Do you need to send the same document to a large list of recipients and request that each sign his own instance of the document?  Do you know that doing so is now easier than ever with eOriginal SmartSign?

Let’s walk through a very simple example for requesting that all 333 employees at Acme Organization sign the new Acme HR Policy Guide.  We are going to define a single transaction with a single instance of the Acme HR Policy Guide, and magically, all 333 Acme employees will receive an email requesting they review and sign the guide…

In the SmartSign Setup application, choose to create a New Transaction.  Give the transaction a name to be used as the base transaction ID (let’s use “Acme HR Policy Guide”) and fill in the rest of the transaction properties (status, expiration date, etc.) as you normally do.   Click on the ‘Additional Information’ link to expand that section.   In the ‘Generate Multiple Copies’ field, type “333″.

Now go through the steps to add a document and define the signature template as if you were creating a single transaction for a single employee.

When  you get to the role mapping page you will be prompted to upload a .csv file containing the name, email address, and security codes for each employee.

.csv files can be easily generated via various spreadsheet and database applications.  The .csv file should not include any column headings and should list each recipient in the following format:

First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Email Address, Security Code

(note if no Middle Name is available, a place-holder for its value must still be defined.)

Craft your email text and click to ‘Send’…all 333 Acme employees have just received your email with the link to review and sign the new HR Policy Guide.  Now wasn’t that easy!

Additional Tips:

• The number of entries in the .csv file must match the number of transaction copies requested.
• Multiple roles may participate in ‘bulk mail’ transactions.  The actual signers playing each role may be defined by either uploading a separate .csv file for each role or by defining a specific individual to play that role across all transactions.  When uploading multiple .csv files, be sure the signers are listed in the order they should be ‘paired up’.

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Clients that use the SmartSign Web application to create transaction are always looking for a way to cut down the number to steps it takes their employees to create the document(s) for e-signing.

Transaction Types are a great tool in cutting down the time to create a transaction and ensure the right document(s) and signature action are used for each. Transaction Types allow the user to pre-define document packages.  Then by choosing the Transaction Type in the SmartSign Web application, the user can create the entire document package in one single step.

The signature action on these documents can vary from needs a signature, must be reviewed, user must attach a document or user must print for wet-ink signature.

How to setup Transaction Types:

• Command Center – Administration – Settings
  • Document Types – create the Document Type and update all necessary field(s)
    • Note – if a signature template is needed for the Document Type first create the Document Type then in the SmartSign application create the signature template and save it against the Document Type previously created. This also updates the Command Center Document Type with the signature template.
  • Transaction Types – create the Transaction Type and drag desired Document Types under the ‘Include These Documents’ heading.



To create a transaction using a Transaction Type use the ‘Create a new transaction of type’ dropdown to choose that Transaction Type value.

For more information on eOriginal Command Center and SmartSign Web application please contact us anytime.

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There will always be some new costs that go along with implementing any new technology.  So when analyzing any new solution that may change your entire process, it’s important to build your own value case to determine what level of service, cost, and training you’ll be willing to take on. We’ve worked with many clients to build a good solid Return on Investment (ROI) based on their current business practices vs. adopting electronic signatures. Below are a few quick facts to help establish the basic ROI for implementing electronic signatures. Some additional process improvements that should be considered are better customer experience, improved workflow and security, and 98% of electronically signed documents are executed within the first 24 hours of delivery.

• The average cost of toner, ink and paper amount to $.05 per page

• Average cost of sending one envelope US mail is $.85 per envelope
• Average Courier cost is $45.00
• Overnight Shipping average cost is $18.00
• Cost to scan and save one document $.50
• Cost to fax one document is $.10

The total average cost to send a document to be signed is $7.50, not including Labor and Administrative time.  The average time for one to execute the task of mailing, scanning, copying, faxing, printing or shipping is 15 minutes per document package.

• The total average business cost per task is $1.50.
• With the addition of labor and administrative time, total cost is now $9.00 per document.

Archival cost, such as filing each document, takes an average of 7 minutes. Let’s assume that an employee is making $10 per hour and is filing 10 documents.

• Each document costs about $1.10 to archive
• With the additional filing of each document, total cost is now $10.10

On average, 30% of documents are returned with missing/incomplete information or signatures. For every 10 sets of documents that are sent for signature, three will have additional administrative and process costs which could equal more than an additional $10 per set of ten.

Assuming that you currently do not use SmartSign, and have documents signed with “wet-ink”

• Every ten signed packages would have an average total business cost of between $90-$110.

SmartSign’s ability to create such a consistent ROI is its flexibility to be deployed, configured, and integrated in almost any business process. Our solutions range from straight out-of-the-box to deployed behind an organization’s firewall and, let’s not forget we can also be deployed in the cloud to work with all your other applications. Take an assessment on your current document oriented transactions to see what handling paper documents is costing your company.

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We realize that many businesses are just exploring the idea of adding electronic signatures into their business processes. We also realize that many businesses have already considered utilizing electronic signatures as an option and still have a few unanswered questions. To address these questions, we created this guide “Electronic Signatures:  Why Your Company Should Move to a Paperless Process,” to provide a deeper look into electronic signatures and how eOriginal can help your company to grow. It will provide you with a detailed walk-through of the advantages and benefits your business will see by implementing an electronic paperless process. As you read through please let us know if you have any questions leave a comment or contact us; we’ll be more than happy to help out.

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eCore®…Looking Forward

As summer is upon us, we look forward to baseball games and barbeques and working through our product enhancement projects in anxious anticipation of the days ahead…and so the story of the 2009 eOriginal product roadmap continues….

This year, we are looking to improve a few of our internal processes to better enable quality support and quick product delivery.  Our efforts will offer our current and future customers shorter implementation cycles and greater product capability and flexibility. 

Early releases this year have already:

• Introduced an out-of-the-box signing experience, eOriginal SmartSign® Web, making custom-branded eSignature solutions available without IT resource involvement.
• Enabled signed packages to be prepared, reviewed, signed, and managed through a zero-footprint, zero-implementation web service.  Simply upload your documents and configure your signing scenario and you are on your way to having completely and accurately signed documents as quickly as your signers can access them. 
• Refreshed the Command Center™ user experience, providing improved ease-of-use and greater flexibility in transaction and document management. 
• Improved searching capabilities, in-line document access, and the ability to act upon multiple transactions or documents with a single action. This allows document managers to more readily identify and maintain the contents of their secure repository.

 Among our targeted efforts for the remainder of the year are:

• Continuing our refresh of the Command Center^TM user experience, providing improved ease-of-use and greater flexibility in transaction and document management.
• Enhancing our out-of-the-box signing experience, simplifying the package creation and offering new package management capabilities.
• Improving our PDF-processing abilities, offering enhanced electronic signature capabilities and providing support for new PDF features and specifications.
• Introducing a complete set of web services, enabling rapid integration of full eCore feature-set capabilities and simplifying integrated application deployments.
• Streamlining our internal processing, improving performance and facilitating our ability to rapidly deliver feature enhancements.
• Leveraging new infrastructure technologies, allowing our customers to take advantage of capabilities offered by the newer infrastructure versions.

‘Simplify, simplify, simplify!’ is our motto for 2009.  Everyone is looking to do more with less.  Our goal is to deliver our eCore®, eCore® On Demand, and eOriginal SmartSign® Web products as tools that will enable you to do so.  Whether you are new to electronic signing or a seasoned veteran, eOriginal® aims to make, and keep, your path to electronic signing success simple.

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Every business depends on customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Both are impacted by internal processes, which are key metrics for any organization.  In today’s business climate, the need has arisen to review current processes and match them against the evolving world of technology.  Businesses constantly monitor customer perceptions through surveys, sales force feedback and other methods.  They do this to measure and gauge how well the overall customer experience is faring in comparison to their business model and daily work efforts.  Additionally, they use this as a tool to identify and enhance processes that may be causing lower ratings of customer satisfaction and a decrease in product/service loyalty.  Once road-blocks are identified, they’re normally analyzed and improved upon based on the data that had been gathered from customer surveys and feedback.  Unfortunately, there are times when even the most dynamic survey or well-trained sales professional will not gain the input needed to improve a process that is under-the-radar, such as the final step in the overall customer experience.

The signing of an agreement or document to close the sale is such a common practice that it is rarely within the sites of customer feedback.  With electronic signing now rising in popularity, such customer satisfaction measurements are being affected by this process without companies realizing how it is impacting them.  For example:

Company “A” began using electronic signatures for its customers last year.  Prior to this, their customer surveys had reflected a 75% overall customer satisfaction rating.  After implementing an electronic signing process, the next survey showed a rating of over 88% satisfied customers.  Prior results only showed an average increase of 3-5%.  There were no other changes within the organization.  They simply added electronic signatures.

Company “B” still uses a paper signing process for its customers.  Their customer satisfaction survey results came in at 76% during the last survey.  Now they project a lower rating of 70%.  This is happening even when their prices are lower, the products are more readily available (no waiting), and the company has streamlined other internal functions to offer more customer support and faster assistance. What happened?

Matching current processes with available technology is why company “A” has a higher customer satisfaction measurement.  They looked ahead, researched available resources that would lower costs and improve processes and ultimately made the decision to implement electronic signatures.  Company “B” is still not aware that this option is available to them, yet their customers are.

The last step in gaining a customer is getting their signature.  Making it a simple, effective and secure process is what today’s consumer is looking for.  They have identity theft concerns, time restrictions, and want that product or service you’re offering immediately.  If there are delays or insecurities, there is a good chance they will move on and find another company that can provide them with the confidence they need and the product/service they want.  That’s why using electronic signatures will increase your level of customer satisfaction within your business.  They are no longer worried that important personal information may be compromised; they’ve spent very little time with the signing of documents, and they have the product/service they need almost instantaneously.  If your company sounds like “Company  B”, become an “A” company through the use of electronic signing.  If “Company A” sounds like your business, then congratulations.  You’ve increased customer satisfaction by matching your current processes with today’s technology…electronic signatures.

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