Transform Your Business with Automated DocuSign Workflows
As a business leader in the digital era, few tasks feel as antiquated as printing, signing, scanning and manually filing paper contracts. Modern tools like DocuSign have introduced eSignatures and made basic contract signing digital, but truly savvy professionals are taking it to the next level with workflow automation.
This comprehensive guide will explore how automating your DocuSign contract processes can save vast amounts of time and transform efficiency. You‘ll learn:
- Exactly what DocuSign is and how it works
- The major benefits of integrating DocuSign automation
- How to seamlessly connect it with tools like Zapier
- Real-world examples of automating signature requests, cloud backups of contracts, notifications and more
- Tips for managing high contract volume like a pro
- Best practices for transitioning seamlessly to paperless workflows
Let‘s get started exploring how DocuSign automation can help move your business lightyears ahead.
What Exactly is DocuSign?
DocuSign is one of the most widely used eSignature solutions, with over a million customers globally across practically every industry. It allows document signing to occur digitally, rather than requiring printing, physically signing with pen and paper, scanning and transmitting back.
The company describes its solution as taking "the work out of paperwork." The DocuSign Agreement Cloud manages the entire system of agreements for today‘s professionals – preparing, signing, acting on and managing documents.
So how does DocuSign work exactly? The system includes a drag-and-drop document editor to customize agreements. It then allows you to send these documents to recipients to electronically sign with legally binding eSignatures.
Recipients can sign on any device, while the DocuSign platform tracks document status in real-time. It also stores completed documents, allowing them to be easily searched later. Built-in workflows even allow automatic routing of documents to multiple signers in the proper order.
While going digital for contract signing is a good first step, the real transformation happens when you integrate intelligent workflows to automate the busywork around agreements.
Why Automate Your DocuSign Contract Workflows?
Automation is revolutionizing nearly every business process as technology handles time-consuming manual tasks so professionals can focus on high-value work. Contract management in particular tends to involve plenty of repetitive administrative work like:
- Filling out common contract templates for each client
- Emailing signature requests and tracking status
- Physically filing signed agreements
- Following up with clients for signatures
Automated workflows eliminate these pain points:
Some of the major benefits you can expect by automating DocuSign contract processes include:
1. Massive Time Savings
No more wasting hours every week manually managing contracts. Automation handles the busywork for you.
2. Improved Client Experience
Deliver seamless, self-service paperless agreements clients can easily eSign from anywhere.
3. Reduced Human Error
Automated workflows minimize the risk of forgetting steps and reduce oversight gaps.
4. Enhanced Compliance & Security
Digital audit trails, backups and access controls improve compliance and data security.
5. Scalability For Growth
Automated systems allow you to scale agreements 5X, 10X or more without drowning in paperwork.
Clearly, integrating intelligent workflows presents massive advantages, especially as your business grows.
Leveraging Zapier to Automate DocuSign
While DocuSign includes built-in functionality like multi-user routing, the ability to directly integrate with other critical business systems is limited. This is where a tool like Zapier comes in very handy.
Zapier is one of the most popular integration platforms, with thousands of app integrations. It allows you to instantly connect web apps together to automate multi-step workflows called Zaps. Zaps automate workflows based on triggers – for example, "when a new DocuSign contract is signed, then upload to my CRM."
The platform handles integrating the apps behind the scenes so you don‘t need any technical expertise. Simply click to connect accounts, set up triggers based on events, and define resulting actions across your apps.
Some ways Zapier helps automate DocuSign include:
Automatically storing signed contracts
Rather than manually downloading and organizing signed PDFs, you can create Zaps that automatically store completed agreements with services like Google Drive for secure cloud storage and easy searchability.
Sending real-time notifications
Get instantly notified via email, Slack, text message or other channels when important contract events occur like when signing is complete.
Syncing key data with other systems
Seamlessly copy critical information from signed agreements into your CRM, project management tool, accounting system and more.
Managing high volume easily
Automated kicking off signature workflows from spreadsheets, forms, online orders and more for extreme scalability.
Next let‘s explore some real-world examples of automating contract processes with Zapier and DocuSign.
Real-World Examples of DocuSign Automations
While automating contract workflows delivers huge efficiency gains across practically any industry, some of the most impactful use cases include:
Sales & Business Development
Streamline sending bulk signature requests to leads and seamlessly sync signed accounts to your CRM.
HR & Staffing
Automate employee and contractor onboarding with offer letters, NDAs and paperwork requiring signatures.
Purchasing & Procurement
Accelerate vendor, supplier and subcontractor contracting.
Legal Services
Optimize client intake and accounting by automatically routing and filing agreements.
IT & Managed Service Providers
Standardize cliente services agreements and safely store signed managed service contracts.
Let‘s explore some specific examples and pre-built templates you can customize.
Client Intake Automation for Law Firms
Streamlining legal intake with self-service signature workflows saves massive administrative overhead. When a new client inquiry comes in through a web form, you can instantly send them pre-built engagement letters and agreements to sign electronically.
The signed paperwork syncing automatically to your case or document management system keeps everything organized in the right place. Client and matter data also copies to your CRM system, keeping details readily accessible to staff and management.
Relevant Zap Templates:
Streamlined Vendor Onboarding
Managing stacks of printed vendor applications and agreements is hugely cumbersome. But by integrating paperless order forms and contract templates with DocuSign eSignatures, you can allow prospective vendors to self-serve the application process.
This helps you scale partnering without growing administrative headaches. Relevant details from the completed forms also sync seamlessly into your supplier database, keeping important information updated automatically.
Relevant Zap Templates:
These are just a sample of the hundreds of ways you can eliminate contract drudgery with automated DocuSign processes.
Tips for Managing High Volume DocuSign Agreements
As your business grows to hundreds or thousands of agreements requiring signatures annually, trying to administer them manually quickly becomes unworkable.
Leveraging automation is key, but you also need to set up systematized processes for intelligently managing documents at scale. Here are some top tips:
Standardize your templates
Creating consistent templates, fields and terminology for common agreements makes automation much simpler and reporting more transparent.
Build self-service workflows
Empower clients, partners and staff to complete their own paperwork with automated workflows rather than managing manually.
Simplify signatures with groups
DocuSign Groups allow you to pre-designate contacts that frequently sign documents together for speedier signature routing.
Add controls to guarantee compliance
Set required fields and validation rules to prevent errors and oversights as volume increases.
Monitor analytics proactively
Watch DocuSign system usage metrics regularly to head off bottlenecks before they become problems.
Transitioning to optimized, large-scale contract management workflows doesn‘t happen overnight. But by methodically automating and systematizing over time, your agreements will go from barely manageable burden to total strategic advantage.
Going Paperless: Best Practices for Transitioning
While prosperity awaits on the other side, moving from historical paper-driven contract processes to modern digital automation involves careful change management. Follow these best practices to ensure a smooth and successful transition:
Get leadership aligned and engaged
Make sure management understands the major efficiency and compliance gains automation delivers before expecting widespread organizational change.
Involve stakeholders early
The people actually working with contracts day-to-day have valuable insights into pain points and design ideas that leaders may overlook.
Start with easy early wins
Pilot changes with simple use cases likely to deliver quick wins and user satisfaction before tackling complex contract flows dependent on digitization.
Communicate clearly on changes
Keep everyone consistently updated on timeframe expectations to alleviate uncertainty and gain buy-in.
Solicit user feedback
Check-in regularly with users actually interacting with modernized systems to promptly address concerns and continually optimize.
While moving off of historical paper contracts feels like a big leap for many businesses, it no longer requires complex enterprise software and prolonged rollouts. Low-code automation platforms like Zapier make it fast and easy to start streamlining document workflows using popular tools like DocuSign.
The efficiency gains unlock enormous new capacity to focus on serving clients, closing deals and executing business strategy. Before you know it, you’ll be running circles around competitors still buried under paperwork. Now, are you ready to step forward?
