• contact management tools
• time management tools
• transaction management tools
• fully branded marketing tools
• document storage features

Wise Agent also offers 24 hour customer support – the only system in the real estate industry to do so. They also offer free live online training classes, great for you to learn how to link your Wise Agent account to your website, so you can capture and follow-up with new leads!

By seamlessly connecting technology, people and business practices, Wise Agent increases productivity, organization while making it easy for its members to give full service to their clients to build long term relationships. Wise Agent’s partnership with DocuSign brings electronic signature to Wise Agent’s members, allowing for a completely paperless transaction from listing to close and then stores all documents online for easy access.

Top 5 Reasons Wise Agent Chose DocuSign as its Electronic Signature Partner

5. In a world where being “green” matters, Wise Agent supports the idea of a paperless transaction.

4. The DocuSign user interface is simple and intuitive.

3. DocuSign is the trusted resource in the industry.

2. At Wise Agent, customer service is paramount. We always try to partner with companies that have similar ideals when it comes to customer support, and we feel DocuSign is one of those companies.

1. We really liked and believed in the people behind DocuSign, including An Bui, Mike Pressnall, and Dave Thorpe.

Want to learn more about Wise Agent and DocuSign? Click to learn how you can capture leads and nurture the relationship with Wise Agent before closing the deal with electronic signature from DocuSign!

We’re excited to share that ADVANTIS Global Services, a leading IT staffing and technology consulting firm for Fortune 500 companies and mid-market, has selected electronic signature service to complete its contracting process. ADVANTIS uses DocuSign to quickly and easily finalize client recruiting contracts and consultant application packages online—thereby avoiding the hassle of printing, signing and faxing or mailing bulky, multi-page documents. ADVANTIS will migrate to a paperless process by deploying the DocuSign electronic signature service at all seven regional locations.

Jeff Taylor, chief operating officer of ADVANTIS Global Services, shares the moment they knew the needed to add electronic signature in their process:

When one of our recruiting channels used DocuSign to finalize a contract with us, a light bulb went off—we have to be doing this. As one of the major IT staffing and consulting companies in the high tech corridor, we process a large volume of candidate applications and client contracts so DocuSign just made sense. We needed the latest technology to support and accelerate processes throughout our various offices across the country and the solution had to accommodate the unique needs of each office. We found DocuSign to be the market leader and the best electronic signature solution available to meet our needs.

According to Taylor, ADVANTIS wanted an electronic signature solution that was fast, flexible and easy for its growing staff, remote clients and candidates. DocuSign proved easy to use with the ability to streamline workflows while offering the document customization necessary to better brand and support each regional office.

DocuSign enables ADVANTIS to manage large volumes of contracts by seamlessly connecting to ADVANTIS’ customer relationship management (CRM) tool. PDFs created in the CRM can be quickly prepared for e-signing through the DocuSign Console. The recipient receives an email notification indicating a document is ready for signature, adopts an electronic signature and in minutes is guided through the e-sign process. Once completed, an email notification is sent to all parties with a link to the final executed document. ADVANTIS can then save the signed digital document back into its CRM or archive within DocuSign.

Steve King, president and CEO of DocuSign, shares his thoughts on ADVANTIS’ use of technology to achieve business process efficiencies:

ADVANTIS Global Services successfully leverages technology to accelerate business in a highly competitive environment. DocuSign is pleased to be working with ADVANTIS to further streamline their business processes, increase efficiencies and enhance their service model for clients and candidates alike.

Click for more information on how DocuSign electronic signature can accelerate recruiting and staffing processes!

We’re excited to announce today that Technology Credit Union has selected electronic signature from DocuSign to securely expedite the establishment of new member accounts and accelerate the loan signing process online. By using DocuSign to securely automate the establishment of new accounts and finalize consumer and real estate loans, Tech CU will increase member satisfaction, streamline workflows and reduce the time to activate member accounts and fund loans.

Michael Luckin, senior vice president of enterprise risk management at Technology Credit Union, said:

Paperless transactions are the future. Using electronic documentation makes our processes more efficient and Tech CU saves money on storage and paper costs. It’s also better for the environment and helps us to meet our green business goals. We chose to partner with DocuSign because they’re a leader in eSignature technology in terms of security, product quality and functionality.

DocuSign offers Technology Credit Union members the ability to open new accounts and complete loan documents online from anywhere, anytime safely and securely. Using a PC, laptop or mobile device, Tech CU members can electronically sign and return documents in minutes—not days, thereby significantly reducing the time, environmental impact and cost of traditional paper-based processing.

Credit unions across the country are quickly adopting the DocuSign eSignature service to streamline processes and to ensure compliance with Regulation Z requirements, more commonly known as “Truth in Lending.” Financial leaders such as BECU, Alliant, Idaho Central, TTCU, Bellco, University of Illinois and hundreds of other credit unions have migrated to DocuSign to enhance compliance and ensure member satisfaction. To learn more about how the DocuSign eSignature service can positively impact credit unions, take a look at information about electronic signature for credit unions.

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

We are pleased to be partnering with this outstanding financial institution. We look forward to continuing our work with Tech CU to reduce costs and accelerate the loan signing process, while continuing to provide superior member satisfaction.

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.

At DocuSign, we think electronic signature and paperless processes add convenience and eliminate the need to fax, copy and file paper. From our customers, we’ve heard accounts of their clients appreciating the convenience DocuSign’s eSignature services provides. From Mike Borozdin, manager of professional services here at DocuSign, we have a story of how going paperless has changed his life:

In less than a month it’s going to be a year since I stopped storing paper. Last spring before my move from Madrona to Capitol Hill I did a bit of spring-cleaning. As I was cleaning out my closets and the attic I realized how much old and useless stuff I had. Some of my old tech toys ended up with my friends. Most of my old clothes ended up at Good Will. And then I started cleaning out my files. For a guy who has been on the bleeding edge of tech for a bit I had a surprising amount of old statements and receipts. Consolidated it was three full boxes.

During my childhood my parents told me not to lose paper. I remember carefully storing and filing my bank statements “just in case something happened.” My car was hit in the late nineties and sure enough I had a full folder of papers for a car that was totaled a decade ago. I was torn: I had an emotional attachment to my old dusty paper, yet I was too lazy to move these boxes with me. I decided that I am going to go paperless.

I decided to scan some of the most important documents from my past and have them backed up online. I promised to myself that going forward I would not store any more paper. It seemed like in the age of Internet it should be pretty easy. After all Chase already offered paperless statements and Fidelity did too. My Comcast bill could be viewed and paid online and so was AT&T’s. Those were the first steps and they took care of a lot of my paper.

This seemed like a piece of cake and I lasted without accumulating any more paper for about a month. Then I had a dentist appointment. My dentist is great when it comes to my teeth, but his assistant still writes the bills by hand and stuffs them in little blue envelopes that cost 40 cents to deliver less than a mile. My accountant insisted on sending me things via mail and the worst was healthcare. Between the Polyclinic on Broadway and Regence I must have 5 letters for every visit to the doctor.

I had to counteract this somehow. I employed two services: for anything where people wanted me to sign anything I used DocuSign and for all the paper that people wanted to send me still I created an Earth Class Mail account.

It took a little getting used to. Not for me, but for all the people that all of a sudden were shocked that I resisted their attempts to send me pages of stuff in the mail. My accountant was probably the most shocked. I kept telling her that I really don’t want my tax return sent to me. I kept reminding to send me things in a PDF file via some secure delivery service such as our own DocuSign, but she kept on trying to give me paper. Thankfully EarthClassMail would scan it in and then, if there were signatures required, I would DocuSign it and send it back to her via e-mail.

So after 5-6 months of constantly attempting to fend off the influx of paper at my door I finally ended up getting most of my important mail electronically. My life has altered a bit. I stopped going to my mailbox to see if there is anything new. The only new things were junk mail from Pizza Hut and Office Max. I tried taking that stuff out and putting it into the recycling bin but then I got lazy about that too. I stopped going to the mailbox altogether. On the eleventh month I went to clean my mailbox one more time and to my surprise it was completely clean with just a yellow note from my local post office. It read: “Your address has been marked as vacant.” According to the old paper world I might no longer exist.

Mike can track all of his necessary documents through various online services and uses DocuSign for his electronic signature needs. Congratulations to Mike for being paperless personally AND professionally!

Interested in taking a look at the DocuSign API and downloading the DocuSign SDK to integrate DocuSign into your existing technology? Take a look at the DocuSign dev center, which Mike manages, to get your FREE development account today!

With approximately three weeks left in 2009, do you have enough time to accomplish everything you would like to before the start of 2010? Perhaps you’re thinking about new initiatives for next year – with electronic signature, you can start saving time NOW while implementing an environmentally friendly, “Green” business process.

How many pages are the real estate contracts you prepare for your clients? If you’re writing an offer with all of the associated addendums, you could easily create nearly 30 pages of paper.

If you’re faxing the offer, that’s another 30 pages created by the fax machine. This transaction has created 60 pages of paper – and no signatures at this point! Your client then has to sign each page where you’ve indicated and if he or she faxes it back, this process has now created 90 pages of paper.

Of course, if you have to get your client’s spouse to sign, you’re looking at more faxes and more paper. If you’re using a scanner, you can minimize, but not eliminate, the amount of paper you generate.

In a multiple offer situation, say five, the number of pages multiplies and could become 450 pages for the fax-back-and-forth process of collecting signatures, just for this one client. If you’re working with multiple clients… the number of pieces of paper multiplies as well.

With seller addendums… you get the picture.

The Solution: Electronic Signature from DocuSign

With this much paper, you need a solution that enables you to implement a paperless and green business process. DocuSign is the leader in electronic signature services that securely enable you to electronically send, sign and manage your documents with confidence.

You can create your documents with your current forms creation software – Adobe, Microsoft Word, zipForms, WINForms, TrueForms, Flexmls Forms, IRES, Realfast2Go, TransactionPoint, or DocCentral.

Once you’ve created your documents and saved them to your computer, you can log into DocuSign. You upload your documents, enter your client’s information, tab the documents for signature and click to send. See the video below:

Your client receives an email from DocuSign with a message that you’ve requested their signature on documents. Once your client clicks the link included in the email and authenticates him or herself into the DocuSign system, DocuSign takes them through the electronic signature process, step-by-step. See the video below:

Once your client has signed or initialed the document in each location you’ve tabbed, accepted or declined each tab for optional signature or initial, and completed the signing process, you will receive an email notifying you that your documents have been signed.

If you choose to “CC” the other agent in the transaction, he or she will receive a clean, legible copy of the documents with all of the associated signatures.

No faxes. No paper. DocuSign electronic signature provides clean, clear electronic signatures on documents without software to download or equipment to buy.

As the official and exclusive provider of ESIGN services for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and its 1.2 million members under the REALTOR Benefits® Program, and is designed to provide unique offers to NAR members through its new “ESIGN Advantage Promotion for Realtors®.”

With the “ESIGN Advantage Promotion for Realtors®,” we’re currently offering a special promotion to Realtors® through December 31:

• All the capabilities of DocuSign for Real Estate Standard Edition,
• Custom branding that will enable you to tailor your account for a more personalized client experience,
• And special pricing: the cost for the promotion will be as low as $13.95 per user/month (annual commitment) or $17.95 per user/month (month-to-month). You can save as much as 21 percent on the best available monthly subscription rates with a risk-free 30-day money back guarantee.

You can implement paperless processes and go green at the same time with electronic signature from DocuSign!

Yamaha’s praise of electronic signature from DocuSign for Salesforce! Why? Dramatic increases in agreement compliance rates after implementing DocuSign for Salesforce to automate the signing process of agreements with Yamaha Corporation of America’s network of dealers.

With DocuSign for Salesforce:

Yamaha can:

• Sign-up new dealers
• Renew existing dealer agreements
• Realize greater operational efficiencies with seamless integration with DocuSign electronic signature and Salesforce CRM

Yamaha has:

• Automated sales agreement processes
• Slashed cost, time and error rates from previous paper-based process
• Increased visibility into the status of every contract at any given moment
• Eliminated a myriad of costly manual processes

Yamaha dealers worldwide have used DocuSign’s on-demand electronic signature service to digitally sign their annual agreements. Once signed, the contracts are securely stored online for easy retrieval and recordkeeping. Using DocuSign from a Web browser or mobile device, the dealers access and sign their Yamaha agreements online in minutes from any location at any time. Dealers no longer have to wait to receive a contract via snail mail, hassle with mailing it back or filing a paper copy. Since deploying DocuSign, Yamaha’s agreements are typically completed within minutes or hours, NOT weeks or months, as was the case before.

The DocuSign Electronic Signature Advantage
Why did Yamaha select DocuSign for Salesforce electronic signature solution after reviewing several competing solutions?

• Ease of Use—DocuSign’s intuitive service closely replicates the traditional signing experience, easily meeting Yamaha’s top priority that the new solution be readily accepted by their dealers.
• Compliance—With DocuSign, Yamaha created one uniform contract that dealers cannot revise ad hoc, ensuring 100 percent compliance for all signed contracts. All DocuSigned agreements are legally binding and backed by a full audit trail.
• Real-time Insight—DocuSign reveals the signing status of every agreement: when it was opened, when it was signed, how long the dealer has had it, and which agreements remain to be signed, enabling Yamaha to manage its channel effectively.
• CRM Integration—By connecting DocuSign to Salesforce, Yamaha can now Close it in the Cloud!TM without leaving its CRM system, accelerating close times to minutes. DocuSign automatically populates Salesforce data sets into its service which eliminates the need to re-key data. Using the tools in Salesforce, Yamaha can create reports about contract status.
• Workflow Management—DocuSign automated many backend processes for Yamaha, liberating employees from using a spreadsheet to manually track each agreement that required about 50 touch points across the company.

Want more information about the business benefits DocuSign provides Yamaha? Read the detailed case study.

To learn more about DocuSign for Salesforce, connect with the DocuSign team at salesforce.com Dreamforce Global Gathering 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco November 17-20, 2009. Stop by the DocuSign booth, #1118, to participate in a brief demonstration and enter a drawing to win a Dell Netbook at the close of the show.

Sessions evolve based on whatever topics attendees want to share with whoever wants to learn. The sessions and tracks will be set the morning of the event, so show up early (8:30am to be exact!) to get your session on the calendar and provide input on the sessions you want to see. As a sponsor of this event, we want you to have the best experience possible, so without further ado…

Tips to Get the Most Out of RE BarCamp San Diego:

1. Participate! RE BarCamp San Diego is about participation – everyone has something valuable or interesting to share as well as opportunities to learn
2. Learn! You might be curious about a new technology or tactic. You might have questions like “How does a signature get into an electronic signature system?” There will be many interesting, knowledgeable people at RE BarCamp San Diego – ask someone!
3. Facilitate! If you’re running a session or having a hallway conversation, you can always draw in other attendees to offer up what THEY know to keep the conversation productive and interactive.
4. Share! Everyone knows something – share with others what you know. If you know about search marketing, blogging, blog copy writing, working with lenders, using various technology tools like electronic signature, SHARE IT! RE BarCamp San Diego will be a valuable learning experience for all if we share what we know.
5. Walk! The two feet rule applies to RE Bar Camp San Diego – if you aren’t getting value in the session you are in, go find another one, so you can learn what you want to learn.

DocuSign will be on hand with Jay Thompson, Dean Ouellette and others for a panel discussion on various technology tools to take your office mobile or virtual. Curious about mobile broadband? Want to know how electronic signatures can save you time and get your clients to rave about your service? What about video cameras, laptops or other hardware tools? Tablet, Mac, or Windows laptop – which one would work best for you?

Come say hi to me at RE BarCamp San Diego and we can talk about electronic signatures, going paperless, working remotely or anything else you want to discuss. I’ll be the really petite one who looks taller in her Twitter avatar (@DocuSign).

What do you need to know to go paperless?

1. Back Up All of Your Documents!

In the traditional paper process, you photocopy documents, put them in a labeled folder and filed them in a filing cabinet so you can retrieve the document as needed.

In the paperless process, you need to back up your documents. You may decide to copy all of your files on a regular basis to an external drive. You may choose to store your documents using a hosting service. DocuSign provides its customers with document storage when they upload documents for electronic signature. Additionally, both senders and signers can download copies of completed documents for their own records.

2. Going Paperless is a Process

Going paperless takes time – you might start with using DocuSign Electronic Signature Service for your sales process and implement for your vendor purchase orders a week later. You may choose to digitize your old records as well and scanning your old documents will take time.

3. Over Time, You’ll Save Space

Given the amount of paper you currently have filed in filing cabinets and whether you choose to digitize your older paper documents, you may find that you can get rid of some of your filing cabinets. DocuSign has customers like Jay Thompson:

Thanks to DocuSign, I can keep an entire filing cabinet’s worth of stuff on a thumb drive.

Fewer cabinets mean more office space. A thumb drive means you can easily keep and access the documents you need, without having to return to the office before reviewing some papers.

4. More Benefits Than Less Paper

While going paperless often means less paper, not no paper, you’ll be able to see other benefits as well. Not only will you see a cost savings because you’ll stop printing, mailing, shipping and storing paper, you’ll also start to see time savings.

With DocuSign’s Electronic Signature:

• No more driving across town to a client for a signature
• No more following up because a line wasn’t signed or initialed
• No more difficult to read faxes
• Automatic reminder capabilities enabling you to set DocuSign to remind your clients to sign, so you don’t have to
• Workflow capabilities that mean you get the signatures you need in the order you need them, so you can set it and know DocuSign is taking care of the process for you

What else do you need to know to go paperless, especially in real estate? Let me know in the comments or write a post on your blog and leave me a pingback – I’ll take a look and leave a comment!

Why? 

Customer Service:  Clients like knowing that you will be where they want or need you to be. As busy people, you know your clients don’t want to have to drive across town to meet you at a fixed location. It’s easier for them to pop into a coffee shop to have a cup of coffee and talk business. It also gives you the flexibility you need if you’re in the service based-business.

Operational Costs: Having a physical office can be expensive and is a sunk operational cost. Some industries and business processes DO see benefits from having a physical office that everyone goes to. However, in a relationship-based business like real estate, why have a brick and mortar presence if it will be rarely used?

Jim Paulson, Broker / Owner of Progressive Realty in Boise, Idaho states:

Why build an office with only a 25% occupancy rate and shrinking!

 
Time Savings: As you travel from location to location, you ARE your office. Your car or briefcase should hold everything you need to make business happen. Having to travel between a client and an office takes precious time. Eliminate the physical office to eliminate the time consuming task of commuting to the office.

Interestingly enough, DocuSign Electronic Signature Services also provides these same benefits to its subscribers.

Customer Service: DocuSign’s flexible electronic signature service means that you can provide your clients with the signing experience you both desire. If both you and your clients enjoy the face-to-face interaction during the signing process, DocuSign provides in-person signing functionality. If you need to get signatures fast, DocuSign’s remote signing capabilities mean your signer only needs email access, a browser and internet connectivity. There’s no need to download software and it’s so easy to use, it passes the “Can My Mom Use It” test.

Operational Savings: By reducing, if not eliminating, the cost of paper, printing, ink, fax, and overnight or same day courier services, DocuSign electronic signature provides its subscribers with operational savings. With the DocuSign document dashboard, you can also manage your paperwork via DocuSign. This means you won’t need to pay someone to print, copy, scan and file hard copies anymore!

Time Savings: I hear so many stories of time savings from our customers, that I’ve written several blog posts about it. With DocuSign electronic signature, you no longer have to go through the process of creating the forms, printing them, marking them up for signature, finding a fax machine or overnight envelope, filling out the recipient information, sending, and then waiting for the other party to return the documents… only to see a missed signature or initial, restarting the entire process! Integration with major forms software and DocuSign’s template and Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR) features have helped DocuSign power users create documents for electronic signature in as few as two minutes!

DocuSign electronic signature – it’s a must for the mobile professional. You can try electronic signature for free, with DocuSign Express for Drawloop, to get a taste of what life with electronic signature might look like. However, if you want access to the DocuSign dashboard and other features we’ve mentioned, sign up for DocuSign. With a risk free, 30-day guarantee, you have nothing to lose and savings to gain.