This REALTOR^® branded version of DocuSign is a direct result of the collaboration between NAR and DocuSign. It is a representation of the power of what good partnerships can bring to the real estate industry and more importantly, reinforces why all real estate professionals benefit from NAR’s REALTOR Benefits^® Program. We are looking forward to the future and watching how the increased adoption of DocuSign’s e-signature services will revolutionize the industry. – Bob Goldberg, senior vice president of marketing and business development, commercial services and business specialties for NAR.

DocuSign REALTOR^®Edition builds upon DocuSign’s award-winning eSignature service offerings and includes the following features:

Branded Signature—NAR members have the option to adopt an exclusive REALTOR^® branded e-signature to further promote NAR membership status with the distinguished and trusted REALTOR^® logo.

Online Dashboard—An intuitive, secure REALTOR^® branded console is available to members anytime, anywhere, enabling busy professionals to check the status of every document in real-time. Senders know when documents are opened, when they are signed, the time of the transaction has taken and which documents remain to be signed.

Branded Templates—REALTOR^® branded email communications reinforce and leverage NAR’s stringent code of ethics with signers and/or customers.

Integration with Real Estate Tools—DocuSign REALTOR^® Edition seamlessly works with a broad variety of real estate software tools, including e-forms and online file management systems.

Mobile Signing—DocuSign Designed for Mobile functionality offers anywhere, anytime electronic signing of documents from an Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Google Android and other mobile devices.

Workflow Optimization—DocuSign makes it easy for REALTORS^® to control the recipient signing order, and set automated recipient signing reminders and envelope expirations to accelerate the signing process. Plus, time-saving workflows and templates to streamline the signing process.

Real estate professionals everywhere are discovering the power of DocuSign to accelerate business and increase customer satisfaction in a fiercely competitive market. We anticipate the momentum of new DocuSign subscribers to increase even faster now with NAR’s recommendation and support of the release of our new NAR-endorsed DocuSign REALTOR^® Edition. This new, powerful DocuSign offering is specifically tailored for REALTORS^® and a definite game-changer for 2010. – 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. DocuSign real estate subscribers achieve higher sales, increase client satisfaction and maintain a competitive edge. Rather than driving across town to get a signature or inconveniencing clients to find a fax machine, real estate professionals use DocuSign to execute agreements with buyers and sellers electronically, eliminating the old 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 in their homes, DocuSign saves agents time and money while providing client convenience. Clients can electronically sign real estate forms using any Web browser, and documents are legally binding, backed by a court-admissible audit trail.

Pricing and Availability

DocuSign REALTOR^® Edition is available to NAR members as a special Member Benefit^®. Members receive best-in-class pricing with a 20 percent savings over standard DocuSign rates on both editions—DocuSign REALTOR^® Basic and DocuSign REALTOR^® Standard. DocuSign REALTOR^® Basic is a limited edition while DocuSign REALTOR^® Standard is an expanded version offering full functionality and a robust feature set. Subscribers must present a valid National Realtors Database System (NRDS) member identification to qualify.

Pricing and additional product information can be found on the DocuSign Web site for NAR members or to learn more on NAR’S REALTOR Benefits^® Program, visit DocuSign’s NAR Member Benefits^® partner page.

As the industry leading provider of on-demand electronic signature solutions, DocuSign appointed Keith Krach, founder and former CEO of Ariba, as chairman of its board of directors. In addition, Steven R. King, former E*TRADE executive and SaaS industry veteran, was named president and CEO.  The move was initiated as the company scales to meet broad market adoption of its e-signature services. Krach and King join DocuSign during a period of explosive growth, with paid transactions increasing more than 300 percent in 2009 over the prior year.

About Keith Krach

Krach, a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, joins DocuSign with an impressive success record, including building and steering three companies to global leadership. In 1996, Krach co-founded Ariba, served as CEO and chairman for six years while taking the company public and building it into one of the fastest growing software companies in history. In 2000, he was honored by Ernst & Young as National Entrepreneur of the Year, and received the Technology Pioneer Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Today, Krach serves as the CEO of the investment holding company 3Points, Inc.

I am very impressed with the immediate financial and business process impact DocuSign has on its customers, the fantastic growth it is experiencing, and its tremendous customer base. The business results in 2009 were incredible. I am excited to be part of DocuSign and looking forward to working with Steve King and the DocuSign management team. – Keith Krach, DocuSign Chairman

About Steve King

As president and CEO, King brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in information technology. Most recently, King led venture-backed Virtela and ZANTAZ as president and CEO. Under his seven-year leadership, ZANTAZ grew to become the recognized market leader in SaaS email archiving, and was acquired in 2007 by The Autonomy Group. Prior to these positions, King held a number of executive positions at E*TRADE Group Inc., where he played a key role in growing the company from under $100 million to more than $1.5 billion in revenues. He ultimately became CEO of E*OFFERING, the pioneering online investment bank of E*TRADE, acquired by Wit SoundView Group. Previously, King held senior management positions at the Thomson Reuters Corporation and Ziff-Davis. In 2006, he received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

DocuSign is clearly leading the e-signature revolution with its vast service offerings, number of users and market share. Matt Schiltz and Tom Gonser have done an exceptional job growing the company to this pivotal stage, and I’m excited to work with this dynamic team. – Steve King, DocuSign President and CEO

Matthew J. Schiltz will assume executive responsibilities for strategic business development. This is a role Schiltz held in conjunction with his responsibilities as CEO and president of DocuSign for the past three years. DocuSign experienced phenomenal growth under Schiltz’s leadership and is well-positioned to maintain dominance in the market.

Key Electronic Signature Milestones

In 2009, DocuSign:

• Received a strategic investment from Second Century Ventures to extend DocuSign’s leadership position in the residential and commercial real estate sector.
• Accepted the honor of being named the official and exclusive provider of ESIGN services for the National Association of REALTORS^® 1.2 million members, under the REALTOR Benefits^® Program.
• Surpassed 2.5 million users and exceeded 53 million signature events.
• Supported more than 20,000 customers ranging across all markets including leaders such as American Airlines, BECU, Comcast, EDGAR^® Online, LinkedIn, Yamaha and many others.
• 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.
• Deployed a 10X upgrade in processing power and storage while consistently maintaining 99.993 percent system availability over the past 24 months.
• Achieved a dominant 73 percent ownership in the SaaS-based electronic signature services market for 2009.

**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.

DocuSign services also received numerous accolades and awards including the 2009 Best Partner App of the Year Appy Award from salesforce.com, the 2009 Red Herring 100 Award and the 2009 Product Innovation Award from the Networks Product Guide.

Quick Recap – Ken Moyle’s “Legality of Electronic Signatures and Real Estate.”

At the Caifornia Association of Realtors EXPO’s Tech Tuesday, Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer gave a talk: “Legality of Electronic Signatures and Real Estate”. This well-attended session covered quite a bit of information with answers to many questions from the audience.

DocuSign ESignature Fall Release Highlights

Want to know the scoop on this Fall’s release and the latest about electronic signature from Tom Gonser, the VP of Product Strategy? On October 6th, DocuSign’s Fall Release will be available. With several powerful new features, the latest innovation in electronic signature will allow our customers to do more than ever with DocuSign.

Electronic Signatures, Real Estate, Pennsylvania Association of Realtors… What’s Really Going on?

Since DocuSign began participating in online conversations about electronic signatures and online contract execution, we’ve noticed that misperceptions exist regarding whether or not various groups approved the use of digital signature and electronic contracts or records. We recently published a piece discussing FHA and lender acceptance of electronic signature, and the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors clarified its position on electronic signature.

FHA & Lender Acceptance

Background: Nine years ago, the federal ESIGN Act passed through the legislative process to become national law. However, some federal and state agencies have been slow to adopt rules and guidelines consistent with ESIGN’s intent to remove barriers to e-commerce. Among these is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). What was the result?

NAR Selects DocuSign as Official and Exclusive Provider of eSignature Services under NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® Program

To set the stage, DocuSign has more than 18,000 Real Estate subscribers who use DocuSign electronic signature every day to close deals faster and make it more convenient for their customers to sign by avoiding faxes and other paper messes. Thank you to the many customers who have come by the booth at the REALTORS® Conference and Expo.

These first five moments of the “Top 10 Real Estate and Electronic Signature Moments in 2009″ demonstrate DocuSign’s leadership in – come back tomorrow for the final five real estate and electronic signature moments.

Don’t forget that this is the last week to take advantage of the “ESIGN Advantage Promotion for REALTORS®,” available to all NAR members.

DocuSign Electronic Signature and The National Association of REALTORS®

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), America’s largest trade association, represents 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. Last week, NAR selected DocuSign as the official and exclusive provider of electronic signature services under NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® program.

Second Century Ventures (SCV), is the strategic investment arm of NAR, made a strategic investment in DocuSign. As part of the investment, the president of Second Century Ventures and chief executive officer of NAR, Dale A. Stinton, will join the DocuSign Board of Directors.

DocuSign Electronic Signature and Real Estate

During last week’s REALTORS® (NAR) Annual Conference and Expo 2009, Shannon Williams King named DocuSign one of the must-have technologies and applications necessary for a real estate road warrior. Ms. King served on NAR’s Strategic Planning Committee for 2007 and 2008 and starting in 2008, is serving on the Young Professional’s Network – NAR Advisory Board. She was also named one of 30 Under 30 in REALTOR® Magazine in 2005.

Aaron Wheeler also named DocuSign as one of the technologies and applications necessary to take your real estate business to the next level in “Leveraging Technology for Luxury Home Marketing.” He also named Salesforce as a must-have CRM. Mr. Wheeler is the President and Managing Broker of Oakville Properties as well as the publisher of LUXRETECH, the blog about leveraging technology for luxury real estate marketing.

Of course, pairing DocuSign electronic signature and Salesforce CRM helps extend your business processes. We had some exciting announcements at Salesforce Dreamforce Global Gathering:

DocuSign Launches Two New Electronic Signature Products at Salesforce Dreamforce Global Gathering and Cloud Expo 2009

DocuSign for Salesforce 2.0 was showcased in a break-out session at Dreamforce, in which Mike Machado of Yamaha and Brian Frank of LinkedIn shared their successes with DocuSign for Salesforce with DocuSign founder and VP of Product Strategy, Tom Gonser. For more information, take a look at the case studies about Yamaha and LinkedIn.

DocuSign for Salesforce CRM Real-Time Quotes Salesforce.com chose DocuSign as the electronic signature solution partner to launch Real-Time Quotes to Salesforce.com customers. Ken Cavallon, DocuSign Business Development Manager, and Tyler Ziemann, Salesforce.com Senior Product Manager, presented a session about DocuSign for Salesforce CRM Real-Time Quotes.

DocuSign’s Electronic Signature Solution Named Best App for Salesforce at Dreamforce Global Gathering 2009

In addition to the launch of our two electronic signature products, DocuSign won the Best App for Salesforce Appy Award in a voting competition from among more than 3,000 companies who partner with Salesforce.com on the AppExchange. DocuSign CEO Matthew J. Schiltz accepted the award from Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Mark Benioff and Salesforce.com President Jim Steel.

Thank you to all of our customers who share your customer stories, provide us with valuable feedback that enables us to continually improve our electronic signature services.

From strategic investments and partnerships to new products and awards, excitement around electronic signature continues to build – we look forward to building electronic signature solutions to enable you to electronically send, sign and manage documents securely and with confidence.

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.

Our capital investment and guidance will serve as a catalyst for [DocuSign] to become the standard and meet the market demand for legally binding electronic signatures that help REALTORS close more deals at a faster rate, and offer the convenience and flexibility buyers require. – Dale A. Stinton, President of SCV and CEO of NAR

The funds are invested to accelerate and extend our leadership position as a core technology solution for residential and commercial real estate professionals. We join an exclusive group of SCV portfolio companies including ePropertyData as well as representative investments made by NAR in Move Inc., zipLogix and SentriLock, that all provide leading technology solutions for REALTORS®. Second Century Ventures is the strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), America’s largest trade organization with more than1.2 million members.

Second Century Ventures’ strategic investment underscores the success and value of DocuSign’s electronic signature service to the real estate community and will assure we can meet the growing demand for our technology solution across the industry. – Matthew J. Schiltz, CEO and President of DocuSign.

More than 18,000 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 their clients to find a fax machine, real estate professionals use DocuSign to execute agreements with buyers and sellers electronically, eliminating the old process of printing, faxing, and waiting for the return fax. 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.

YES.

I know I’m biased, but with so many benefits including time savings, document storage and management, and increased customer or client satisfaction, I think businesses and professionals should strongly consider going paperless and adopting electronic signature technology.

Benefits of DocuSign Electronic Signature Service:

• Removes pen and paper from the paperwork process
• Eliminates print-sign-scan-fax process
• No need to shred physical documents once you’ve digitized them – they’ve been electronic records the entire time
• Document content is clear and easy to read – no more fax distortion
• Integration with forms creation software such as WINForms, zipForms, IRES, and others maintains the integrity of the paperless process
• Contracts and extensions can be signed and returned by out-of-town or traveling clients in fewer than 10 minutes
• No more missed signatures or initials due to DocuSign’s yellow stick-e-tabs
• 100% audit trail and three levels of authentication available: Email, PIN number and ID Check

Additional Information:

• Cost: Pricing starts at $15.95/month with a pre-paid, annual plan. With a DocuSign Free Trial, you can try DocuSign risk-free for 30 days. The Free Trial pricing starts automatically at the basic month to month rate, with an option to upgrade to an Advanced plan or switch to annual pricing. This provides subscribers with a high level of flexibility.
• Electronic signature acceptance: DocuSign has teamed up with the Electronic Signature and Records Association (ESRA) to have productive discussions with the FHA regarding electronic signatures on real estate contracts and they are working together to come up with a rapid solution.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave us a comment. If you’re interested in connecting in real life, DocuSign will be in San Diego at RE Bar Camp San Diego on November 12th, and at NAR EXPO November 13th – 16th.

The Legality of Electronic Signature for Real Estate

We started the event off with a session at Tech Tuesday, with a presentation by Ken Moyle. With a discussion on the Legality of eSignatures in real estate, over 70 attendees were able to voice their questions about electronic signature. Ken captivated an audience of over 70 attendees in the one-hour session, which was especially important and relevant in today’s real estate market. With a special guest in attendance, Ken’s mom, we also captured a picture for posterity! Click for more information about Ken’s talk, “The Legality of Electronic Signature for Real Estate.”

EXPO: Discussing Electronic Signature

We also had a number of interested real estate professionals stop by to ask us questions about DocuSign, electronic signature and discuss their questions and concerns. We also ran a special $500 Visa Gift Card promotion for those who stopped by and left us their contact information.

We’re pleased to announce the winner – congratulations to Geri Murphy of J. Rockcliff Realtors!

Of course, we can’t forget about our great customers who stopped by the booth to tell us how much they love DocuSign! We got some great pictures, available by clicking the link, as well as some video. Check back soon, as we’ll let you know when they’re posted to the DocuSign YouTube channel!

Next month, DocuSign will be at the National Association of Realtors EXPO, or NAR EXPO, in San Diego from November 13 -16, 2009. We’ll also be at RE BarCamp San Diego November 12, 2009. Keep an eye out for more details, and let us know if you’ll be going too!

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.