Phoenix and DocuSign partnership launched with a digital signature

Global News

19
Dec
2016

Editor

Professional services technology consultancy, Phoenix Business Solutions, has launched a new partnership with DocuSign, the global market leader in electronic signature solutions. DocuSign technology eliminates the unwieldy ‘print-sign-scan’ process and removes reliance on physical signatures on hard copy documents.

With this technology in place, Phoenix customers can speed up their client engagements and provide the fast, seamless and secure formalising of documents expected in today’s digitised workplace. 

Derek Kindercliff-Jones, Phoenix Business Development Director explains why the DocuSign partnership is welcomed. “Our business is immersed in document management technology so this is a natural extension for us. Our customers are law firms and legal departments, accountants and property firms – all of which traditionally rely heavily on signed contracts. DocuSign offers excellent features, and we further enhance the experience by offering further integration with iManage. This way, neither the document or the signing process leaves the iManage system and seamlessly becomes part of the lifecycle.” 

The use of electronic signatures is gaining pace across the legal sector as leading law firms begin to embrace its advantages. Early adopters of digital signature functionality have reported that this new technology is easy to use and matches the working practices of modern professionals frequently working from multiple locations and across multiple geographies. As an electronic copy of a document can be digitally signed via a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop, the flexibility it offers users is unprecedented. Removing the requirement for a hard copy, simplifies and accelerates the signing process in ways simply not possible before. 

Digital signatures vastly improve security too. The digital signature holds vital information including the date and time of creation, the individual encryption key, and the IP address from which the signature was created. This makes it extremely difficult to falsify and, if it is subsequently tampered with, or an attempt is made to change the contents of the document, it is easy to see and respond accordingly. This significant step-up in security compared to paper documents has been widely welcomed. 

Phoenix and DocuSign formalised their partnership at the end of October with a digitally signed agreement. Phoenix will continue to use DocuSign to facilitate digital signatures for all of its contracts and agreements going forward.  

“The legal sector is one of many we have seen make the transition from total reliance on written signatures to the liberation that comes with going digital. We are delighted to partner with Phoenix and look forward to working with them to deliver the many benefits of e-signatures to their customers across the professional services spectrum,” said James Hansen, Account Executive EMEA Commercial Sales, at DocuSign.   

Digital signatures practice note from the Law Society