DocuSign, the rabbit in the hat for Zitec’s digital transformation - Zitec

Since the very first day we entered the market, 17 years ago, Zitec services are focused on the digital transformation of our clients. But that doesn’t mean we forget about our own internal processes. In this case, like with everything we do, we like to keep things simple. DocuSign was a simple discovery that almost instantly changed our lives. We’ve been using this eSignature solution since 2018 and it has helped us save a considerable amount of time and money. 

With DocuSign, we reduced waiting times considerably per commercial contract/signing process and are thus able to start our projects earlier. Just think about the costs that are cut like this – from international shipping to working hours we no longer need to recuperate! Plus, going digital is a lot more environmentally friendly – because, in the end, that’s what reducing paper translates into.

But let’s start from the beginning. In our history of over 17 years (wait, we won’t take you that far!), we have developed very close relationships with our clients and partners. They hire us for our expertise in software development and digital marketing, and that is exactly what we provide to them – but they also teach us great things in return. We first saw digital signatures used on a large scale at one of our US-based customers and were inspired by the possibilities they presented.

Seeing how this simple initiative, of implementing electronic signatures for legal and financial documents, significantly reduced costs and won the company precious time, we started thinking how we could adopt it. Easier said than done, we thought, because the US has a tradition in digitally signing documents, while in Europe, not so much.

Change. Opportunity. Patience.

With a little bit of research, we discovered that the European legislation is just as digital signature-friendly as the American one, or some would argue, even better. We are talking about eIDAS, a set of regulations adopted in 2014, supporting electronic identification (eID) and trust services across various fields, such as the financial sector, online retail, transport, professional services, SMEs, and many more. eIDAS validates electronic signatures with the same status as handwritten ones. 

However, now that the legislation concern was out of the way, how about mentality? Were Europeans, and Romanians in particular, prepared to give up paper and switch to digital? The answer is YES, and we were prepared to do our part in this quite revolutionary process. That is why, in 2018, we started using DocuSign for all our commercial contracts with foreign partners, and in 2019, we commenced integrating digital document signing flows in the applications developed for our customers. The results and benefits were visible shortly afterward:

• A saving of 240 hours per year for Zitec’s own contracts 
• Over 100 days economized each day across all of our clients: our DocuSign integrations speed up contract signing by 3 working days on average and have allowed 4 full-time employees to focus on more challenging work that adds higher value to their companies
• Great traceability and digitalization – DocuSign provides a central repository with all the documents, from the moment they were signed, which is also a simple, accessible and safe way to keep track of files.

All our commercial contracts and NDAs have been migrated to DocuSign. “Previously, contracts with our foreign partners could take up to one month to go through the signing process, while local contracts would take up to two weeks. With DocuSign, the process was reduced to less than a day and that’s due both to the digital signing flow, as well as the well-designed reminders. DocuSign also stamps the executed copy of the document, which guarantees to all parties that the contract was not tampered with. Paper does not come with any advantages to beat these”, explained Lucian Daia,  Zitec CTO & Partner.

So how about the future? It’s normal for eSignatures to be popular during the time of a pandemic, but how about when the situation will gradually go back to normal (whatever the new normal will be)?

“We are promoting DocuSign to all of our partners, and almost all of them are responding positively. While I believe there will be a time of transition until we manage to switch completely to digital signatures, as some clients still insist on signing these documents on paper too once this period of social distancing ends, I strongly feel that everyone will be more and more open to such technologies”, concluded Alex Lăpuşan, Zitec CEO & Founding Partner.

Now more than ever, adopting electronic signatures seems like an ideal option. If you’re looking for someone with a lot of experience on the matter, look no further. Drop us a line and we’ll help with your digital transformation ASAP. 🙂