For any business in the increasingly competitive world we are in today, optimization of business processes is always a top agenda. eSignature is one way businesses are achieving efficiency. With eSignature, businesses close deals and sign contracts online in a very short period since they eliminate the slow and tedious paper processes. With electronic signature, the cost of fax machines, some offices supplies, and shipping fees is minimized or eliminated in some cases. Firms that have implemented eSignature, have saved valuable money and precious time. The money and the time saved is what will give your business an edge over the competition.
It is important to note that electronic signatures on business contracts are as valid as ink signed signatures on paper. The enactment of the eSignatures in Global and International Commerce U.S. Federal law in 2000 made this a reality.One of the robust eSignature software available in the market today is the DocuSign.
DocuSign is an electronic cloud-based signature application. It enables organizations of all sizes to send, sign, approve and manage documents from anywhere, at any time and on any device. With DocuSign, you can send an electronic document to the signer, add a tag to the document to show where the individual should sign and specify the order in which the individual should sign. Using DocuSign, you can also embed signature fields into websites.
From DocuSign’s dashboard, you can see the status of all the documents you have received for signing including which stage the paper has reached in the signing process. It also sends reminders for pending signatures to those involved in the signing process. You can also sign documents in multiple languages. DocuSign has over a 200 million users worldwide and processes close to a million documents daily.
DocuSign offers the following important features
DocuSign supports nearly all kinds of document file types from most applications like Microsoft, LibreOffice, etc. For the formats not supported by DocuSign, you can send the document from the application (this option is available to over 50,000 applications) to DocuSign by the help of DocuSign print drivers.
With DocuSign, you do not have to prepare your PDF document for signing. Upon uploading it, DocuSign automatically converts the PDF fields to signer fields.
With DocuSign, you can tag individual lines of text so that whenever you paste them into a document, the tags appear in the right location automatically.
With the help of power forms, you can generate self-service documents for signature on demand. You, therefore, eliminate the manuscript preparation time.
When sending a file to a signer DocuSign lets you enter terms and conditions, legal disclosures, etc. that you want the individual to acknowledge before signing the document. Furthermore, DocuSign allows the sending of the documents as a distinct part of an envelope.
DocuSign offers a wide range of form features including drop-down tags, text, numerical and currency field, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc.
You can link your document to another third-party system so that data moves bi-directionally.
DocuSign offers the feature of restricting the type of data entered into any field thus reducing “not good order” transactions.
DocuSign allows you to route your document and specify the signing order. You may require your user to sign one after another or have them all sign at the same time.
DocuSign allows you to prepare reusable templates with saved settings. They reduce document preparation time and standardize their development process.
You can send a document to various recipients so that each receives a unique copy to sign. You just need to import a list of the signers.
With DocuSign, you can define the actions of each recipient in your workflow. For instance, you can specify if the receiver is to sign, edit, or simply approve the document.
When sending multiple documents, DocuSign allows you to restrict which signers can view and access specific forms; giving you the ability to protect confidential information.
DocuSign lets you edit documents. You can even complete incomplete forms.
You can set up email reminders that will automatically remind your signers about the signing process or deadlines.
DocuSign helps you confirm that your signers are who they say they are. Before a signer gets access to a document, they have to pass the multiple levels of authentication set up by DocuSign.
For your businesses, DocuSign will offer you the following benefits
Pricing
DocuSign has five plans to suit your needs.
Under this plan, you can only send five documents per month for signing. It is a single user.
The plan has a limit of ten documents per month. Allows custom branding and has the reusable templates feature.
Allows you to send unlimited documents for signing. Has all the professional plan features plus
It has all the features of the business plan plus bulk send and power forms features.
Supports all the premium features plus the following features
Drawbacks
Though its customers highly rate the software, it has one major drawback. Compared to other similar software, DocuSign is too pricey. DocuSign price is about twice that of its competitors while the features are very similar.