickr, twitter, or LinkedIn.

What if the person that you are connecting with doesn’t have a profile yet? No problem! When he or she does create a profile, all of his or her information in your rolodex automatically updates. Pretty cool.

DocuSign

Like Earth Class Mail, we’re also Seattle-based. Our passion and #1 priority is to perfect the way companies of all sizes manage the process of transacting business agreements through innovative “cloud computing” technology. From a simple NDA to a complex global sales agreement requiring multi-party signatures, we provide the only proven, on demand electronic signature and online contract execution solution that delivers increased revenues, decreased expenses, improved customer satisfaction and a greener operational impact to the environment.

In fact, our system is now processing over 1.5 million electronic signature events per month. We’ve processed about 23 million to date. This means our customers collectively are saving, at an average of 10 pages per envelope and 1.7 signers, 391M pages of paper that did not have to be used or moved. This equals approximately 5,000 trees. In addition to the trees saved, think about the jet fuel and gasoline saved because you aren’t ‘overnighting’ any physical documents.

Electronic signature and online contract execution can decrease your paper consumption in a meaningful, measurable way. With digitized mail delivery and sms business cards, you can further reduce your environmental impact. Even better, these tools allow you to access all this anywhere, anytime. These services really do make your life better.

State of Green Business Report

In February, Joel Makower released the second annual State of Green Business report, State of Green Business 2009, which assesses how and how well companies are doing from an environmental perspective. From reporting on the 10 trends of the past year as well as providing insight via 20 indicators that, in aggregate, provide a picture of U.S. companies’ environmental achievements.

Some of the news was encouraging and some was discouraging: Absolute greenhouse gas emissions grew 1.4 percent in 2007 over 2006, but shrank 0.6 percent per unit of GDP, the smallest annual decrease since 2002. Regarding electronic waste (“e-waste”), we recycled only a tiny fraction more e-waste in 2007 than the year before, even though the amount of e-waste entering the waste stream increased.

The encouraging side of things includes Makower’s findings that green building is on the rise – new technologies that save energy and money while creating more healthful workplaces. The automobile industry’s major players plan to introduce electric vehicles and the leading consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers are starting to rigorously assess their products’ environmental impacts, which has implications to the supply chain that tomorrow’s products will be held to higher levels of environmental responsibility.

I also found some interesting green statistics:

• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
• Using recycled paper for one print run of the Sunday edition of the New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees a year.

According to Xerox research:

• 15.2 trillion pages were printed in 2006
• 10 trillion pages were printed in 2007 – 2010 in the US alone
• 53 trillion pages will be printed worldwide by 2010
  

To say we use a lot of paper is an understatement. In business, contracts, paperwork and other documents mean constant paper usage and document creation.

Unless…

There’s a better way. There’s a greener way. DocuSign’s electronic contract execution (ECE) process integrates with your workflow so that all of the physical (paper) documents you used to send can now be sent electronically, minimizing your physical document creation. As a matter of fact, if you dig around your business you will find that you spend a HUGE amount to manage the movement of paper.. It is not just lower postage and the cost of paper. It is also people – people who have to re-key data, scanners, printers, toner, physical storage space – it all adds up.

Say you hire someone – he or she has to sign a two page offer letter, a four page non-compete & non-disclosure agreement, a three page declaration of intellectual property, and a one page statement of company policy. That’s 10 pages for an employee, when he or she first walks in the door. Times two because you probably made a copy. Now, multiply that by the number of employees you hire a year. For a 50 person company, that’s 500 pages – with copies, that’s 1,000 pages – that now need storage.

That’s just for hiring – what about the other associated paperwork? What about contracts with your vendors and suppliers? What about contracts with your customers?

By providing secure storage of digital documents, DocuSign also addresses your storage needs. In addition to realizing operational savings from sending documents electronically instead of via overnight shipping and accelerating your business by allowing you to close more deals more quickly, DocuSign also allows you to go green. Our electronic signature and online contract execution services can greatly reduce the paper your business creates. Operational savings and increased business capacity while creating an environmentally friendly business impact can help your business succeed in this economic climate.

In fact, our system is now processing over 1.5 million electronic signature events per month. We’ve processed about 23 million to date. This means our customers collectively are saving the following:

• Estimating a savings of 5 days per contract, or in the aggregate about 315,000 years of waiting has been avoided
• At an average of 10 pages per envelope and 1.7 signers, this is 391M pages of paper that did not have to be used or moved saving 5,000 trees.
• If these pages had been printed, it would take roughly 78,000 toner cartridges (5,000 page duty cycle). That is a line of toner cartridges over 22 miles long!

So here’s to a happy St. Patrick’s day! Go Green!

Image courtesy of flickr user pburghsteverunder creative commons.