FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia enables smarter electronic supplier contracting with Docusign

Prior to working with Docusign, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia relied on paper-driven processes to onboard vendors and manage supplier relationships.

The procurement team was constrained by having to print, sign, scan and manually send contracts. This was cumbersome for everyone involved and resulted in unnecessary delays.

“It was difficult to track what stage contracts or other ordering documents were up to in the signing process for both parties, especially when agreement  documents rely on physical signatures from authorised representatives who also need to be consulted and informed for each signing event,” said Marcus Bracken, Head of Procurement for FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia.

“Anything supplier-facing needs to be simple, with all necessary documents to allow informed and fast execution to complete, so we can begin delivering value as soon as possible.”

Given FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia’s large number of suppliers, the cost and time required to print contracts, track signatures, and send reminders was a burden not only on staff but on the environment too. After execution, the documents were re-scanned to provide an electronic copy. The paper copies were then archived into physical storage creating another expense item for the business, not to mention the physical usage of thousands of prints on paper each year.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation needed a solution that would provide complete visibility into the contract management process.

A smarter, faster contracting process

By implementing Docusign eSignature with PowerForms, FUJIFILM Business Innovation's procurement team has streamlined document execution for master services agreements, statements of work, ordering documents and supplier onboarding forms. The use case was extended to payment approval forms as well given the efficiency of such processes.

Take contract creation and dispatch, for example. With Docusign, contracts are dispatched and completed from mobile devices, so requesters and approvers can confirm changes on the spot.

Similarly, suppliers often require edits to their contracts during the procurement process. This requires FUJIFILM Business Innovation to have the right technology to work efficiently. Docusign enables contracts to be edited from anywhere and changes processed quickly.

Docusign’s eSignature empowers FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s procurement team to deal with suppliers in an agile way. The team has visibility into where each document is in the signing process, and which individuals are yet to sign.

Unlike paper contracts, eSignature with PowerForms makes it easy for suppliers to include all mandatory information for a one-time document transaction. When completing a form on FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s supplier portal, eSignature requires the supplier to input their response against each field before they can move onto the next. This reduces time and hassle previously spent following-up incomplete contracts.

“One of the success factors for the procurement team is our ability to work seamlessly with suppliers. Docusign’s eSignature technology enables the team to work far more quickly, so that time that was previously spent on creating and chasing manual contracts or other forms, is now used to build better relationships with suppliers,” said Bracken.

Keeping business digital with Docusign

In addition to managing documents with external suppliers,  FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s procurement team has introduced other business functions to use Docusign for internal processes. These include employee contracts for HR onboarding as well as personal expense claims, payments for low value, one-off transactions and internal requisitions for capital expenditure.

Based on the success with suppliers and staff, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia is continually finding new ways to use Docusign. As a next step, FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s sales team is looking to implement the Docusign Agreement Cloud for Sales to enhance its sales contracting process with customers. Internally, the solution has been adopted to great success within other departments that have a heavy reliance on paper workflow such as Finance, HR and Legal teams.