Category: Technology

Currently I am conducting some feasibility research on Adobe Echosign. Below are some highlights of that research.

What does it offer?

It allows us to email customers with a link to a signable document (PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint or HTML formats). The signatures on these documents are legally enforceable. The United States (and many other countries) considers electronic signatures to have the same legal status as written signatures. Additionally Adobe warrants that EchoSign is fully compliant with the US Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act of 2000.

 

How does it work?

There are many ways to use and leverage Adobe Echosign.  By using the Echosign interface a document can be sent to the customer to sign. These documents scan be as simple or as complicated as we need. Documents can have form fields that can be filled in (name, address etc.) and of course a signature field. The signature field can be signed by typing your name or filling out the field via mouse, touchscreen or stylus.

If we would like to integrate Echosign we would need to use the API SOAP web service. A detailed explanation can be seen here – https://www.echosign.adobe.com/content/dam/echosign/docs/pdfs/EchoSign%20API%20Guide_v2.pdf

At a high level we would use scenario 1 “Sending & tracking from an external application”. This scenario involves the application sending a document for signature either automatically or due to user initiated actions. The status of the document and the detailed audit trail need to be exposed into the sending application and when the document is signed, a PDF copy of the signed agreement is retrieved and stored in the application.

1. Send the document for signature – Use the API to send the document, recipient details and a callback URL. Echosign returns an unique document key
2. Check the status of the document – There are two mechanisms for checking the status of a document, Echosign can use a callback URL that our application specifies to inform us that the document is signed or our application can poll Echosign to check the status of a document
3. Retrieve the signed PDF

 

What are the license terms/cost?

Pricing is detailed here https://www.echosign.adobe.com/en/pricing-new.html

There are 3 tiers – Pro (from $14.95/mo), Team (from $19.95/mo) and Enterprise. If we were to use the web interface rather than the API the Team edition would be best. In order to use the API we have to take the Enterprise option, the price for this isn’t displayed on the website and requires us to contact their sales team for more information.

 

What is the customer support like?

Enterprise Edition has 24×7 chat, phone, and email support. The other editions offer 24×7 Chat support only. Currently EchoSign does not offer general API code support.

 

What are its limitations?

The main limitation is that the signed document is in PDF format only.

 

Does it work with reporting services?

No, the main Microsoft technologies that it can be integrated into are Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Sharepoint.

 

What advantage does it give over developing our own internal document signing app?

The biggest advantage I can see is that Echosign is fully compliant with all current e-Signature legislation. If we develop our own solution we may (this would need to be investigated further) need to ensure that we are compliant with the  Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act of 2000. Developing our own solution could require a lot of design and development time.