DocuSign talks about embedding eSigning into your app

DocuSign, an eSignature startup, has a reported $3 billion valuation, more than 100+ million users, and a client roster that includes Microsoft, Salesforce, LinkedIn and SAP. Here Marie Huwe, the VP of Developer Programs and Evangelism at DocuSign, tells us about their API and how developers have influenced their growth and success to date.

ADM: What is your role at DocuSign?

Huwe: I am the VP of Developer Programs and Evangelism. My team and I are responsible for building a vibrant developer ecosystem for DocuSign and evangelizing the DocuSign API.

ADM: Can you tell me about the role that developers have played in DocuSign's growth?

Huwe: Developers have been critical to DocuSign's incredible growth, particularly over the last several years. Our transaction growth has been exponential in nature, and much of that has been driven by the API. This is the power of a great API coupled with a strong developer community. In fact, 58% of DocuSign's total transactions come from API integrations built by our customers and partners. Last year, transactions from new API integrations grew 477%. And, we now have 44K developer sandboxes on our platform, which has doubled year over year.

ADM: How are developers leveraging the DocuSign API in their businesses? What are some examples of the results they are seeing?

Huwe: Every aspect of a business agreement with customers, partners and employees can benefit from DocuSign. Developers are leveraging the DocuSign API across hundreds of use cases, from sales contracts, reseller agreements, field sales and account provisioning, to procurement and supply chain, to recruiting and contractor agreements, to asset transfer, asset tracking, invoice processing, and many more.

Eastern Bank used the DocuSign API to greatly simplify the process for small business loan applications, with an automated decision process, eSigning, and funding. Customers can now get loans of up to $100K funded in five minutes (down from three weeks).

Restaurant Services, Inc., built an end-to-end solution for managing all Burger King supplier contracts, worth $3B per year in procurement transactions, 100% digitally. They also reduced contract completion times from weeks down to as quickly as two minutes.

Tri-Counties Regional Center built a solution for greatly improving the ability to provide services to people with special needs. Case study workers were able to increase their face-to-face time by 50%. Those with disabilities who cannot physically sign documents can now eSign with DocuSign. And Tri-Counties saved 200,000 pages of paper in 24 months.

loanDepot built a new customer portal from the ground-up, using the DocuSign eSignature API to manage the entire workflow to create a great customer experience. They decreased loan closing time by 5 days.

ADM: What is the most creative use case where you have seen DocuSign's API used?

Huwe: There are a lot of creative use cases - it would be hard to choose just one! One example is Team Rubicon, a not-for-profit which deploys veterans into disaster zones. In the Syrian refugee camps in Greece, Team Rubicon helps refugees in need of medical aid by utilizing a mobile, offline solution created during a DocuSign Hack-for-Good. Another creative use case combines the Google Civic API and the DocuSign eSignature API to enable organizers of a campaign or petition to upload documents that need to be eSigned. Constituents in a district or region can then see what petitions or ballots are available to be eSigned, and easily look up contact information for applicable government officials. Another example is Butte County, which uses DocuSign to accelerate judge approvals of search warrants for drug busts.

ADM: What are some of the biggest challenges around developing with DocuSign's API?

Huwe: I would have to say the breadth of possibilities. The DocuSign eSignature API is very powerful and mirrors the power of our platform. It offers the flexibility, features, and capability to meet the requirements of a wide number of use cases ranging from fairly simple to quite complex.

Customers like Eastern Bank tell us they choose the DocuSign API for the following reasons:

- A proven, mature, and fully-documented and supported API,

- A breadth of functionality to support a range of products and customer experiences,

- Global brand recognition as the standard for eSignature - important for our customers and their customers in terms of having comfort, trust and confidence in transacting business digitally

- Compliance support in the highly-regulated banking industry - compliance support for a number of highly-regulated industries and standards-based signature support for geo-specific digital signature requirements can add to the complexity but are critical for enterprises and global organizations.

ADM: DocuSign recently entered the payments space. How will this new feature influence where and how the DocuSign API is used?

Huwe: Many transactions that require a signature involve money - think security deposits for apartment leases, retainers for attorneys, minimum deposits for bank accounts, and payments in full. Our Payments API makes the DocuSign API a one stop shop for those transactions so developers can eliminate delays, paper and other inefficiencies from existing business processes.

ADM: If a developer wanted to use the DocuSign API, what is one piece of advice you would give them?

Huwe: Plan for the future when you are building your first eSignature API-based solution. Even if you have one burning business challenge to address, when you are planning the project ask yourself whether you will eventually want to ensure what you build integrates with other projects, other steps in your current project, and/or other business processes (be they related or unrelated) and plan accordingly. Start out with a developer sandbox, build your prototype, and iterate accordingly.