Channel partners are set to benefit from an array of DocuSign offerings that, with an eye to digital transformation in an age of remote teams, can add up to new professional services opportunities.
Derek Nowak, senior director of business development and channels at DocuSign , says the company has been going to market with a new multi-product offering. He noted that this will open up more opportunities around specialised professional services expertise in some instances.
“Partners may have to work with specialised systems integrators (SIs), brought into customer engagements in order to successfully implement the DocuSign Agreement Cloud,” he says.
Agreement Cloud, rolled out March 2019, can help companies prepare, sign, act on and manage agreements across the documentation life cycle.
Since then DocuSign has added more offerings such as Gen, Identify, CLM (contract lifecycle management) and contract AI-powered analytics.
Most partners begin with reselling eSignature but many are investing in its other products too, according to DocuSign, especially as customers face new challenges.
“There is an opportunity for partners to bring on new solutions that solve immediate problems. Many customers are so focused on getting back to the status quo of their own businesses that they are not researching new solutions or thinking about new efficiencies,” Nowak says.
At first, partners can focus on “easy to implement and adopt” solutions that offer quick returns, then build out a long-term vision around products that will remain relevant in a ‘new normal’ post-Covid.
“We believe the digital transformation that’s happening today will be one that sticks, and that people aren’t likely to go back to paper and manual processes even when they do go back to the office,” Nowak says.
“DocuSign University has invested in partner enablement and produced a new reseller training course. There is also an opportunity to spend time and learn new technologies and then engage customers with old tech stacks for large refreshes or significant changes,” says Nowak.
Across Europe, products that help streamline identification processes will likely become more important with teams continuing to work remotely.
Many regions have electronic identity platforms but different standards; integration that enables cross-border and cross-platform operations is needed, says Nowak.
“We think our Identify series of solutions can help.”
DocuSign’s strategy is similar across all regions globally, with small modifications to address local laws or signing requirements, according to Nowak.
Customers and prospects are seeing projects that had been scheduled for the end of 2020 or into 2021 accelerated, while customers without digital transformation plans are increasingly prioritising them, according to DocuSign.
“The entire industry had to adapt quickly when the pandemic first hit. As a company, we focused on helping channel partners that were already engaged with us, and leveraged distributors for new partners,” Nowak says.
“Successfully onboarding and building partner relationships in a remote environment is a significant investment. Therefore, leveraging a distributor who already has a relationship with the new reseller has been very successful for us.”