EchoSign for procurement White Paper

E-signatures and procurement: How IT can help

thebusiness streamline vendor and supplier
contract processes
Waiting for signatures holds up procurement, and manual processes
generate tons of paper. But IT has the power to solve the problem by
leveraging efficient SaaS solutions.
Table of contents
1: Waiting for signatures
holds up business
1: Business acceleration:
Get contracts signed
faster
2: Business agility: Make
the organization more
nimble
3: Trusted partner: Do
business the secure
way
3: Conclusion:
Help streamline
procurementin a
way that ITcan trust
4: Checklist: How
to evaluate an
e-signature solution
forprocurement

Waiting for signatures holds up business

At the heart of every enterprise is the procurement department, which works behind the scenes to buy goods and
services that keep the organization running smoothly. But every supplier and vendor generates paperwork that
needs to be faxed or sent overnight, tracked, signed, filed, and archivedsecurely and in compliance with
regulations and company policies. Its inevitable that such a paper-heavy process will lead to delays, errors, and
high costs. All the while, nobody knows the status of a contractand services and supplies are stuck in limbo.
Every inefficiency affects the bottom line and inhibits the organizations ability to compete. While thats a
business problem, its a business problem that IT can solve. The solution is easy for IT to implement and easy
for procurement organizations to adopt. It requires minimal investment, software that IT and employees have
already installed, and a quick learning curve. It also gives IT the opportunity to function as a strategic business
partner by providing a framework that leads to a competitive advantage for the whole organization.
Electronic signatures, or e-signatures, help organizations close the last mile of paper, reduce costs, and
accelerate business. Procurement professionals can send, track, receive, and access documentsfrom
anywhere, on any devicegetting contracts signed in hours or minutes, not days or weeks.
This white paper shows how IT departments can help the business implement a solution that integrates
withexisting business applications and transforms procurement into a fast, agile processall in a trusted
environment.

Business acceleration: Get contracts signed faster

IT departments hear it often: One new piece of technology is all they need to solve their problems. But the
reality turns out to be more complex. New technologies often mean new integrations that are tedious and
complicated. Deployment and adoption take longer than anticipated, eating away at the value the solution
wassupposed to provide.
When it comes to speeding up procurement processes, there is a technology solution that can seamlessly plug
into your existing systems with minimal effort. Further, substituting e-signatures for pen and paper empowers
the procurement department to do their work faster. With just a click of the mouse, procurement can compress
a weeks-long process into days or hours.

Decrease overall cycle times in process-to-pay workflows

With an automated e-signature solution, theres no more waiting. Contracts can be signed instantly by all parties.
Send in a few clicks. Procurement can upload, customize, and send contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and
moreas easily as sending email. Automatically deliver PDF copies of the executed contract to all parties.
Untether the process. Recipients can sign anytime, anywhere, on virtually any device.
Do more work in less time. Procurement can send a contract to one or multiple signers at once and even
control the signing ordertasks that would take significantly longer if done manually.

Track and manage contracts throughout the process

An e-signature solution can provide instant insight into document status anytime, from anywhere.
Always know the status. Procurement can keep real-time tabs on documents and know exactly when theyre
opened, viewed, and signed. Alerts notify the appropriate people when things happen, or when they dont.

Adobe EchoSign
takes a huge
amount of
administrative
workload off of our
agents so they can
spend more time
doing sales. Our
competitors have
started to copy
us, but only we
offer a polished,
branded web portal
integration.
Dan Rafferty,
IT director, Foxtons

Keep the process moving. E-signature solutions let procurement send automated reminders when people
havent signedand even replace signers with just a few clicks.
Access contracts instantly. When procurement needs to review a contract, its easyanytime, anywhere,
from virtually any device.

Save time and resources

The procurement process can be slow, and that means expensive. An automated, electronic solution can free
up procurement resources, enabling procurement to spend its time and money on more important activities.
Increase productivity. Shorten the time that procurement professionals spend tracking and processing
contracts. Enable them to filter and search for contracts by recipient, company, and date to find what theyre
looking for quickly.
Cut waste. Reduce or eliminate the time, cost, and environmental impact of postage, shipping, faxing,
printing, and physical storage.

Business agility: Make the organization more nimble

A cloud-based e-signature solution makes sense for IT and procurement. Its easy for IT to roll out and requires
little maintenanceleading to the agility that IT and procurement both need to succeed.

Roll out quickly

IT can roll out a hosted, cloud-based e-signature solution quickly.
Get ROI faster. Easy-to-use cloud solutions come with few barriers to deployment and adoption, so they can
generate value immediately.
Scale as needed. Start with a single client or group. When that proves a success, roll out e-signatures to all
procurement and other finance functions.

Integrate with existing systems

Manual signatures and stacks of paper cant integrate with other systems. But an automated, electronic
solution pulls contracts into the existing systems that procurement professionals use every day, making those
systems more valuable and employees more productive.
Leverage existing software investments. An e-signature solution with easy-to-deploy APIs allows
customization according to established workflows. It can also integrate with popular business applications
such as Microsoft SharePoint, Adobe Reader and Acrobat, Google Docs, Box, and more.
Enable more insight into management processes. An e-signature solution can provide insight into parts of the
contract process that procurement couldnt see before, helping to maximize efficiency across the business.

Seamlessly mirror existing processes

When procurement makes this simple switchsubstituting e-signatures for pen and paperthey dont have to
change anything else. Upstream and downstream business processes can function as they always have.
Keep what works. E-signatures dont complicate anything; they make life easier for procurement by making
contract signing faster, with virtually no training necessary, and let other processes stay intact.
Get more value from proven business processes. E-signatures are easy and cost-effective to roll out to
other parts of the business, such as HR and sales, because they dont require changes to existing processes.
Build on current business process improvement (BPI) investments. An e-signature solution is an easy way
to build upon other BPI investments in areas such as contract lifecycle management and document storage.

EchoSign for procurement White Paper

Trusted partner: Do business the secure way

IT can get behind a cloud-based, automated e-signature solution that streamlines and speeds up procurement
processesbut not at the expense of security. Many IT leaders are surprised to learn that an e-signature solution
can offer exactly the security IT requires, without a large IT investment or complicated integration work.

We estimate
the increased
productivity
translates into
over $250,000
in administrative
savings annually
just on our team.
Adobe EchoSign
gives us efficiencies
that improve
compliance
while boosting
productivity
that means our
department can
handle company
growth without
dramatically
increasing
headcount.
Maggie Hardin,
senior manager of global
procurement, Adobe

Trust the legality of e-signatures

E-signatures are legally enforceable in countries around the world. In October 2000, the U.S. Congress passed
the federal ESIGN Act, making electronic signatures legally equivalent to written signatures. The ESIGN Act
includes provisions to:
Protect the consumer with appropriate notifications and disclosures
Ensure technological neutrality and universal access
Ensure authentication and privacy
Create legal certainty and protection to prevent fraud
Allow easy document access and record retention
Adobe EchoSign warrants that signatures collected in our system comply with the ESIGN Act of 2000. In the
unlikely event one of your signatures is challenged in court, Adobe will stand beside you.

Store contracts more securely

Today, procurement departments tend to work with paper contracts, which are vulnerable to loss or theft and
dont provide an audit trail. That approach doesnt provide the kind of security that IT needs. IT wants reassurance
that sensitive documents are safebecause IT will have to answer for any security lapses that occur.
An e-signature solution can store contracts in a secure online repository that is accessible from anywherebut
only by authorized people. Access requires the right passwords and permissions, and every document
maintains an audit trail that shows who has accessed it, when, and how.

Conclusion: Help streamline procurementin a way that IT can trust

Procurement organizations are looking to replace manual signature processes that dont match the increasingly
mobile, automated way that employees want to work. Thats why many IT departments are using a combination
of cloud-based e-signature solutions and PDF software to remove a major source of pain for procurement. With
an automated, end-to-end workflow that satisfies everyone who needs to sign contracts, procurement functions
more efficientlyand IT proves its value as a strategic business partner.
Thousands of organizations around the world have turned to Adobe to speed up the signing process. From
document creation and review to collaboration, Adobe Acrobat streamlines the entire process by collecting all
feedback and approvals in a single PDF file. Adobe EchoSign then moves contracts through the signature
process, including sending, signing, tracking, and archiving. It is low-cost, simple to implement, and easy to
useand, in many cases, integrates seamlessly with applications commonly deployed in enterprises around
the world.
Adobe EchoSign is backed by rigorous enterprise security standards that millions of customers have come to
trust over the companys 30-year history. Adobe invented the PDF standard and is widely recognized as the
leader in secure, reliable document workflows. Today, Adobe EchoSign offers:
Dedicated servers in a state-of-the-art, SSAE 16 Type II SOC 1 facility (Note: The SSAE 16 supersedes and
replaces the Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, or SAS 70.)
Backup of all documents in redundant data centers
A high uptime and availability record monitored by a third party. Current service status and past service
availability records are available online at http://trust.echosign.com.
Secure HTTPS encryption of all site traffic and data access utilizing 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) encryption

EchoSign for procurement White Paper

Checklist: How to evaluate an e-signature solution for procurement

Implementing an e-signature solution with the right capabilities can be an easy way to improve the
procurement process. Look for software that offers these features:

Sending, tracking, and managing

Procurement can upload, customize, and send contracts in a few quick clicksas easy as emailing.
Real-time tracking of contracts tells exactly when theyre opened, viewed, and signed.
Contract initiators can get alerts when things happen (and when they dont).
Procurement can present and gather signatures on contracts, even when offline.

Integration with existing systems

The solution easily integrates with CMS, CRM, ERP, and other business applications your organization
already uses.
Signed contracts are accessible from within the existing CMS system.

Secure storage and access

Documents are encrypted and stored in secure data centers that you trust.
Secure passwords and permissions control access to all documents.
Procurement professionals can search for and retrieve executed contracts anytime, anywhere, on
anydevice.
Every document has an easily accessible audit trail and history.
Signers identities are verified through multiple mechanisms, including password, email address, and
knowledge-based authentication that uses industry-standard questions extracted from public and
commercial databases.

Signing experience
Signers can e-sign contracts anywhere, anytime, on any smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
The signing process is simple and intuitive and requires no software installations or new logins.
All parties automatically receive PDF copies of the signed contract.
The solution lets people sign using software most users already have, such as free Adobe Reader.
Procurement can brand the entire signing experience with the companys logo, colors, and messaging.

For more information

www.adobe.com/go/acrobatitinfo

Adobe Systems Incorporated

345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
www.adobe.com

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, EchoSign, and Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

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