SignTime September 2024 newsletter: E-Signatures: The Digital Transformation Last Mile?
Hello from the SignTime team and welcome back to our regular newsletter! This update is a bit longer than we have done in the past, and includes information on Digital Transformation journeys, how e-signatures fit into the journey (yes, we admit to our bias here!), three feature explanations/highlights and then our technical release information for July and August.
So, let’s talk about all things Digital Transformation (DX)! Regardless of where your business is on its digital transformation journey, we have some useful tips and pitfalls to avoid to maximize the success of your DX projects. You can also read more on this subject on our blog here. Let’s start off with the things to avoid first!
In our experience at SignTime, we typically see digital transformation projects failing with clients due to four key reasons:
- Starting Too Large
- Solving the Wrong Problem
- Lack of internal credibility (ignoring needs of actual users)
- Not Starting Internally First
What do “struggling” DX projects have in common and what can other businesses learn from them? Here are a few common themes that we see that can cause customers less-than-stellar results in a DX journey.
4 common reasons that Digital Transformation projects fail

Avoid Starting Too Large
This is probably the single largest issue of concern we see with our clients. There may be broad agreement inside the company, even at the board level, with the need to transform business processes. Yet often, businesses try to do too much, too fast.
Solving the Wrong Problem
Another common issue that we see is businesses that are trying to make a fundamental change – either with internal business processes or with customers or partners – and they have not clearly understood what the real business problem is up front.
Not Fixing Small Problems First
This is also a major issue for many businesses we work with. There is often a challenge in a business that everyone is aware of, but the people involved do not have confidence that a DX program can or will address the problems.
And now for the positives! What are those key attributes that usually lead to a successful DX program?
Digital Transformation Winning Ways
Start Internally
A major issue we often see is clients who try to start a DX project that has a heavy reliance on partners or customers. It goes without saying that even internal projects can be challenging, and starting with customer facing projects first can leave a company subject to the contributions of third parties. Our advice: start with internal projects first, then move to vendors then move to customers.
Starting Off Small
Getting quick wins on the board is a very powerful way to not only change business processes, but to build internal confidence with staff members. If employees are seeing tangible benefits from small and manageable DX programs (and hopefully lots of little ones continuously), it is easier to achieve buy-in and support when large projects are attempted.
Small Wins First, then Repeat, Enable, and Optimize and Expand
Another common theme we see with successful DX programs is taking on one or two small projects and driving them through to completion, before introducing more business process change. Minimize required changes on day one, but implant a digital, not paper mindset. After all, people are human and can cope with change, but working in a business that is trying to change multiple business processes – all at once – can create anxiety and change resistance in even the most robust executives.
e-Signatures: Last Mile of Digital Transformation
(Yes, SignTime is a little bit biased here) If your organization has not deployed e-signature and electronic contracting, start here first. Most businesses simply cannot believe how much process improvement comes from eliminating paper based contracts and forms. It delivers immediate impact for staff, customers and partners and will produce immediate productivity and cost benefits.
Take advantage of features and processes that change not only e-document flow, but improve business processes at the same time. Here are some tangible examples of SignTime features that support and enable improved business processes:
SignTime Delegation Function (New!)
This was one of our most commonly requested features from our customers. SignTime makes it simple and easy to delegate and/or forward signatory authority for signers. The use cases for this are straightforward. During a typical sales process, the technical decision maker and main point of interaction may not be the final signatory on the contract. If so, it is simple for the technical decision maker to escalate/forward to the final signatory for approval. This can also be used by senior leaders in the company when on leave.
SignTime Guarantor Function
Developed initially for higher education (universities, trade schools, etc), adult continuing education, and real estate, but extendable to corporate human resource departments (emergency contact forms, etc), the guarantor feature enables the sender to specify a field for the primary signer to provide contact information for “guarantors”, who then automatically receive the document for seamless signing.
SignTime Bulk Send

If you want to send a standard employment agreement (or any type of agreement for that matter) for signature to hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously while still customizing it for each person’s specific needs, or if you want to automate your maintenance contracts to ensure that they are up to date each year, bulk send is a DX feature that will transform tons of internal business processes.
PrimeTime by SignTime!

Our “PrimeTime” plan is our product suite that allows you to take advantage of all the features that we offer, allowing for multiple DX opportunities inside the business. It provides e-signatures and electronic contracting, scanner hozon (for compliance with Japan’s Electronic Bookkeeping Law), corporate branding, anti-phishing features by using a company’s own email domain, Salesforce integration, Google integration and more. PrimeTime provides a one-stop, paperless shop that can transform almost an unlimited number of business processes within a firm.
Application Updates (August-September):
- New Alert Function (Senders): For documents that have an end date indicated in the additional data field, SignTime can add an email notification to the sender between 1 and 364 days before that it requires action. Help center article coming soon!
- New Delegation Function (signers): As mentioned above, we’ve added a delegation/escalation/forwarding function for signers.
- Some ongoing security work and clean up.
Want to speak further about how we can help? Book a time or send us an email.
That’s it for this edition and if you or your team have any questions on DX or any other e-signature or electronic contracting issues, get in touch!
Best regards,
Jim
Co-Founder and CEO