Global enterprises continue to look to their Procurement organisations to drive cost savings, improve service and speed up execution. As a Procurement professional, you know that moving away from paper-based processes is critical to maximising efficiency and workflow. To achieve this, you’re probably trying to shed the hallmark and last bastion of the traditional paper-based Procurement process: the ink signature.

1. Paperless Procurement
Streamline Your Signature Processes
for Better Results

2. Procurement’s Paper
Problem
The ink signature.
Global enterprises continue to look to their Procurement organisations to drive cost
savings, improve service and speed up execution. As a Procurement professional,
you know that moving away from paper-based processes is critical to maximising
efficiency and workflow. To achieve this, you’re probably trying to shed the
hallmark and last bastion of the traditional paper-based Procurement process:
On the surface, gaining approvals and
moving documents seamlessly within
departments and between suppliers and
customers seem like simple tasks.
But paper-based systems create the
need for physical signatures, and that
adds inefficiency.
So as enterprise executives and
management personnel go about their
busy meeting and travel schedules...
Gaining required signatures on supplier
and customer contracts often becomes a
game of cat and mouse.
As a result, you spend more time
chasing certain people and mailing
documents and less time committed to
what makes you valuable: driving cost
savings and mitigating risk in the supply
chain.
Think differently
Paper-based signatures are:
OUTDATED
• Physically locating approvers is time
consuming
• Manually scanning and copying
documents is prone to error
• Manually filing and storing documents
creates a glut of physical records
• Physically searching through files to
retrieve documents is labour intensive
SLOW
• Circulating paper results in longer time
to execute
• Obtaining signatures can take days or
weeks
• Preparing and posting forms adds days
to approval cycles
COSTLY
• Printing forms and documents is an
unnecessary expense in 2015
• Archiving paper adds cost and
complexity
• Posting and shipping with overnight
carriers is expensive

3. As a procurement professional, you’re charged with increasing
speed to execution while improving overall service to the
enterprise. With these mandates, you need to spend more time
understanding customer requirements, sourcing the right solutions
and maintaining full visibility on the approval status of documents –
and less time chasing signatures.
By integrating appropriate electronic signing capabilities, executive
and management personnel can sign supplier contracts, statements
of work, amendments, confidentiality agreements, MSAs or
customer contracts – anytime, anywhere and from any device.
A paperless environment with eSignature functionality paves the
way for signing documents in minutes – not hours, days or weeks.
Plus, eSignature solutions support corporate sustainability initiatives
by reducing paper and printing costs.
eSigning solutions further reduce delays by delivering integrated
workflow capabilities. This ensures that documents are being
distributed and signed by only authorised signers.
Add Speed, Security and Flexibility to
Procurement Processes
Go Paperless
Nothing speeds workflow in Procurement processes
like the removal of paper.
Virgin Holidays’ Paperless Office Takes Off with DocuSign
”Our aim in working with DocuSign was to create a paperless office We’ve achieved much more. Signing
times are down hugely both internally and externally, admin time has been reduced massively, and
we’ve saved around £10,000 per year in materials costs alone. For less than a month’s work installing
the system, DocuSign has been invaluable.”
Claire Willoughby, Human Resources Business Partner
Read Virgin Holiday’s
DocuSuccess Story

4. Cloud-based eSignature solutions can be
rolled out very quickly. One Procurement
director had his organisation up and
running in 30 minutes.
Mobility will be a
strong driver of eSignature
adoption and the point of
entry for many processes.
‑­­Forrester Research
Go Mobile
Mobilising your Procurement workflow helps
keep the approval processes moving forward
and eliminates potential roadblocks. For
example, approvers can make use of mobile
devices to sign documents without being
tethered to their desk.
A life sciences Procurement director shared
that his CFO is extremely tech-savvy and doesn’t like
to sign documents manually or in person. In addition,
other executives in his organisation travel extensively and
can’t come into the office to sign documents. Mobile in
Procurement results in huge time savings for everyone.
Go to the Cloud
Cloud-based eSignature solutions
like DocuSign make it easy for
Procurement organisations to quickly
set up and deploy.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
solutions minimise IT involvement and eliminate the need for yet
another on-premise solution or complex license. Cloud-delivered
solutions provide high availability within secure and flexible
environments to scale as business needs change.

5. What to look for in an eSignature
solution:
Secure, tamper-proof documents
Audit trails
Enterprise-level administration controls
Document retention and compliance options
Full visibility into sign-off processes
Daily reminders to approvers
Automatic forwards to people with signature authority
Integration with eProcurement and contract
management systems
Ability to obtain parallel signatures when appropriate
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