EchoBlog - The Latest From EchoSign

Fortune 500 AmerisourceBergen Accelerates Returns by 2,500% with EchoSign Electronic Signature

Salesforce.com continues to update its case studies with stories of success on its Force.com platform.  One of the latest came from S&P 500 leader AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a pharmaceutical services company that provides drug distribution and related services to healthcare providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The full case study is here.  The learnings were several.  First, AmerisourceBergen was extremely focused on enterprise security in general, and on patient data protection in particular, given their HIPAA-compliant environment.  

The results, with the EchoSign pieces highlighted, at the Salesforce website.  Turnaround time on contracts and paperwork dropped from 70 days to 3 days.  And returns processing was accelerated by 2,500%.  

Simply Outstanding.

The Slow and Steady Death of Fax

As we head into the end of 2010, a quick look at Google Trends reveals something every EchoSign user know to be intrinstically true ... fax in all its forms is sputtering to a slow but inglorious death.

At EchoSign, we're not opposed to fax.  In fact, we're very proud of our unique fax signature option, which allows you to optionally fax sign (instead of e-sign) from over 30 redundant global points-of-presence.  We're also proud to have integrated market-leading eFax^TM electronic fax services since 2006.

Having said that, the iPad, iPhone, and the web worker in general have put the final nail in the coffin of fax.  As you can see above, fax searches are down 20% in 2010 on Google and look set to plunge even further in 2011.  By contrast, electronic signature usage is growing at a similar rate to fax's decline:

There's no longer any question about e-signature adoption.  In just a few years, the majority of contracts will be signed on the web, for the simple reason that we now do everything else on the web.

E-signatures aren't killing the fax -- it's simply the web itself that is.

 

  

Qualcomm Improves Turnaround Time by 50% with EchoSign-for-Salesforce

Salesforce.com updated its profile on Fortune 500 leader Qualcomm just before Dreamforce, and we were extremely pleased to see how Qualcomm reported its success using the entire Salesforce and Force platform, including EchoSign-for-Salesforce for over 3 years.

It's terrific to see Qualcomm quantify the results from e-signing contracts on the web:

 

 "Results

• An enterprise license agreement (ELA) signed in 2009 allows deeper use of the Force.com platform and CRM, including deployments to all Qualcomm business units
• Salesforce.com’s cloud computing model saved an estimated $100,000 in hardware costs to upgrade existing, out-of-date, on-premises CRM solutions during the early rollout of the solution
• The success of early implementations created popular demand for Salesforce applications throughout the company, thanks to features like ease of use, regular updates, Outlook integration, and availability on mobile devices
• 350 custom objects, 20,000+ reports, 800 dashboards, and 1,100+ workflow rules are helping Qualcomm realize dramatic improvements in efficiency
• Changes are now deployed much faster than with the previous on-premises CRM system—with no system downtime
• User adoption is more than double that of the previous on-premises CRM system
• Improved turnaround time by 50% by automating a business process for requesting new contracts and leveraging electronic signatures via EchoSign for Salesforce
• With the Service Cloud and CTI (computer telephony integration), more than 70% of incoming calls automatically display the associated caller information using automatic number identification (ANI) to streamline customer identification, reduce call length, and improve the customer service experience
• Reduced time spent processing requests by the Qualcomm Global Security team, saving more than 2,800 hours per year
• A Force.com application for managing trade show approval and attendance replaced a third-party product and cost ⅓ less and took ⅓ less time than developing in Java
• UsingForce.com and Force.com sites, Qualcomm Ventures managed an international business plan competition that gave away $500,000 in early-stage capital
• A Salesforce-based portfolio management system enabled greater transparency into ongoing and planned efforts previously stored in multiple reports, spreadsheets, and a legacy client/server enterprise system; the easy-to-use Salesforce system has enabled cleaner and more frequently updated records and more effective collaboration and notification using Salesforce Chatter
• Improved review process times by more than 30% by creating a contingent workforce fixed bid tracking system that routes statements of work (SOWs) through HR, procurement, and finance for approval before work can begin ..."

Their results overall from moving to the cloud have been outstanding, across the board.  We are pleased to have been a small part of this huge success.

 

Google Features EchoSign in "Best of Google Apps Marketplace" for 2010, and Going 100% Web

We were very pleased to see Google highlight EchoSign in its look at the best of Google Apps for 2010 -- and as a way to go "100% web".

This will be a big theme for EchoSign in 2011 -- the web contract for the next decade of the web.   In our Spring '11 release -- "EchoSign X" -- coming in January, you'll see a slew of new features and functionality almost all focused around making your contracting process 100% web-based.   100% web-based content and contracts, 100% web-based collaboration, 100% web-based signatures and contract automation and management.  

 

Come Preview EchoSign X at Dreamforce

Attending Salesforce.com's Dreamforce in San Francisco next week?   If so, please come by our booth to connect in person.  We'd love to chat about how you are using EchoSign and share best practices and ideas about how to do even more.  And we'll be demo'ing the latest EchoSign-for-Salesforce version 9, which takes our class-leading ease-of-use to the next level.     

We'll also be doing a sneak preview at Dreamforce of EchoSign X.  The entirely new, tenth generation of EchoSign launching in (early) Q1.  It redefines what a contract means on the web.   And it's very cool.