The Estée Lauder Companies unifies agreement management across the enterprise with Docusign

For decades, The Estée Lauder Companies have been guided by a simple mission: bring the best to everyone they touch. That commitment is most visible in the prestige beauty experiences the company delivers to consumers around the world through brands such as Estée Lauder, Clinique, and M·A·C.

Ensuring product and service excellence starts with internal business processes that reflect the same standards of consistency, quality, and care. For Joe DeSimone, Executive Director, Application Management Services, that means rethinking how employees access core work applications.

Many employees across the company use Docusign eSignature for fast and reliable AI-assisted e-signatures. But individual business units purchased and managed their own accounts, creating a fragmented environment that was difficult to govern, support, and optimize.

“We had multiple accounts spread throughout our company, and people spent too much time trying to monitor usage and keep on top of their agreements,” says DeSimone. “We saw an opportunity to make things much easier.”

Building a centralized foundation for agreement management

When DeSimone decided to consolidate accounts, teams immediately recognized the value of having access to an in-demand application on a centralized, enterprise platform.  Estée Lauder Companies partnered with Docusign to consolidate approximately 12 to 15 separate business unit accounts onto a single enterprise version of the Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform. This provides all users across The Estée Lauder Companies’ brands, regions, and functions with the same advanced Docusign eSignature functionality but in an enhanced, easily managed environment.

“Today we have a single centrally managed Docusign organization with standardized support, better visibility into usage, and a much smoother experience for our users,” says DeSimone.

Partnering closely with the Docusign Customer Success team, the company established governance practices, engaged with power user groups to get them ready for the change, and created a centralized process for employees to request accounts. 

Turning eSignature into a strategic end-to-end agreement platform

By bringing previously disconnected accounts together, Estée Lauder Companies established a stronger foundation for agreement management.

Centralized reporting and monitoring provide visibility into agreement activity across the organization, helping teams better forecast usage and manage resources. This allows Estée Lauder Companies to move from reactive application administration to proactive management. DeSimone and his team can see how people across the company use Docusign and engage with power users to make sure that they take advantage of advanced AI capabilities. 

“The partnership with Docusign helped us transform eSignature from a fragmented business tool into a strategic end-to-end agreement platform that delivers both operational efficiency and 20% cost savings,” says DeSimone.

Now one central team manages all agreements, renewals, and negotiations and can provide a higher level of consistent training and support to all employees. If employees have any issues, the company now has one team who can work directly with Docusign to find a solution.

Delivering savings, visibility, and a better user experience

For employees, the centralized support makes the experience much faster and more straightforward. People know where to access the platform and how to get help when needed.

“If I could give advice to another organization starting this journey, I would say start now,” says DeSimone. “It was a huge improvement for our company, made it much easier to manage from an IT standpoint, and the user experience has been significantly better across our organization.”

Supporting excellence across the enterprise

By centralizing Docusign on a single enterprise platform, The Estée Lauder Companies improved governance, reduced costs, and simplified agreement management for employees around the world. The unified foundation also positions the company to take advantage of future innovations, including AI-driven workflow enhancements, as it continues to modernize agreement management across the enterprise.

The project did more than consolidate accounts. By creating more consistent and connected employee experiences, The Estée Lauder Companies stay true to the same standards of quality, care, and excellence that have long defined its customer relationships.