A Sign Of The Times: E-SignaturesA Sign Of The Times: E-Signatures

Three years after signing its first electronic "John Hancock," DocuSign has now inked more than 9 million digital signatures. As companies look for ways to introduce eco-friendly business processes, more are signing, virtually, on the dotted line.DocuSign's digital signature technology is offered as a Web-based software service for occasional users and as a PC app for frequent users. In February, the company introduced DocuSign Professional 2.0 with new features such as Intelligent Document Recognition, which automatically recognizes where signatures are to be placed in a document, and a bulk send capability for distributing thousands of contacts from a database.

DocuSign has about 2,500 business customers. Wells Fargo Funding recently named DocuSign an approved e-signature vendor, which means loan originators can use its software to hasten the processing of truth-in-lending notifications and other documents. Expedia and Great Lakes Educational Loan Services are users, too.

Digital signature technology has been around for at least 10 years, and there are many vendors and products. They include Arcot Systems, Interlink Electronics, and Sertifi.

DocuSign's technology can be added to Web sites for business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions, and an API and SDK are available so IT departments can integrate its technology into business processes and applications. I talked about all this with DocuSign VP Bob DeSantis a few days ago. You can check out the interview here.