E-Signature Solutions

I hate signing documents. Okay, hate is a strong word, but I certainly don’t enjoy it. It’s even more cumbersome when someone is trying to fax me a document that I’m supposed to sign and fax back to them. While facsimile technology certainly had its day, and was very useful for a time, it’s become quite outdated. So outdated that we’ve replaced larger printer-sized devices with online fax services available from lots of different companies.

One thing I mentioned there was signing a document. That’s also a process that I find is stuck in the stone age. I recently went in search of a good e-signature solution; something that would let me electronically sign a document, in a secure manner, and that would also negate the need to print it at all. Lucky me! I found it.

I compared several solutions: Adobe EchoSign, SignNow, and e-SignLive.

A few first impressions about each solution, for the sake of a bit of thoroughness:

  • Adobe EchoSign – Adobe actually acquired EchoSign some time last year. The EchoSign website talks a lot about viewing changes made by the other party in Microsoft Word, and how the other party can print, sign, and fax the document back to you. That’s the exact opposite of what I’m looking for.
  • SignNow – Better. Much better. Details are a little sparse on the website, and the business model is very unclear. I mean, free is nice for consumers and all, but as a business owner I need to know this company’s going to last for more than a year or two.
  • e-SignLive – Perfect! e-Sign Live has a business model, I don’t need special software, multi-document signing,  I can set multiple signers on a document, third-party authentication, and even the ability to integrate the documents into a website or online form. While Orpheum doesn’t need that know, I could certainly see it needing such a feature in the future.

Overall, e-SignLive takes it. Again, free is nice for consumers, but I’m running a business. I cannot risk legal documents in the hands of a company that may not exist tomorrow, nor do I want to be hampered by desktop software. Give me a flexible solution, an API for integration into my enterprise software, a signed and secured PDF, that also just happens to be trusted by the U.S. military… now you’ve got my vote.